Shakespeare and Fitness

I'm not a huge exercise fan, mostly because I'm very lazy. So I kind of need to trick myself into exercising. Luckily, I'm fairly easy to fool. A few years ago I got a Wii and the next year I got EA Active, one of those workout games. I'm embarrassed to say how much a video game, even if it is an exercise one, kicks my ass.

One of the exercises that always destroyed me was squat holds. You have to hold a squat for 40 seconds, all while the "trainer" in the game keeps repeating "hold your squat" and you really just want to throw things at her, but then you remember if you do that you'll just damage your own TV. So it's all very frustrating and I've never been able to actually hold it for the full time. Until the other day when I figured the key to this was ignoring the timer and blocking the trainer lady out.

Normally it's very easy for me to get lost in my own thoughts, but apparently I can only do that if I'm supposed to be paying attention to something. If I'm trying to block something out I suddenly get super focused on whatever I'm trying to ignore. I was trying to think of something I could focus on but nothing was coming to me. I was at a loss for anything and then, right as the countdown began, I started reciting (in my head) the final soliloquy from Midsummer. ("If we shadows have offended,/Think but this; and all is mended..."). Apparently this takes me 40 seconds to recite and it also marked the only time I've been able to actually complete this squat hold. Take that annoying trainer lady, who seems really smug normally when you stand up before you're supposed to and she has to tell you to squat again.

So first I've got Harry Potter audiobooks and running (which is going, although still fairly sporadic) and now I have squats and Shakespeare. And that phrase might be my favorite thing I have written on this blog.