Row Row Row Your Boat

What Do You Think About When You Exercise?

As I’m sitting here this morning on the rowing machine, I started wondering: What does everyone else think about while they exercise?

What do you think about?

Do you watch TV? And if you do, what do you watch? The news? Something light? A sitcom? Thirty minutes of a show, another thirty minutes doing something else, and suddenly your workout is done.

Do you think about what you’re going to have for lunch?

Or are you mentally checking things off?

Okay, rowing machine done. Next is the treadmill. Then the stairs. Then I’ve got to lift some weights.

What goes through your head?

Because I can tell you exactly what went through mine this morning.

Row, row, row your boat…

I have no idea why

I have zero upper-body strength, so the rowing machine is actually good for me. And I’ve certainly used rowing machines before without immediately breaking into a children’s song in my head.

But today?

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…

Apparently, I was rowing an actual boat this morning.

I don’t stay on the rowing machine very long. My upper-body strength is probably better worked with free weights or a good weight machine, but for right now—and for today—the rowing machine was where I decided to start.

And now I’m on the treadmill.

There’s a little TV here that I could watch if I wanted to, but instead I’m doing what I’ve started doing quite often lately.

I’m talking.

Actually, I’m dictating this story while I walk. If I’m going to spend an hour on a treadmill, why not make use of the time?

How Many Pieces of Exercise Equipment Have You Owned?

Come on. Think about it.

How many pieces of exercise equipment have made their way into your house over the years?

And how many did you buy in January?

Hmm.

I know at least one of mine might have been a January purchase.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated quite the list.

At one point I had a Pilates reformer. I don’t even remember exactly when I had it anymore—or what happened to it. Did I give it to somebody? Probably. I honestly can’t remember.

Then there was my treadmill.

That one was amazing, and I got plenty of use out of it. I was training for a half marathon, so on the days I couldn’t get outside, I got on that treadmill.

Then there was the Total Gym.

I think that might have been my January purchase.

And you know what? I got a lot of use out of that one, too.

For a while I had both the treadmill and the Total Gym. The Pilates reformer had been years before that.

Eventually, though, the equipment moved on.

And maybe that’s okay.

Maybe the value of exercise equipment isn’t determined by whether you keep it for the rest of your life.

Did you use it?

Did it help you during a particular period of your life?

Did you get something out of it?

Then maybe you got your money’s worth.

And when you’re finished with it, what do you do?

Do you sell it at a yard sale? Give it away? Pass it along to one of your kids? Sell it with your house?

I think we may have even done that once.

And if you give it away, maybe someone else gets excited.

Wait. You’re giving me exercise equipment? For FREE?

And maybe they actually use it.

At least for a while.

Moving day, April 2020. After years of use, it was time for my Total Gym to move on too.

And My Favorite Wasn’t Really Exercise Equipment

And the last piece of exercise equipment—the one I probably loved more than any of the others, and the one I actually still own—is something you might not normally think of as exercise equipment at all.

Wii Fit.

Did you have one?

I bet a lot of you bought your Wii for your kids.

We bought ours as grandparents.

And then we used it.

For years.

I think our grandkids may have used it once when they came to visit. Meanwhile, there I was at five or six o’clock in the morning, getting on the Wii Fit balance board and having my little Wii Fit person pop up on the television and say hello.

That thing was a blast.

It weighed me every day. It kept track of my stats and what I’d been doing. But more importantly, it made exercising fun.

I was skiing.

I was dancing.

I was bowling.

I did all kinds of balance exercises. I did yoga standing on the balance board, and it would actually calculate how much my body was moving and show me how well I was maintaining my balance.

I thought it was incredible.

Even in the morning, Rocket would remind me it was time for my Wii Fit workout.

And apparently Wii runs in the family.

Believe it or not, my 92-year-old mother has a Wii too. She uses it, and when her grandkids visit, they can use it too.

How’s that for exercise equipment that crosses generations?

I also had exercise videos, including a set of dance-yoga DVDs that I used quite a bit. Those are still in storage, too, along with a few stretch bands.

But after all the exercise equipment I’ve owned over the years—the Pilates reformer, the treadmill, the Total Gym—the Wii Fit balance board is the one piece I still own.

