#189 Anything that gets you really, really sweaty

I’m no tennis pro.

Yet somehow this past weekend I got tricked into playing a game with my brother-in-law Dee. I hadn’t played tennis in years, but Dee and I managed to scrounge around my dad’s basement to find two wooden rackets and a tube of balls. Even though each tennis ball was sunfaded to its own unique shade of light green and the rackets were made before I was born, they managed to do the trick.

We played five minutes before losing two of the balls. I nailed one over the fence into a dense patch of shrubs and Dee hammered one behind the neighbor’s shed. But we kept going and managed to whack our remaining ball around for about forty-five minutes, slowly getting a little bit better, then a little bit better.

By the end we were wet sweaty messes. I had a bit of a Smiley Face on my T-shirt, with two dark sweatstains below my man-boobs and a big one over my apparently sweaty belly button. Foreheads dripping, sweatstaches glistening, we headed back to my parents’ place tired and satisfied.

And while collapsing on the couch and peeling off my sticky socks, I started thinking there sure is something great about anything that gets you really, really sweaty:

• Intergenerational dancing at wedding. We’ve chatted about this before but when you’re grooving with your six-year-old cousin or shaking your rumpa rumpa at the back of the conga line, you’re loving the late-night sweat-dancing that comes with shaking your well-dressed groove thing until late at night.

• Doing something that scares you. Maybe you’re rocking the sweaty armpits before writing a big math test, asking a girl to prom, or giving a speech at your daughter’s wedding. And sure, these things are stressful — but how good does it feel after you nail them and walk out clean the other side? Sweat marks the day.

• Chilling on the beach under the sun. Sure, we know too much sun ain’t great for you, but when those wavy rays are beating down while you’re playing in the waves, building sandcastles, or just lying around, well that’s a beautiful feeling. Let your skin glisten and be happy to soak it all in.

• Saunas. This is the laziest way to get sweaty. The only requirements are being able to sit on a towel. If you can do that, you pass, so just smile and enjoy the drips.

• Playing drums for two straights hours in a rock concert. Sometimes you see a drummer really going at it, wet hair flying everywhere, eyes squeezed shut, and glistening cheeks. I say these hardcore rockers deserve a bullet point all their own.

Yes, today we say that anything that gets you really, really sweaty feels pretty good. It’s a sign your body is cooling itself while engaging in something fun. Nerds even suggest sweating is great for you physically, too — opening up your pores like a fancy steam facial and containing a natural antibiotic that helps kill bacteria on your skin.

Push harder, reach higher, play stronger, live longer.

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, and here

38 thoughts to “#189 Anything that gets you really, really sweaty”

  1. This is the same as:

    “My muscles are sore… But it’s cos I EXERCISED! Aww yeah!”

    (Should we be concerned by the number of gross things that are awesome? …Naaah.)

  2. btw- the family just stumbled upon what the blue versus black means beside the names…had not a clue!
    lovethebadguy, toot-toot- away, WHY NOT I SAY! You deserve to:)
    *while you’re at it, could you make any sense of what I just wrote?!*

    1. Not really, but I’ll smile and nod anyway! :D

      (I’m sensing a fart joke in there somewhere… Oh, wendy, why are you trying to taint my innocent non-flatulently mind?!)

      1. Ah, thanks:)
        No fart joke though it would seem so. This was in reference to the fams discovery and further that you’re able to toot your horn over your coffee table books!!!

        1. Umm, what does it mean? After all this time, I should have figured this out on my own, I’m certain.

          1. OH thank you Kathy…you give me so much hope!
            Blue have a website; you can click on the name and explore a whole new world…of the commenter, just on the other side of blue…if you wish:)

  3. When I was little, skipping was my thing.
    In high school it was wrestling.
    Now, I work it up and out playing the drums, my fiddle and guitar! Rock on!

