8 Fun Ways to Exercise this Summer in Toronto

Looking for fun ways to exercise this summer? With the whole family?

#1. Go swimming at Canada's Wonderland!

Just north of Toronto is a great place to go swimming. Skip the rides, the games, etc. Just go for the SPLASH WORKS. Take the family with you!

The Splash Works does include rides and other fun things to do, but you will also get a good deal of swimming done while you are having fun. My favourite is White Water Bay, Canada's largest wave pool.

#2. Take up archery and visit the Toronto Archery Range!

The Toronto Archery Range is free to use, but you will need your own equipment.

Go buy 2 or 3 wooden longbows (don't buy the crummy fibreglass bows or cheap Canadian Tire bows). Just get some light poundage wooden longbows that are good for children / youths, 10 to 12 arrows, armguards, fingergloves, etc. If longbows are not your thing recurves are slightly more expensive, but are great for beginners. Expect to spend about $300 to $400.

However once you have the equipment, you can go do archery every weekend (or even on weekdays) until it starts getting too cold in November. Then just store your equipment for the Winter and resume in April. (Or sign up for indoor archery lessons for the Winter.)

I do not recommend compound bows (compound bows have pulleys on the top and bottom of the limbs) for children or beginners.

#3. Toronto Beaches and Public Pools!

Toronto has many great beaches and public pools you can use. Some of them do require a fee to use, but browse the list on toronto.ca to find one which is close to you.

#4. Toronto Rivers - Swimming and Canoeing!

If the beach or local swimming pool is too crowded, don't forget Toronto has many rivers you can also swim in. Just be careful to pay attention to which ones allow swimming and which do not.

Also Toronto rivers are a great place to go canoeing - and there are companies out there who rent canoes by the hour if you want to try it out.

Or go purchase your own kayak or canoe.

#5. Cycling and Off Road Cycling!

Toronto has many great off road trails designed specifically for cyclists (and people who like hiking). To get the most out of them you will need a mountain bike or hybrid mountain bike. Then just go and explore Toronto's Don Valley, High Park, and many of the bicycle trails around the city.

#6. Windsurfing!

Windsurfing is not for everyone, but it is certainly fun to do. If you haven't tried it and always wanted to try, now is your chance.

#7. Yoga in the Park!

For those of you who love yoga, there are numerous groups out there that practice weekly or bi-weekly yoga events in public locations. They're free and anyone can join.

#8. Local Non-Professional Sports Teams and Clubs!

Toronto has many local sports organizations that are always looking for new members. eg. The Toronto Archery Club, The Toronto Soccer Meetup, Toronto Tennis League, Co-ed Ultimate Frisbee, Ashbridges Beach Volleyball, GTA Golf Meetup, Toronto Touch Rugby, Toronto Baseball Meetup, or even the more generic "Toronto Sports Group".

July Motivational Quotes, + World Cup Quotes

In honour of the ongoing World Cup we have included a few noteworthy quotes by soccer players.

"I give my soul every time I step on the pitch. I have done this with Uruguay, Ajax and Liverpool. I do not hold anything when I finish a game."
- Luis Suarez

"It's the only sport that's played in every country in the world. It's played and watched all over the world, it's the most popular sport in probably 90% of the countries, and then with the World Cup, you have the most viewed tournament of any sport in the world."
- Claudio Reyna

"Football became my life at five or six. The earliest memory I have is of playing in my first boots, a pair of black and white Alan Balls. It was 1970, four years after the World Cup, and I scored three goals at school."
- Vinnie Jones

"The boy can do anything, but to be the star of the World Cup you have got to get to the final and win it!"
- Alan Hansen

"I want to be more than just some guy who played in a World Cup final."
- Jonny Wilkinson

Find Inner Strength

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health."
- Hippocrates

"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."
- John D. Rockefeller

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
- Mahatma Gandhi

There Are No Limits

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus; and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."
- Bruce Lee

"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them."
- Orison Swett Marden

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
- Mark Twain

Never Give Up

"Energy & persistence conquer all things."
- Benjamin Franklin

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
- Michael Jordan

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
- Agatha Christie

Archery Meditation + Zen Focus

How good is your concentration when you are trying to shoot? Do you get distracted easily? Can you shoot properly even while distracted?

There are many books on the topic of Zen Archery (a few of them are good, a lot of them are actually horrible). One of the books I recommend the most on this topic are "Zen Bow, Zen Arrow", which includes a biography and the poems of Awa Kenzo - it is the poetry that is most useful and profound if you want to get into zen archery and want to understand the essence of Zen Archery.