It’s sitting in storage right now.

Maybe that says something.

Because when you think about the exercise you’ve stuck with over the years, was it the exercise someone told you that you should be doing?

Or was it the exercise you actually enjoyed doing?

For me, Wii Fit was exercise that didn’t really feel like exercise.

It was just fun.

Are You a Gym Person?

I never really was.

My last job had a gym right in the building. I worked there for 15 years, and using that gym cost practically pennies a day.

Did I use it?

Nope.

I had exercise equipment at home, and I preferred walking.

Plus, the idea of finishing work and then going to work out didn’t appeal to me. I certainly wasn’t doing it on my lunch hour. Then I’d have to shower, change my clothes and get myself put back together again.

No thank you.

Maybe some of that goes all the way back to high school.

One year I had gym class first period.

Whose idea was that?

You get up. You get dressed. You get yourself ready for school.

Then you arrive at school at 8 o’clock in the morning and immediately have to change out of the clothes you just put on so you can go into a smelly gym and exercise.

And if it was cold outside and they decided we were doing something outdoors?

Even better.

I hated it.

So no, I’ve never considered myself much of a gym person.

But something has changed.

The Equipment Matters Less Now. The Movement Matters More.

These days, I use gyms on cruise ships.

I use hotel gyms.

And right now, we’re at a house sit with a wonderful little gym downstairs.

Earlier this year, we had a pet sit in Greensboro where they had a full gym in the basement. It was fantastic.

I’m a walker. I love to walk. I could walk for days.

But Greensboro was hot.

It’s hot here, too.

This property has almost 50 acres with trails all over it, and when we first arrived, I thought I’d be out there walking those trails all the time.

I haven’t been.

Roger spends a lot of time out there during the day riding the buggy, cutting things down and working on the trails.

I’ve decided I’m perfectly happy downstairs in the gym.

And it works for me.

I try to come down here once a day and do my walking—and apparently my talking.

Tomorrow maybe I’ll lift weights.

Maybe I’ll use the stairs.

Actually, I love stairs.

Does that sound weird?

When we’re on a cruise ship, I walk so many flights of stairs it’s ridiculous. We almost never use the elevators.

There are exceptions.

If I’m wearing heels, I’m taking the elevator.

If I’m carrying a plate of food, I’m taking the elevator.

Safety first.

But otherwise? I’ll take the stairs.

One of my favorite pieces of exercise equipment on a cruise ship isn’t equipment at all—the walking track.

And when I’m on a ship, I really do move.

The numbers don't lie!!!! More than 90,000 steps and 40 miles in one week.”

Now I Actually Look for the Gym

Here’s something I never expected.

When I’m searching for pet sits now, I notice the exercise equipment.

Does the house have a home gym?

Is it in a community with a recreation center?

Is there a gym and a pool?

Those things can actually make me lean toward applying for one sit over another.

Why?

Because the movement is already built into my day.

I don’t have to get into the car and drive somewhere to exercise. I can go downstairs, walk across the street or head around the corner to the community recreation center.

And when we’re staying in a senior community, we’re often pleasantly surprised by how well equipped those gyms are.

Another surprise?

Hardly anybody is ever in them when we go.

So after all these years, I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for exercise equipment.

I appreciate a home gym.

I appreciate having stairs.

I appreciate a fully outfitted gym on a cruise ship.

These days, a fully equipped cruise-ship gym is something I actually appreciate.

I appreciate a hotel that has a treadmill waiting downstairs.

Because at this point in my life, exercising isn’t about becoming a “gym person.”

It’s about how I want to age.

I don’t want to age just sitting.

I want movement in my life every single day—and I want it to be movement that I’ve chosen to do.

So what about you?

What’s the one piece of exercise equipment that gave you the best bang for your buck?

Do you still use it?

Did you convince someone else in your family to use it?

Or are you someone who would much rather join a gym and have everything you could possibly need, from head to toe, all in one place?

Maybe your exercise equipment is simply a good pair of walking shoes.

There isn’t one right answer.

The important part is finding the kind of movement that fits into the life you’re actually living.

And this morning, mine happens to include a treadmill, a little storytelling and a rowing machine that apparently has only one song on its playlist.

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…

There's Always a Story.