coffeetime (
coffeetime) wrote in
lifting_heavy_things2012-04-07 07:14 am
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explaining this to my mother
Note: I'm 46 and my mother is 69 years old. She used to be unbelievably cool, but since retirement a few years ago she's settled into the retirement mode of doing everything slowly and infrequently, and she never really loved exercise--she did it to avoid getting fat. Now she does it, as minimal as she can get away with, to avoid being chairbound from minor arthritis and lethargy.
I call my mom on the phone Friday evening after a trip to the gym.
Me: Mom. I still didn't make it to 10 pull-ups, but now I can do FOUR, and after I got done with my four I went back a few minutes later and did two more. Then another single one, then another...so I did all 10, just not consecutively.
Mom: Well, that's really great, honey. Although I just don't understand why you'd want to do that.
Me: Because I can.
Mom: Okay...
Me: You know how some people like to run marathons? And they run like 20 marathons in their life, even though at the end they're puking and they have diarrhea and whatever? Well, I don't like to run; I think it's boring, and it hurts my knees. But this is something that's also really hard to do, that I CAN do if I work at it, and it's over in like 30 seconds! BAM, 10 pull-ups! Totally bad-ass!
Mom: Okay. Well, whatever you say, honey.
Anyone else's mother just not get it?
I call my mom on the phone Friday evening after a trip to the gym.
Me: Mom. I still didn't make it to 10 pull-ups, but now I can do FOUR, and after I got done with my four I went back a few minutes later and did two more. Then another single one, then another...so I did all 10, just not consecutively.
Mom: Well, that's really great, honey. Although I just don't understand why you'd want to do that.
Me: Because I can.
Mom: Okay...
Me: You know how some people like to run marathons? And they run like 20 marathons in their life, even though at the end they're puking and they have diarrhea and whatever? Well, I don't like to run; I think it's boring, and it hurts my knees. But this is something that's also really hard to do, that I CAN do if I work at it, and it's over in like 30 seconds! BAM, 10 pull-ups! Totally bad-ass!
Mom: Okay. Well, whatever you say, honey.
Anyone else's mother just not get it?
ROCK ON WITH YOUR PULL-UP SKILLZ
But I think it's a thing you can run into with anyone, and in all the end all you can say is, "Because it's FUN and I'm proud of it." Maybe you can add that it makes you feel bad-ass or improves your health or whatever, but in the end: FUN. Which is always going to be different for different people.
One of my climber friends loooooves running marathons and cycling for ridiculous distances, which makes me shudder with horror at the very thought. Then I tell him about my latest Turkish get-up progress, and he shudders with horror. It's hilarious.
The most you can hope for may be that your mum will understand that it's important to you, and share your pride in that, even if it's not something she can get personally.
Of course, there's a separate question, which is whether there are any forms of exercise which might appeal to her and allow her to enjoy pleasure in movement. But getting evangelical is usually the best way to put people off, however tempting it is ...
Re: ROCK ON WITH YOUR PULL-UP SKILLZ
She sort of liked old-fashioned Jazzercise back in the 1980s, but now it's all about her back hurts, she's tired, I just don't know what it's like to be old, etc. She's right, I don't know, so I'll just let her live her life and she'll live mine.
Re: ROCK ON WITH YOUR PULL-UP SKILLZ
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However, since I lost all that weight, she thinks there must be something to it...
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Both of my parents are a little worried that I'll hurt myself and ask if I should be using spotters or belts, but they're supportive and think it's cool that I've found something that I like doing and even bought me a squat rack so I could keep lifting at home.
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"Stop doing that boy thing! No one likes women who do man things!"
. . .and five minutes after that she'd make me shift the refrigerator so she could mop under it. :P
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My MIL has no idea I even work out. She always grills me about the same 3-4 subjects when she manages to corner me on the phone. But she was doing tai chi for years...not sure if she still does since FIL died and I think he was driving them there.