exercise ranking

i am obsessed with water and fish and being in water and staring at fish in their natural habitat and just staring at the sea or looking at or touching water. i wish i could live in the ocean.

while i've always adored being in water, i never actually learnt to swim properly until a few years ago, when i went to an aquarium and decided that i need to get a scuba diving license. i realised the first step would be to improve my swimming skills and immediately signed up for swimming lessons. i learnt the actual techniques and now i try to practice them everytime im at the beach, and i am definitely getting more comfortable with them!! i can actually swim a distance without needing to rest my feet on the ground!! i'm not immediately terrified if the water is deeper than i can reach!!

this past year, i've also been on a mission to get over my fear of cold water. i hate the cold in general, and i would always be very picky about water temperature before being willing to get in. although the water stays warm a lot longer in the mediterranean than in the baltic sea i grew up by, my swimming time was still limited to around 3 months of the year which frustrated me!! so i decided to keep swimming, even when temperatures dropped below 20, and managed to continue until 15 december. i've been on a bit of break for health reasons but hoping to get back into it before march is over...

i became fascinated with ballet when i dated a ballet dancer when i was 15-16, in a "wow i wish i had that level of dedication and discipline towards anything in my life" kind of way and also in a "this is the most beauty the human body is capable of probably" kind of way. and then i started adult ballet classes more than a decade later and i am loooving it! i've literally never danced before (other than the few weeks i tried out ballet when i was like 5) and don't really have much interest in dancing in general, but ballet to me is so satisfying because it's so strict and structured. like, yes, tell me exactly how and when to move my body.

it's also been a lesson in humility and getting over my perfectionism. i went there knowing that i would suck (because, duh, i had never done it or anything similar before), and felt excrutiatingly self-conscious, but with time, i've a) realised that (almost) everyone in my class is also a beginner b) everyone is there for themselves and not to judge others c) even if they do judge me so what??? im here to have fun and i promise u i am having fun. it helps that our instructor is super kind and nice and the vibe in general has always been friendly and non-competitive. i'm excited for my first ever dance recital this summer!

if i was rich you would actually never see me anywhere but the saddle of a horse. obsessed. it's a bit terrifying also but the risk is so worth it. if i have to die let it be under the hooves of a horse. actually no that sounds really painful.

loses half a star because unfortunately animal abuse is also rampant in the field in general. i promise if i had a horse i would be the kindest most loving horse companion ever. i can be trusted with horses.

i've been doing yoga since i was a kid. my mum used to be quite serious about yoga, so she got me and my sister into it early as well, and i've always really enjoyed it. it feels good physically and mentally and you can do it anywhere. it's probably the sport i'm "best" at, since i've been doing it for so long (i can hold a mean eagle pose).

i grew up walking in nature, so i never really considered hiking to be a sport. the country i grew up in is also flat as hell - apparently in other countries, "hiking" usually implies mountains?? i've been getting into that now in marseille, where we're surrounded by the beautiful calanques national park and lots of mountains, and i can see now why it would be considered a sport.

i love being in nature and moving my body and exploring and i'm really hoping to get into hiking more seriously and do longer treks, maybe even multiple day hikes, maybe even camping, in the near future.

i first got into running at the gym, just to add some cardio to the end of my routine. i've always had kind of a fascination with running and really enjoy reading books about running (special mention: haruki murakami's what i talk about when i talk about running really helped to motivate me when i first started). it feels like something that my body is really meant to do, you know? i definitely enjoy it more now that i run outside rather than on a treadmill, although now i use the weather as an excuse to be lazy (it's too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer).

putting these together because they're kinda similar. barre is basically pilates for ballet, for those who don't know. i take barre classes once a week to complement my ballet classes, and i really enjoy it! it's challenging, but not so challenging that i dread it. i also do it at home sometimes with routines i find on youtube. mostly i just enjoy it because i imagine how much better i will be at ballet as my muscles get even STRONGER.

weight training is so good for you. but it's kind of boring. the gym is where i learnt to enjoy using my body again when i was around 20 and had a gymbro bf who taught me everything and supported me (thx). i really loved how it felt and i loved my routine of going to the gym 3-4 times a week. then i moved abroad and have barely used a gym since. it does cost money and requires you to leave your house. i also still get a bit anxious and self-conscious working out in front of other people.

biking....i have a weird relationship with biking. i had a bike in my early childhood when i lived in the countryside, and then i rode a bike maybe 2-3 times throughout the rest of my youth. then my gymbro ex wanted to go biking with me and i gingerly got on his brother's bicycle and tried to follow him around the quiet suburban streets but honestly i was terrified and extremely slow and he got annoyed with me and i cried. and then my next bf also wanted to bike with me, this time in the very urban streets of istanbul. he was a lot kinder and more patient with me but i was still a bit terrified. then he broke up with me for a while and i dedicated myself to getting better at biking so that if we ever got back together i could bike with him more lol. we did get back together and i actually ended up biking pretty regularly along this one 20 km bikepath by the seaside even after we broke up again. then in marseille i originally convinced my flatmate to try cycling as a way to get around the city (we have a city bike system with electric bikes and its pretty cool) but i was terrified of traffic and stopped just as they started being less terrified (it is still their main way to get around). anyway i havent really biked anymore since we moved here in summer 2024. the one time my french ex wanted to bike with me it fortunately rained and i cried and he put the bikes away again. can i date someone who doesn't know how to bike next.

oh and i HAVE biked in the netherlands once. also not fun. also the thing about how you never forget how to bike is not true, ive had to relearn at least 3 times.

i've allowed people to convince me to go to climbing gyms with them twice. it's okay. i am scared of falling from a height and also i don't have great upper body strength so i feel like my enjoyment of this sport is pretty limited. also the second time i went to a climbing gym the friend i was with literally fell and messed up their ankle pretty bad (it's been over a year and it still hurts sometimes). so not super motivated to go back tbh.