Another book I recommend is "The Unfettered Mind", which is actually not an archery book. It is a series of letters written by Takuan Soho and sent to famous samurai approx. 500 years ago, during which he advises them on matters of concentration, swordplay and politics. But the advice he gives in the letters doesn't just apply to swordsmanship, it also applies to archery and many other tasks.

The last book I recommend is "Kyudo - The Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery" by Hideharu Onuma. This book is for people who want to get into the ceremonial practice of Kyudo and aren't really into Zen Archery. But if your focus is on doing both Kyudo and Zen Archery, then I do recommend that particular book for your collection.

Now you might think "Hey, what about 'Zen in the Art of Archery' by Eugen Herrigel. Honestly. I read it. I was not impressed with his writing and I find he presents a stereotype of the practice of Zen within archery. You can still read the book if you wish, but I recommend you not put too much stock in his writing.

There is a video below about 'archery meditation' made by an instructor at a tropical resort, and the video gives you an idea of the concentration required to do archery - but it really is only the tip of the iceberg. I have created a list of fifteen tips further below for people who want to improve their concentration skills for the purposes of archery.



15 Concentration Tips for Archery

#1. Do things slowly and methodically. Not just archery, but everything you do. eg. Wash the dishes slowly and methodically and concentrate on what you are doing as you do it slowly.

#2. Eat foods that take a long time to eat. Fruits like apples and bananas for example can be eaten slowly (don't cut them into smaller pieces, that is just speeding up the process).

#3. Do one thing at a time. Avoid multitasking.

#4. Focus your eyes on what you are doing. Don't look at the archery target until you have completed each step.

#5. When do focus on your target, focus your eye at a single point in space.

#6. Take your time aiming.

#7. Avoid speed shooting. This is not a speed competition. You should not be looking at the clock, counting the seconds or even worried about how much time you are spending on the shot.

#8. Do math in your head. The more complicated math you can do in your head, the more you have to concentrate and remember what you are doing. Focus on the math. Visualize it.

#9. Ignore emails, texts and don't listen to music unless you have set aside a specific time of day just for listening to music, answering emails or texts. Focus on only one of these things at once.

#10. Motivate yourself on what you are doing. Whatever you are doing is important, otherwise you would not be doing it. Focus on the task, stay motivated as to why you are doing, why you want it to be perfect. It doesn't matter what you are doing, regardless of whether you are grilling bacon (so fatty, but it serves my example because if you lose concentration and burn the bacon you will realize you were distracted) or composing an email (and then have typos or poor grammar in sentences).

#11. Plan what you are doing before you do it. Have everything ready and set in place, ready to be put in motion.

#12. Shut the door, turn off the radio, close the window (to avoid noise from the street) - shut out all distractions from what you are focused on. So if you are listening to an audiobook, that should be the only thing you are listening to - and focusing on listening should be the only thing you are doing.

#13. Don't forget to take breaks. Eventually your mind gets exhausted and you just to relax and unwind. Time to watch or listen something entertaining, spend time with family or even just take a nap. People can't concentrate if they are tired or mentally exhausted.

#14. Eat, but don't overeat. Being hungry is a distraction, but so is gastric distress and heartburn.

#15. Slow down when making important decisions. Sometimes this is necessary. A hasty decision made when you haven't concentrated on the consequences isn't going to help you. With archery this means you need to think about your next shot before you even do it. Know where you want to be aiming, use your best judgement based on the distance and all your knowledge. Your first instinct is rarely correct, but you don't want to over-think it either.

Yoga and Zen Vacations

Yoga retreats are a booming global industry, primarily for women and women's retreats, but there is a small but growing percentage of men who are visiting yoga retreats too.

The principle is simple - you go on vacation to some exotic locale, stay there and do yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and other activities (eg. some of these retreats even offer archery lessons).

Many of these retreats work on a 3-day or 7-day programme and offer a series of workshops on yoga, meditation - as well as services like massage, therapeutic discussions, etc.

The idea essentially is for people to go there, relax, do yoga, and then come back from their vacation feeling refreshed and re-energized.

There is only one problem.

These retreats are often ridiculously over priced and geared towards getting people to come back again and again because it is addictive. So be forewarned, if you get into visiting yoga retreats regularly you will discover they are very expensive and you will find yourself going back again and again. I have a friend who goes to a yoga retreat in Romania every year, spending $5,000 to $6,000 every year on the 2-week trip (she even borrows money from people just so she can go, even though she knows she should be spending her money more wisely). For just a portion of that she could get a membership at a local yoga studio in Toronto and go there all year long instead of 2 weeks per year.

