Things You Can Find at Your Community Rec Center or YMCA

I live in a suburb of San Diego in a city called Chula Vista. It's about a 20 minute ride from downtown San Diego and an up and coming city with potential. Since the real estate boom hit in the mid 90's and early 2k's...the need for public parks, businesses and schools have been booming over the last 15 years. Where I live at, there are about 4 different community parks that have been established. We are centrally located near the US Olympic Training Center, a big lake, a mall and tons of bike and run trails. Currently Alex Spanos owner of the San Diego Chargers is already discussing with our local city officials of a potential relocation with a new state of the art Chargers stadium at our bayfront.

After my early morning workout at 5:30...I managed to go home, take a nice cold shower and get ready for the many tasks on schedule for the day. My wife and I brought our twin boys to their 2nd day of prep school yesterday morning. We both managed to be off and I was just as excited as they were (let alone realize how hard it is to get them up and ready for school...what a task!).

You'll be shocked to find what you can find at your local rec center/s. Since there are so many of them around our neighborhood, this particular one we went to was our 2nd time to be there but our first time to see what they offered. They have open volleyball on Tuesday nights (Mondays are at another center and Fridays at another center).

There were outside basketball courts, a few tennis courts, a small grass soccer ball field with bleachcers, tons of playgrounds. Inside there was a table tennis table, a workshop room (where our kids were), an indoor basketball/volleyball gym that can take 3 open full volleyball courts (much like the other gym that I go to). Surprsingly this particular gym was to be closed from the hours of 12 noon - 3 pm for the USA Junior Women's National Volleyball Team practice. While we were outside checking the scenery, I was wondering why I was seeing all these men dressed with University logos on their shirts such as from the Texas Longhorns, Washington, Iowa and USC. So I approached one of them and asked them about their visit. They were actually college coaches and scouts! Whoa...I was at awe. Took a few pictures as a souvenir and was able to watch some of their practice drills which was pretty cool.

Anyway, before this...my wife and I and our little 1 year old were out and about the rec just enjoying the scenery taking pictures of our little boy as we were waiting for the boys class to finish. As my wife went to fill out some registration forms, I went out to the basketball court area and wanted to do a little gauging as to how my vertical jump compares to a 10 foot rim. So I took some videos for fun. I was in pants and the shoes I was wearing are from Nike called Nike Free...very good shoes for various activities such as running but not necessarily for jumping. One thing for any type of exercise...you have to have the right pair of shoes. In this case, I don't think I did but again I was expecting to even be attempting this to begin with.

Here's the link. Notice how my belt is starting to stick out here at the end of the video.

I want to someday do it like this guy: link.....or maybe this guy: link.

I may also want to point out a pretty interesting benefit of your local rec center: you may find a workout gym! Yup! It may come with a price but for a measely $28.00 every 4 months how can you go wrong? Definitely worth it compared to what I pay for at a commercial gym no doubt. Only downside is they operate from 8am to 8:45pm. Since I've always been one to them early in the morning...I probably wouldn't mind considering doing them after work for the price.

Here's a few other pics taken while the USA Junior team was up setting prior to their drills. Other than Chargers football, the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Lakers...volleyball (and surfing) has to be one of the hottest sports out here.

Bottomline: YMCA, your local rec center, even at a park...be amazed at what you can find that's reasonable and will keep you fit.

Let's not find excuses...let's find solutions!