Why Do You Train/Exercise?

Have you ever asked yourself this question or thought about it: Why do I train/exercise?
Is it for weight lose, building muscles mass or lean muscle, to looked good in your bikini or swim suite, to build strong bones, and joints. What is your reason?  Do you train with purpose or just go do whatever someone else is going?

The reason I train, is to survive. It is also my drug, I have to admit. I really enjoy working out, in my blood from having been a competitive gymnast. Back to why I train, for survival. I know this sounds crazy, it is not the reason we are told to exercise or have really thought of probably. We are told to exercise to lose weight, but this is really not the best way to lose weight. I eat for fat lose, weight maintenance, to have a nutrient rich, dense diet for optimum gene expression, to maintain my health. Having the stores my body needs in case of long periods of fasting, sickness or getting pregnant. I want to give my children the best possible start and nutrition is the best way to do this. I want to make sure my stores are high so the baby would pull from my stores of vitamins and minerals, have all they need and not take them from my bones, brain and other organs. This is why I eat the way I do. I train though, to survive.

What does training to survive look like and why would I do this?
The reason is simple, God forbid the worst should happen, I want to make it out alive and help the person next to me survive as well. Say my house catching on fire and my Hublet and two dogs are unconscious, I want to have the ability to drag Hublet out of the house and be able to run back in and get Mungo and Otto out as well, weighing 20 and 65 lbs. I could need to do this in an oxygen depleted enviorment as well. Once they are out, I want to be able to resuscitate any of them and have the oxygen and energy I need to do this. Maybe things like, jumping out of the way of something, sprinting across the street to make sure a child does not get hit, pull myself out of situation, whatever it is, I want to make it, as well as the person next to me.
How do I train? Most of my training is body weight, functional training. Reason why, another time. Things like pull ups on my Total Gym, loads of squats and lunges, all forms of them. Regular squats, deep squats, summo, squat jumps, jumps onto varying heights of blocks. For lunges, walking, side, single leg, Bulgarian split lunges, jumping, I think you get the point, all forms of leg work. I sprint, short and long distances. The newest addiction to my work out regime, running up and down my stairs with a 35 lb bag of dog food on my shoulder. Killer, great workout. I also do long distance walking, you never know when you might need to walk 10 miles to get help. I train not to build a lot of "show muscle", I train to build a lot of "go muscle".

The great thing about training for survival as well is, you build a pretty strong, sexy lean physic. If you saw me, you might not think I am packing the kind of muscle around I am, that is because I do not have loads of big muscle. It is muscle which is strong, dense and lean, it gets the job done! Even with one hand, I can pick things up and move them that you might not suspect. For survival, I do not need a lot of big showy muscle, I need functional muscle that I can be quick on my feet with.

What do you train for?

Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's many and gracious blessings be upon you,
Jenn