Tennis, touch football, swimming, sailing, horse-back riding . . . if it involved action, the Kennedy clan, including our 35th President, were at it! Though President Kennedy suffered from severe back pain, he was often photographed participating in sports.

Through Kennedy’s Council on Physical Fitness, Americans in the 1960s were challenged to become more active and physically fit. In these days of remembrance of President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, this post pays tribute to that part of his legacy, a call to shape up!

Decades later, I’m still at it, trying to avoid canes, walkers, and wheelchairs in the near future. And so, fitness classes at the gym have become a metaphor for my life in general: Pilates / PowerPump = hard / harder.

Lift it up!

RhodaWeightLife

Step it up!

Roll it up!

Quiet zone low light, deep breaths . . . ah!

Quiet zone, low light, deep breaths, ready for Pilates . . . ah!

Getting ready to roll . . .

Instructor Ananda doing perfect roll-ups.

My roll-ups are not perfect, but I try!

As I said, “It’s a gym, not a spa!”

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