Hump Day is here! It’s cloudy, windy, and dreary, AGAIN! We had so many sunny beautiful days in early April, what’s the deal?!? Everyone having a good day? yes? I am waiting on someone to come fix our shower door, so I am stuck in the house this morning anyway.
Last night, I didn’t feel like running or doing a workout DVD but wanted to sweat and get in a good workout. Of course when I asked Bobby to hit the volleyball with me he jumped at the chance!
Did I ever tell you Bobby and I met on the volleyball court? It was the first weekend of college my sophomore year, and we were playing in an intermural tournament, on opposite teams. His team crushed mine, but we met, chatted, and he invited me to play with his group the next week. Soon after he asked me out on our first date and the rest is history!
We continued to play volleyball through college, and When we got married we joined a church league at well, our church. It was pretty comical, we got frustrated because the rules were so silly (no spiking, a boy and girl must hit on each turn, etc.) so we didn’t play after that season.
In the fall, I became the varsity and JV coach of Madison Central High school. I coached the varsity team to the state playoffs, and the JV team won a tournament we hosted.
my team!
As much as I loved coaching, I got a job teaching at another school the next year which made it near impossible to teach then get to the other school to coach and go to games, etc.
I am the person who randomly walks up to people playing volleyball on the beach and asks to join in.
huh? I don’t know you.
that’s ok. As long as you can play ball.
Over the last couple of years I haven’t gotten to play much or really at all. I am hoping to find a team or league or just some people to play with now that we live just a few minutes from the beach. Ok, so back to last night. We headed out into the park that is our front yard and played for 45 minutes.
except now the grass is green!
Here I am ready for some fun!
We got in a great workout, and I topped it off with some bench presses in the garage. Well, this morning I am sore! The great thing about volleyball is it is a full body workout. My arms and shoulders are sore from setting and hitting, my legs are sore from getting down low, and my abs are sore from stretching and reaching.
The best form of volleyball of course is sand volleyball, which is what we mostly played in college. A woman can burn around 400 calories from an hour of sand volleyball according to THIS website. (Take it with a grain of salt people.) I don’t know about you but that’s a pretty good burn, and a LOT of FUN!
The thing I want you to take away from all of this, is working out does NOT have to be boring or a chore! Make it fun in these ways:
1.) Mix it up. Doing the same thing over and over is sure to be boring.
2.) Workout with friends. Playing volleyball, tennis, basketball, anything with friends is always more fun!
3.) Try something new. Don’t be afraid to explore and try an activity you have never done before. You may find a new favorite!
4.) Keep moving! Even if you aren’t any good, that’s ok! Just keep moving and sweating and having fun. You don’t have to be good at something to burn the calories!
QOTD: What activities do you do besides the regular old running or gym classes that give you a good burn?
Ah the same thing happened to me with coaching. I taught at a school and coached middle school cross country, high school cross country and distance in track. Then I got a new job at the neighboring school and it just wouldn’t work with traveling to the school for practice. I was bummed about that and that my new school doesn’t have either sport.
I have been doing Zumba on off days from running, it is a blast!!
mmm, I suck at sports. I used to play on our work softball team at one of my old jobs. That was fun (but not really a workout). I think running is fun, though. LOL You would not have heard me say that in high school/college. What I think is a fun workout is Body Pump or Hot Hula at the gym, but you have to have a gym membership and I don’t. I also like to dance (like jazz, hip hop, etc.). If I could take a dance class, that would be awesome too.
I didn’t make the basketball team and I almost played volleyball in jr high. A family friend was the coach, and probably would have put my cousin and I on the team. Unfortunately, we had just made the cheerleading squad, so no volleyball for us…and the rest is history. 😉
I have no coordination for any sport that involves a ball! but having fun is soo important
If I am by myself & I want to do something different I box. I got a punching bag for Christmas & I love to hit out my frustrations on it. When I am with my boyfriend I love to go kayaking. It us really nice to be able to do something together that is such a great workout
I’ve never been a huge fan of volleyball (no matter how many times a week I played, my arms always hurt really bad every time the ball hit my arm!), but I’m all about mixing it up and having fun in workouts! Glad that you have something besides running that you also enjoy:) Have you ever said on your blog what college you went to?
Awesome! Glad you were able to get in a good fun workout!! :0)
I wish I were good at sports. I’m not coordinated as you. I’m glad you were able to have a fun workout tho!
I wish I lived closer we could play volleyball all the time. I LOVEEEEEE volleyball. I played all through my school years, club team at BGSU and then I coached a summer league.
I plan on finding a league this summer in my local area 🙂
I completely agree that working out does not need to be a chore, but it needs to be mixed up and it can be fun!
I never heard the story of how you guys met…how cute! 🙂 Loved hearing your volleyball background…and so glad you decided to get back into it with Bobby that night. So often we have to remind ourselves to do what brings us pleasure and what connects us with our spouse. 🙂
Great post. It’s always great to read about people doing what they love to achieve their fitness goals. As you said mixing it up is key. Working out can get so boring doing the same old routines. It can drive one mad.
I just wrote about how to making working out more fun as well. Check it out of you’d like. Get motivated to workout.