In this episode, I talk about how exploring your athletic potential can change your life. Becoming athletic at any age can improve physical health and mental health, while also inspiring empowerment and confidence.
I discuss:
- History Of Becoming More Athletic
- Exercise Benefits Our Physical Well-Being
- Staying Active Increases Emotional And Mental Health
- Being Athletic Gives Us Empowerment And Enhances Confidence
...and more!
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Here are some highlights:
I Wasn’t Into Sports In School
“I just was never encouraged to do sports and I never really had an interest in it growing up,” Robin said. “We're talking elementary school, we're talking middle school, we're talking high school, and we're talking college, I never did any of that. And through the rest of my 20s, never did any of that. My first entry into sports was roller derby, and that was in 2003, I was just about to hit my 30s. I only joined because I was looking to make friends. I was living in a new city. I just moved to LA and I was looking to make friends. I roller skated around my neighborhood. I lived my whole life in my little thrift skates, but I never considered myself an athlete.”
Wanting To Workout Versus Feeling Obligated
“I think it's important for people to hear that you can come into sports later, you can come into athletic challenges later and be perfectly able to do it at any age, regardless of your fitness background,” said Legat. “I was not a fit person before roller derby. There was nothing about fitness that appealed to me, like working out or anything like that. I tried, just like everybody else, but it felt like an obligation. It felt like something I should be doing. It was never something I wanted to do. And that changed when I got into sports.”
Sports Create A Bigger Desire To Be Fit
“It didn't come naturally to me, but I worked my butt off at it. So I actually had a greater desire to exercise outside of practice to lift weights, to build my strength so that I can improve my endurance,” said Robin. “You know, work on my agility so that I had better footwork on the track, it all applied. So when you are participating in a sport, you may have a greater desire to do what you need to do to get better at that sport. That can include more exercise and actually wanting to get up and exercise in the morning or whenever you exercise. Actually wanting to do the work because you want to make the progress. So in turn, you become more physically healthy.”
How Being Active May Aid In Illness
“Now, I remember looking at my dad, who was always pretty active, he ran races in his 40s, I remember that,” said Legat. “In his more advanced years, he had Alzheimer's and eventually moved into a home and I would go and visit him in that home. This was when he was in his 70s, and I noticed when I took a look around that many, many people in there were in wheelchairs, but he was able to walk for a long, long time up until very close to the end when he lost the ability to control his legs. He eventually moved into a wheelchair, but for many, many years during his Alzheimer's, he was walking. I attribute that to the lifestyle that he led up until that point, so that's just something that I witnessed in my own family. You're better able to maintain your mobility and your ability to move in your more advanced years, so those are the physical things and of course, all very, very important.”
Fitness Increases Emotional And Mental Well Being
“So when I talk about health, I also wanna get into mental and emotional health because I think that's a big, big deal,” said Robin. “It's something that we don't talk about when it comes to fitness. Everybody wants to get into fitness because they want to be healthier, want to lose weight, but what about their mental and emotional health? My gym that I've been running over the past two years, many of the members that come to my gym, have told me that they come because of the mental health benefits. It gets them involved with the community, it gets them around supportive people and allows them to do something that's for them every single day, and that is just instrumental in mental health.
When you get involved in sports and get involved in sporting communities that are generally very supportive and very in tune with helping you make healthy decisions for yourself and helping everybody. They lift each other up and help each other and live better lives. That's massively helpful for mental health. And I've heard that story over and over again. And emotional health, the way that it makes you feel when you are able to do something that you never imagined you'd be able to do in your life. When I have helped people cross the monkey bars, training for obstacle races, and they get across the monkey bars for the very first time, and they realize, ‘I can do something I never thought I could ever do that.’”
Pursue An Athletic Endeavor That Is Yours
“You pursue an athletic endeavor, when you pursue a new challenge, this is something that's yours,“ Robin said. “You are living a lot of your life for other people. If you work, have a career, you're working for other people. You're spending eight hours or more a day doing work for other people. Then you have taking care of your family, and in this time that we live in, that could involve homeschooling or managing your kids education at home, on top of doing your work. That's a lot of other family responsibilities and external responsibilities, and that leads very little to no room for anything that's yours, but we need that. We need things that are uniquely ours as women, especially.”
Exploring Our Athletic Potential At Any Age
“Exploring our athletic potential at any age is life changing because it gives you something that is uniquely yours,” Robin said. “It gives you something that you could pour into yourself in a world where we are conditioned and trained as women do not do that, but we need to. So that's number two, number three is empowerment and confidence, and how that can spill out into all other areas of your life and change your life in so many ways.”
Being Athletic Gives Us Confidence And Empowerment
“My years in Roller Derby, where I was this badass superhero skating around a track, hitting people, getting knocked to the ground and getting back up again, in a way, it's a metaphor, and it's a cheesy metaphor for how you can approach life when you're getting beat down, you get up and you keep going, and you go hard,” said Legat. “I saw all the effects that that had in other areas of my life, and one of those effects is me talking to you right now, me having a podcast where I empower women. That's a total side effect of the confidence and empowerment that I gained from my time in Roller Derby. The fact that I'm an entrepreneur, the fact that I'm a coach, and the fact that I'm a fitness professional.
I actually changed my career during my time in Roller Derby because I discovered how much I love helping other women and other people do things that they never imagined they could do in their lives. I was seeing that in myself, and it led me to go back to school, get my fitness certifications and eventually start my own business. And now that I'm 45 years old, running obstacle races, that helped me land on helping women over 40 explore their athletic potential, because I'm seeing that in myself, and I'm seeing how it's changed in my life, and I know how it can change your life. And other women's lives.”
Everyone Can Be An Inspiration To Someone
“Everybody is an inspiration to somebody, and you may not know it yet, but you are,” Legat said. “So by opening yourself up to exploring athletic challenges, that's going to allow you to be a greater inspiration to someone in your life because they may look at your journey at whatever age you're at. If you say you don't have an athletic background like I did, and you are getting out there and you are doing hard things at your age, wherever you're at now, you are inspiring somebody. You might be inspiring a friend of yours, you might be inspiring your kids where they see you and they want to model what you're doing.”
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