Discussion Journal #3

This week we focused a lot on active living throughout the different stages of our lives. We learned that people develop at different rates in their cognitive, physical and social developments. When a child is younger then need short bursts of energy, but when we are older we tend to want high intensity for longer periods of time. It was very interesting, and also worrisome, to learn that we are in our peak fitness phase from the ages of 18-25.

In class we had a few class presentations on Friday, two were focused a lot on what we talked about in class on Thursday, about the different stages of our lives relating to active living. Our class discussion was really engaged with talking about what we felt about a graph that Sam provided to the class. The graph showed that there is a significant decline in physical fitness as we get older in life. A lot of us argued that a lot of our grandparents are still extremely active and we believe the graph may be wrong. I noticed that the graph was from the 1970s so things have changed quite a bit since then.

I started thinking about what is going to happen to my active living lifestyle when I get older. I am in my senior year of diving at the U and I worry even after this year I will not continue with physical activity as much as I am now. I am currently not happy with where my fitness level is and my body image and Mary did say between ages 18-25 we are in our top physical peak, so it does make me worry. I don't want to decline my fitness abilities or stop being active all together, but the lack of motivation and the fact I don't HAVE To be at practice or at the gym may be a challenge.

My goal is to start being active outside of my sport. Try joining classes such as Zumba or a yoga class. Continue to run outside of training and for myself and enjoyment. When I retire from my sport I can't just completely stop being active. I want to continue to do weight training and work out, but I need to find ways to do so. I am going to start exploring my options to help me now so I can help myself later on.