South/North Paw

One of the few things that I have in common with our president is that I write with my left hand. As I finished my essay test in my history class today, I looked down at the pencil lead smeared all over my hand. This happens to me every time I take written test. As I was walking through the Wilk, I was thinking about doing a blog post about being a leftie. As I researched on Wikipedia (where else), I was prepared with all kinds of facts about southpaws. Then I remembered that I'm not actually left-handed. 

I scrolled down to related topics and found the entry on cross-dominance. That is right (and left), I'm really mix-handed. I write with my left hand, but I do pretty much everything else with my right. There was not nearly as much research on that, but I did learn that I'm in a pretty elite club. Here are some of the mix-handed individuals in history:

Leonardo da Vinci

Albert Einstein

Richard Feynman

Oscar Wilde

Nikola Tesla

Michelangelo

Benjamin Franklin

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Ludwig van Beethoven

Donovan McNabb

(Note: This article does not cite sources, so it could be totally bunk, but it sounds good to me!)

From causeof.org:

An Aversion to Exercise

People with mixed laterality might have an aversion to exercises such as walking and running because these exercises tend to strengthen both sides of the body equally.

Compensating for these exercises, by spending additional time strengthening your dominant hand and the foot that is on the same side as the dominant hand, may be helpful. It also may be helpful to squeeze your dominant hand while exercising. 

Now I have an excuse for not enjoying going running all the time. Next time I'll try squeezing my hand to see if it works.