I went into work early to knock out a fitness test because I needed to be back in Cleveland late morning to attend the funeral of my next-door-neighbor’s father. The woman doing the fitness test turned out to be quite fit as a result of work she’d been doing at the direction of our personal trainer. She was still looking to lose weight and had some concerns about the speed of her weight loss. “I’m only down 7 pounds over the last three weeks and I’m wondering why it’s taking so long,” she said. She had already shared how many inches she’d lost and how differently her clothes were fitting and how good she was feeling.
“You have made some phenomenal changes in a short time and remember, this is about a lifetime of fitness. You’ll keep losing if you follow the routine you’re working now. Besides, you just told me how well it’s all going so don’t get hung up on the scale. It has nothing to say about your fitness levels,” I told her.
I made it to the church on time and then sat and listened, and thought. The older I get, the more reflective I become generally, and certainly when I’m sitting through someone’s funeral. I can’t help but process thoughts about people close to me who have died and how tomorrow is not promised to me, either. I couldn’t help but think of this man’s quality of life, it had deteriorated significantly, and how my own thinking about fitness and longevity had changed since graduating with my degree in Exercise Physiology. ‘You’ll live longer if you do this and that,’ I would preach without giving a moment’s thought to living better. No one ever challenged me on it and so I stuck with that tune. No more. I’m training people to have and think about quality of life. “Stay active. What’s the point of living long if you’re stuck in a chair or a bed.”
I went to the park later that afternoon and found conditions ideal for a good Survival Workout. Since I’d run the day before, I elected to add more lifting to the workout. I added a couple of log lifts for the low back, extra sets of pull-ups, and some quality core work to make up for the lack of sprints and jumping. I returned to the car with an extreme pump and feeling exhausted, but strong.
As is often the case, I elected to undo all that good with about six pieces of greasy pizza while again watching ‘Trouble with the Curve’ starring Clint Eastwood. I was watching with my sister and brother-in-law, trying to bring quality film to their dull existence. I could watch that movie over and over and with the opener less than a week away, baseball movies just make sense.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150 bpm.
Calories Burned: 600.
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