The summer before my Junior year of High School, I did a 2 week outdoor experience called Outward Bound. It was kind of the essence of everything you think of when you hear those words... no showers, lots of hiking and activity, resource conservation, wetness, sleeping outside, a 48 hour "solo" experience alone in the woods... it was quite a trek- literally. Something that I learned on that trip which I have taken with my into my every day life is the most efficient way to eat an apple. Because we had to carry around every last bit of trash we produced, we learned to eat most of it including the apple cores, by eating apples from the bottom up, including the seeds (which so many people say have arsenic in them?!? I guess we'll find out...). This is something that is so easy for me to do, and feels like it makes a big difference, and has given me enormous appreciation for the complexity of an apple core! They're very hard to eat without getting some sort of hard edge stuck in my teeth, or having to daintily (?) pick the fibers apart with my front teeth. Eating apples has illustrated how much the core of the apple founds the entire rest of the fruit.
Now for the corny moral of the story: Even though I have been told countless times, somehow it has not gotten through to me until today... our core is the most important part of the human being. It defines how we carry ourselves, how we appear, and most importantly how we feel. In a mix between a short term slump of discouragement with my skating, and a long term understanding that there is no way I will ever be good enough to compete at a note-worthy level, my core has been my missing link to feeling satisfied with my progress. It defines everything I hate about myself as a performer: my uncertainty, my sloppiness, my just all around amatuerity at something I have poured my heard and work ethic into. But at the same time, its everything I love about myself as an athlete: my abs, my upper body strength, my plank position, my pushup form, my ability to walk into a gym and look like I belong there. So how can this one concept work so much against itself? Maybe it is just out of desperation an frustration of how I stand out when skating with my teammates, or maybe it was just hearing it for the 1,745th time, but having/using my core is a choice, and finally coming to the realization that I have not made that choice, and that it is inhibiting me. It is the essence of me, and I choose to ignore it. My core founds my posture, my disposition, my confidence, and I need to feel it in order to exhibit all of those things. It's not just an ornament to performance, its a way of life. More meaningfully, it's the essence of who I am, my foundation and stability when I lose myself or others, and I need that stability both physically and metaphorically. So I'm going to spend the next five weeks with my core, just the two of us, forming bonds and connections that I will choose to tap into in other facets of my life, ideally all of the time
Bust seriously... know your core, love your core. If there is one physical activity you are going to do in your whole life, let it be for your core. You need it!
Five fun ways to do core:
1) 8 Minute Abs (favorite lines include "THIS WIL NEVER HURT YOU!" and "see you in 24 hours!) It doesn't get much better than this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWjTnBmCHTY
2) Walking with your head held high and a book on your head... I'll buy you a den pop if it doesn;t make you feel like British Royalty
3) Pat your hard and rub your tummy (your core needs some TLC too...)
4) Do a plank hold in a large group and go around saying your favorite ice cream flavor or toothbrush color (or more R rated things) Shout out to Lake Placid Camp!
5) Look at a picture of Taylor Lautner with his shirt off and visualize (visualization is key in major body structure changes)
Five reasons to do core:
1) Because there is no better feeling than having someone touch your abs and tell you they're "so solid dude, rock on"
2) Because you could have a self-induced six pack
3) Because it will increase your range of motion and physical ability to do EVERYTHING
4) Because all of the cool kids are doing it. But seriously, all of your friends probably are, or should, and you can do it together!
5) Because it's part of being good to yourself.
Anyways, there's some food for thought... goodnight moon, please keep me safe all alone in this giant house!
xoxox
This post is dedicated to the Food and Community House "Drop everything and eight minute abs!" for teaching me the camaraderie of core. :)
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