  4. Mine is a RPM (spin) class at my local gym, or a work out generally at the gym. Up until last year, I didn’t realise I liked to sweat :)

  5. Eh, I don’t agree with you. I’ve tolerated ‘Picking your nose’, I’ve cringed at ‘The feeling you get after vomiting’, but this I have to say no. I hate getting sweaty. UNLESS I’m wearing really old clothes and no one is with me to see my pit stains and smell my BO, and I can hop in the shower right away. Probably that is the reason I’m putting on weight… hmmm… Buuut I can see the appeal it has to people that like running around and working their muscles. I’m lazy :P
    (Btw, I must say that I am loving how family friendly this website is. No one has even mentioned anything you do with a partner after hours, which I am sure would be the first thing to pop up in the comments on any other website :) )

  6. OMG, just taking a step outside these days will make anyone sweat. I took a little walk with the baby yesterday and by the time I got home, I was drenched in sweat…it was so hot outside…
    Saturday we went to an outside wedding. I felt so bad for the baby, he was sitting there just sweating, we had to hide out in my car a few times to cool off in the air conditioner.
    I don’t mind sweating, as long as I’m the one that’s doing to work to be sweating, not the weather.

    1. PS… You shoulda taken a picture of that smiley face on your shirt. Gross yes, but its still a smiley and I could have use it on my blog!

  7. I love getting really sweaty at the gym. After a spin class when sweat is dripping from every limb, into your eyes and down the small of your back. I feel invigorated and cleansed. Sweating like that anywhere else is not awesome. Sweating in dressy clothes, silk, or at work …Bad

  8. Okay. NOT. I hate to be hot and sweaty. I know exercise is great and all, but when it is so hot that I just walk outside and my hair drips down my back and my boobs are dripping down my stomach, that is not awesome. But….whatever blows your skirt up I suppose. I prefer weather that you can put more clothes on to stay warm. In the heat you can only take OFF so many legally!!!

    1. Haha my exact thoughts. When you start perspiring as you walk in and out of the sun in the middle of Summer at the start of the year: so not cool. Literally.

  9. Spent the weekend stage managing a ton of fantastic bands at an art festival. Got to play a set of my own too! Sweaty? Most definitely! Awesome? OH YEAH!

  10. Neil, you paint a very pretty picture here.
    And the lymph system is so awesome it could have its own place on the list!
    As well as the science of a fart- how far and long poopmolecules float in air.
    Do you know why my card changed from my fav colour sage green to blue-was it something that I said?!

    1. Your little square changes if you put in a different email address. If you want your old one back, use the email you used when you had that square.

      1. Thank you Bekah. I did use the same email address. This is my thought- to the sage green card, I wasn’t going to, I almost didn’t, then thought- what the heck-said, “Favorite colour since Christ was a cowboy”,
        according to religion I was raised by, though no longer practice, although I still have strong faith- I think I’m being punished:( sorry-can i have my card back now!

  11. Jazzercise is my favorite way to sweat! It’s awesome, and for more reasons that because you get really, really sweaty.

  12. This one is right on! Nothing makes me feel better than pedaling up a long, steep hill and sweating my brains out. All that salty sweaty goodness is made all the better as it cools me off sailing back down the hill.

  13. Or dancing at a rock concert, especially if it is in the auxilary room under a library with waaaaay too many people/equipment in the room. true story, as I also ate like 15 of those lifesaver mints at one time. the final song was an extremely metal version of soulja boy. after it was over, I felt as if I had just gotten out of the pool.

  14. Personally, I haven’t been chiming in on this comment thread as I was waiting for jdurley to jump in with a “that’s what she said”..

  15. So glad this made the list of awesomeness. My friends always ponder why I hate humidity (because I sweat profusely), BUT I go salsa dancing weekly where I sweat for multiple hours a night while also in close proximity to those of the opposite sex who are also dripping with sweat. And I don’t mind it at all. Why? Because somehow the combo of a dark club and flirtatious dancing makes sweating go from gross to kinda hot.

  16. is your brother-in-law the same Dee that was your room mate?(as in the spider killer)and BTW sweat iz awesome

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