Choice Section - Winter

What's Next

Looking beyond dance, there are definitely multiple options for activities that I can do to stay physically fit. My top choices will probably include running, weight training, and hiking. Maintaining physical fitness throughout my life will only become more important as I get older and need to take care of my body more.

First, running will be a way to stay active that I know I will be able to accomplish easily. It is an activity that I can do by just going outside and running into any direction for thirty minutes or an hour or longer. Running also would transfer many of the health and skill related fitness components from dance. It is great for cardiovascular health and fitness, and is a way to get exercise, but it does not touch upon all of the fitness components. For health, it would not help in areas like flexibility, or muscular strength, but it would be good for body composition, cardiovascular fitness, and muscular endurance. For the skill related fitness components, running would excel in speed, power, and agility, but would be less helpful for coordination, balance, and reaction time. Running is also an activity that can be done on my own or with other people, but I would not have to rely on others to be able to do this activity, making it a good option for the future.

Next, weight training is something that I would also like to pursue in the future. It would be very accessible as I can go to the gym or get enough equipment for a home gym or any other option along those lines, and I can also do this with other people or on my own. Weight training would have some similar aspects of health and skill related components as dance but also would introduce new ones. It would focus a lot on muscular strength, muscular endurance, and body composition for health components and less on cardiovascular fitness and flexibility. For skill components, it might touch a little on some of them, but a lot of them do not relate much to weight training, contrary to running. Working at least both weight training and running into my future fitness schedule could really be beneficial and would provide a well rounded exposure to different health and skill related fitness components.

Lastly, hiking would be a future fitness option that I might be interested in pursuing. Hiking is an activity that I can do easily and at my own level and also can do anytime with whoever I want. Hiking might also have a few skills and fitness components that would transfer over from dance. Cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and body composition would be the main health components used in hiking. Those not used would be ones like flexibility and muscular strength. For skills, agility, balance, power, and speed are all applicable to hiking, some used more than others. Another reason hiking would be a good fitness option is that it is not hard to find hills or areas to hike on, especially in areas like Marin. All together, running, weight training, and hiking would be a pretty good fitness plan for my future beyond dance, and I would still probably continue dance on top of that, adding another athletic activity.