The question is: to exercise or not to exercise?

BY CLAIRE LYNCH

Say the word “exercise” and I’m apt to turn away. I don’t mean to be rude but it’s not my favorite topic of conversation. There are other things I’d rather do than jog five miles, power walk or do jumping jacks.

Yoga is fine, with or without goats milling about, but I don’t stretch in a strenuous way and I find all the various yoga poses confusing. The truth is I like the idea of yoga more than the working out part. I like knowing what the benefits of yoga are but taking the time to do the work? No.

On sunny days with the blue skies above and cumulus clouds floating by I’ve played hopscotch with my nieces. We were outside in the sunshine and played hopscotch for hours. That kids’ game brought me back a few decades but I didn’t belabor that thought because I enjoyed kidding around with my nieces. Pushing the limit and doing some vigorous types of exercises, however, isn’t my idea of fun so we stuck with hopscotch. Afterwards, sitting down and lounging around was enjoyable, too, as I sipped a nice cold glass of iced tea and chatted with the kids as they drank their lemonade.

I told my friends, Katie and Erica about the fun time I had playing with my nieces - about how we’d gotten a workout as we enjoyed ourselves - and they thought that was great. I explained that I’d been watching the kids for a few hours while their parents went to work and we had a chance to chat and tell the stories that only relatives can tell each other because when you’ve known each other for several years and when you know who all the other relatives in the family are, you can tell tales out of school.

As we’re talking, Katie came up with the idea that as I spoke I kinda sort of have a New York accent or more specifically, a Brooklyn accent. I asked why she said that and how she noticed it since I don’t hear my own accent. She gave one example after the other and I was surprised that she could come up with such quick examples.

“You say coffee a certain New York way as if it has an ‘r’ in there somewhere,” Katie said and we laughed at that. She went on, “And you say the word ‘talk’ as if that, too, has an ‘r’ in there and when you think about it, it’s talk not ‘tork.’”

We found that hysterical and I couldn’t resist mentioning Katie’s Suffolk County accent. She grew up on the East End and moved to Nassau County 10 years ago. Her accent is different from mine which really is a Brooklyn accent mixed with a Long Island accent because I was six when we moved to Nassau County. I was young. And our accents are very different from Erica’s who grew up in Westchester County. She’s got a refined type of New York accent which sounds nice plus I didn’t want to give Erica a hard time since Katie was the one who started all this talk about accents.

The three of us laughed then stopping to think, I said this discussion was definitely off the topic because we really were talking about exercising. And talking about it and doing it are two totally different things. Talking about exercising but avoiding it does nothing for dropping the calories or toning the muscles so I knew we had to get busy.

The three of us had made a commitment to stepping up our exercise regimen so at least we were on the same page when it came to priorities. Our challenge was to find the right exercise because each of us had different preferences when it came to exercising.

“Want to go for a hike?” Erica asked. “Too boring,” I murmured in reply.

“Walk a treadmill?” I asked. “Definitely boring,” Katie said plaintively.

“Lift some weights?” Katie asked hesitatingly. “Oh, those heavy metal cylinders that make a loud clanging noise whenever I put them down?” I said. “Not my idea of fun.”

Knowing we could have spent all day talking about what exercises we didn’t want to do, I thought for several minutes then the light bulb went off.

“How about a nice game of tennis?” I asked excitedly. “We can get a fourth person and play some doubles. It will be great!”

Smiling, Katie and Erica looked pleased at my suggestion so I picked up my smart phone and started scrolling through my contact list searching for the person who would perfectly complement our little group. Coming across Tammy’s name, I called her knowing that in high school she loved playing tennis. In fact, Tammy was a tennis queen. That was the moniker listed under her yearbook photo and it pleased her.

Tammy answered on the second ring and after exchanging greetings I told her why I was phoning. She would love to join us on the court and she knew a place that would be conveniently located for all four. Mentioning that to Katie and Erica, we arranged to meet the following week and saying goodbye to Tammy, I hung up and gave a big grin, pleased that we’d hatched a workable plan.

Tammy was the last person to arrive and stepping from her car, she sauntered to the tennis court dressed in her tennis whites and carrying the racquet she’d prized all these years. She was pleased to see the three of us and after making small talk Tammy served first and we all got to playing. We swung our racquets effortlessly, enjoying the game and each other’s company.

Once Katie hit the tennis ball into the chain link fence, and it stuck so we laughed, but I resisted the urge to make any jokes about it. We’ve continued to play tennis weekly and while we aren’t tripping the light fantastic, dancing and bopping to the music, playing tennis is exactly what we want to do.