What is fitness?

Over the past 2 years, Lauryn and I undertook projects to both purge, and to pass the time. With inspiration from Marie Kondo, we “sparked joy” from the depths of the closet — the other closet, and so on. Like a breathe of fresh air in our lungs on a walk — or, the wiggle room in our joints after we practice our bodyweight basics, we always enjoy the results. However until this week, one task remained on my to-do-list: organizing the vault.

A batch of old business cards coloured LIFT blue, and my collection of gymnastics and fitness ephemera were among many of the items that were saved and stowed away — or honoured, and then relegated to the refuse bin. 

One particular handbook that I revisited, and repositioned amongst my possessions, was an edition of Reader’s Digest “How to Keep Fit — for Life” published in 1977. The sepia toned cover discloses its age, and nearly fifty years later, the contents of its pages are consistent with the tone and ambitions we aim to share through our Barres and Bells practice.

“Physical fitness is linked inseparably to personal effectiveness in every field …Fitness means the ability of the body to tolerate stress in all its forms — a hard day at the office, a germ that invades the body, a quarrel, a skid on the highway. Even the expenditure of a comparatively small amount of energy is a stress requiring a speeding up of the body’s metabolic processes.” 

Swimming, skipping, side lying stretches and other sustainable lifestyle activities were amongst the listed suggestions of how to achieve and maintain fitness — for life. “There are exercises you can do to improve your body — as part of your daily activities — from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night.” 

Until yesterday, these gentle reminders for longevity, and fitness for life were stowed away in my vault, but never far from my mind. This week, tuck these old school interpretations of fitness into bed with you at night, and wake up with a mindset to create movement and sustainable strength for every day life. Fitness need not be an intense pursuit, but rather sets of intentional skills to practice all ways — and always.

Take Care,

Lauryn and Ian