From my perspective yoga is something that shouldn't even cost money. People do yoga in the park. Toronto has a Free Yoga Meetup group that organizes free events at Toronto parks for people who are into yoga. So it doesn't have to cost a cent, and you get to meet new people, make friends, and explore Toronto. Win-Win-Win.

There is actually multiple meetup groups for Yoga in Toronto/GTA.

North York Free Yoga

Plus Size Yoga Toronto

Etobicoke Yoga Grove

Markham Yoga

Beach Yoga Toronto

So there really is no shortage of Yoga Clubs in Toronto that people can join. No reason to go overseas or spend $1000s just to have a good time and feel good about yourself.

Waist Training, Skinny Waists and Training Corsets

Myth Busting on Training Corsets

Guest Post

For women (and historically, some men did this too) one of the techniques people used to lose weight / prevent over-eating was 'training corsets' designed to cinch the waist together so that they could achieve an hourglass shape of their chest to waist to hips ratio.

1950s Pinup Model Betty Brosmer

The purpose of training corsets was not for it to be worn as a fashion piece, but to train the waist so it was a specific shape whenever the corset was NOT on.

You can see the results in the photo on the right from the 1950s.

Or at the photo of Kim Kardashian further below. In the case of Kim Kardashian there has been a lot of social buzz about whether various photos of her were photoshopped to make her waist looking small and her hips look bigger. But if you are familiar with the history of corsets you will know that Kim's waist and hips don't need photoshop. There were plenty of women (and men too) from history who had highly cinched waists who had curvier / more hourglass shaped figures.

Doing this is basically just another form of body modification similar to piercings, tattoos, breast implants / pectoral implants, botox, liposuction, synthol injections, steroid addiction, cosmetic surgery, rhinoplasty, circumcision, eyeball tattooing (I bet you didn't even know that one existed), microdermal / transdermal / subdermal implants, silicone injections, tongue splitting, cranial binding, foot binding, branding, ear shaping, scarification, tooth filing, etc. Many of these activities are the result of body dysmorphic disorders / mental illnesses in which the person feels inadequate unless they can change their body in a specific way.

Kim Kardashian taking a Selfie

In the case of waist training, it is true that many practitioners do lose weight because it is a bit like Gastric Bypass Surgery in that it restricts how much a person can eat. (Gastric bypass surgery is a surgical procedure in which the stomach is divided into a small upper pouch and a much larger lower "remnant" pouch and then the small intestine is rearranged to connect to both. The small stomach can then consume less food, resulting in the person having smaller meals and they lose weight over the long term.)

However the health effects of tightlacing / corset training causes havoc with the individual's internal organs. Below is a list of health defects that can result from an addiction to tightlacing.

Short term effects of tightlacing

• Extreme discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Faintness
• Indigestion
• Chafing of the skin

Long term effects of tightlacing

• Weak abdominal muscles
• Spinal problems / back pain
• Problems urinating / leaky bladder (a practitioner might end up having to wear diapers)
• Broken ribs / osteoporosis in the ribs
• Compression of internal organs (similar to when organs are compressed during pregnancy)
• Decreased lung volume / shallow breathing (intercostal breathing)
• Mucosal build up in the lungs causes frequent bouts of pneumonia / coughing, which caused a Victorian myth that corset wearing caused tuberculosis
• Liver is pushed upwards towards the ribs, forming ridges in between the ribs and accessory lobes - the connection of which can be quite thin, which resulted in the Victorian myth that corset wearing can 'cut a liver in half'.
• Stomach volume compressed resulting in long term problems with indigestion, heartburn, gastric reflux. Practitioners avoid carbonated drinks, beans or any gassy foods.
• Intestine compression causes constipation / anal leakage / rectal discharge (again, necessitating the use of diapers)

Dietary problems

• The reduced stomach volume means many practitioners need to eat 6 smaller meals because eating 3 larger meals is no longer possible due to insufficient volume. Failing to eat sufficient nutrients can result in severe weight loss and accompanying health problems.

NOTES

If people really want to try waist training that is really their personal choice. But they should at least get into it knowing the health dangers/embarrassment they face (back pain, diapers, heartburn, etc). The prospect of diapers alone is enough of a reason in my opinion.

We should also note that sometimes training corsets are sometimes used to deliberately correct the curvature of the spine, in the case of people who have suffered traumatic injuries to the spine. However, just because corsets do have some medical applications, doesn't automatically mean they're safe when used for aesthetic waist training purposes.