Healthier 2021: Mark Is Becoming More Flexible

This post appears as part of our Healthier 2021 series, in which we follow three WebMD team members as they strive to improve their health this year. You can follow their journeys here.

By Mark Spoor

Things got real this week, my friends.

When I started my renewal of fitness vows, it was the middle of the holidays. So I could do my workouts whenever I wanted to. If I slept in, lounged around a bit, and didn’t get to my workout until mid-morning, it didn’t really matter.

What’s more, if I, let’s say, needed a little more time for recovery, it was cool. What else was I doing?

Watching more football?

Another true crime marathon?

The Shawshank Redemption for the 987th time?

Well, things sure did change that Monday after the new year. The alarm went off at an ungodly hour, and I had no time to snooze. I had a strictly defined workout window that was closing quickly.

I needed to get my daughter to school. That meant I needed my workout, shower, and all of the pre-going-to-school things I’m responsible for done long before my kid’s opening bell, which is, uh, early.

Then, after my daughter was dropped off, it was back to the house for, ya know, my job.

Trust me, for those first couple of days, it was tough. I couldn’t sacrifice the workout, and the other early-morning stuff was non-negotiable. So, since I’m not a fan of working out at night, I had to adjust to this new, slightly painful new normal.

But I learned something important about myself: I can do it.

At the same time, because I’m clearly a glutton for punishment, I tried to expand my workout repertoire a little bit. The Peloton bike is awesome and I love it, but I felt like I needed to explore some of the other things so that I could get a well-rounded workout. I tried some strength training classes and some other cardio classes. (To my fellow blogger Bill Kimm: Watch out! I’m getting serious about this exercise thing!)