You know, I’ve always been intrigued by yoga, maybe because it’s a method of getting fit that also has philosophical underpinnings, thus connecting body and mind in the pursuit of personal betterment. Plus, it’s just such a calm way of exercising. Having grown up male in a very a conventional small town in Texas, a very macho part of the United States, I was raised to believe that physical fitness had to be aggressive and exaggerated to be effective. In other words, the exerciser had to move hard and fast and work up a tremendous sweat to be doing anything of any value. Yoga, it seems, challenges those assumptions about what exercise is and can be.
I think the mistake that many people make today, especially those living in many parts of North America, is to see physical activity as something that’s done only at the gym and after work. For years now, I’ve been looking for ways to become more physical all throughout the day, in every aspect of my life, even when I’m at work, which involves a lot of sitting around. The goal was to make exercise part of who I am as a person and not some special activity I do once I finish all the really “important” stuff required of me while I’m earning money. One way I’ve achieved this is by living carless for most of the last decade and a half. Anyway, that was a bit of a long journey to come to the following point: This video shows yoga moves that can be done in the office during the hours of 9 to 5.
OK, I’m sold. I’m going to have a look at some of the Tara Stiles videos on YouTube. Then, next fall, once I return to Cairo after my upcoming summer holiday, I’ll find a nice yoga class–there are lots of them available in this part of the city–and get with it.
While doing research this week for possible topics, I ran across a reference to the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), an organization I hadn’t heard of before. I Googled WSF, spent some time looking at its site, discovered that it was founded in 1974 by the great Billie Jean King, and immediately knew that I had my next Savvy blog.
WSF does tons and tons of good work, but I found their GoGirlGo! program to be especially interesting (and relevant, given last week’s post). The foundation calls the program a “primary focus” and writes that it provides youth with fitness activities that are designed to “combat the alarming physical and psychological health hazards affecting America’s young girls.”
Seen in this light, sports programs serve a purpose much larger than merely giving youngsters the opportunity to play games and have fun. Andrea Cherry, one of the GoGirlGo! coaches shown in the video I’ve embedded below, drives this point home when she explains how those she trains are “learning basic life skills.”
For those of you out there who were fortunate enough to have had the chance (as I did) to play organized sports while growing up, you know exactly what Cherry is talking about. Much of what I understand today about teamwork and healthy living (among many other lessons learned about a whole bunch of other things) can be traced back to those days when I played football, swam, and ran track.
The following clip goes into a lot more detail about the foundation, its history and activities, and the girls and women it has helped.
And finally, for those of you interested in physical fitness and its benefits, especially as pertains to enhancing one’s performance in the business world, I’d recommend that you read this article, which can be found on the “I Am a Woman” page of the WSF site.
