Excuses to quit exercising

Every year about this time, the reasons for dropping a fitness program start to multiply. They grow to become large, unmovable facts that permanently prevent motion. Some of the reasons for the lapses are really good ones! I mean REALLY good ones!

You may recognize yourself somewhere in this article. Here's how it goes: "Where have you been? What have you been doing with yourself?" Answer: "Eating!" That's logical, honest and usually true! Or, "I haven't been to class because I've been digging a hole for our hot tub." That is an especially good excuse because it came from a woman!

There's the wife who missed six weeks of workout because she broke her tailbone during her kid's roller-skating party. It gives me goose bumps thinking about it. And the guy who was gone for a year to Iran. He had to be in shape to go, and he's in better shape now! One woman threw her back out trying to back-flip on the neighbor's trampoline. I used to do that when I was 10; I've gotten older and smarter.

There are exercise excuses for personal reasons. "I got married, - I moved to Boston - I got a divorce, and now I'm back!" There are the reused excuses; some people can use them over and over.

When it comes to fitness and weight-loss excuses, they can be quite entertaining. "I had my jaws wired shut," or, "I had my stomach stapled." These catchy little reasons for dropping exercise always turn up when you least expect them. Sometimes you wish they hadn't!

The exercise excuses that I have a hard time listening to are those from students who stopped exercising because they went on a vacation to Europe or a cruise to Hawaii.

Realistically, I know that people get hit with golf balls, get into trouble riding bikes, do facial landings in hang gliders, and slip in bathtubs. These are all legitimate excuses for not exercising. But what it points out is that active people will get injured, hopefully, not severely enough to stop all movement.

Active, fit people will be able to do more with their bodies than the side liner who does nothing to stay fit. So once in a while, you might find a little suffering along the way. However, life is much more interesting when it is filled with those little challenges.

Maybe you have moved to new surroundings or retired; maybe you have changed your lifestyle; your wife or husband; or perhaps you've added a new activity. None of this counts for reasons to stop exercising. But it does give me something to write about!

• Jerry Vance is owner of The Sweat Shop/Wet Sweat. She offers classes through Carson City Recreation and Aquatics Center and is a fitness instructor for the Carson City Senior Citizens Center.