My journey to fitness goes well beyond the physical. There have been many days when I wanted to quit the workout and walk away because I felt terrible and wasn’t working up to my capabilities. But, I know to take a few extra deep breaths and keep going, and eventually I will finish.
Today was another one of those days. I know a lot of you are struggling with motivation, illness, upset, or just general ick. We encourage you to get up and get moving and take care of yourselves every day. None of us are exempt from these things!
We started a big home improvement project last weekend – replacing our 2nd floor deck. I haven’t worked out since Saturday and I took the first two days of the week off of working out because my body genuinely needed it. But this morning I woke up slightly less sore and I knew I needed to get moving again. At some point ick leads to nothing but more ick. True need for rest just turns to lack of motivation and, if we are being honest, excuses bred in laziness (and I know I am great at that!)
All of this stuff isn’t just about losing weight or getting stronger (though those things matter), it is equally about making you a person who endures. Someone who knows when to rest and when to push. Someone who can make the hard choice to stop unhealthy and unhelpful thought patterns and do something about it (and that is not an easy thing to recognize or do.)
I think it’s an important conversation to talk about how fitness benefits your life beyond the physical.
The physical shift isn’t the only thing that exercise has brought me over the years. Maybe even more importantly, I have found myself more resistant to the negative effects of stress. I began to think of myself as a person who could do hard things, both physically and mentally.
I learned to relax and reframe situations when they were genuinely hard. In the middle of a really difficult workout when I felt exhausted, I have learned that relaxing my facial muscles and smiling sends messages to my brain and body that I am fine, that I can keep going. I do this even now during tough workouts, tough conversations, and in the face of adversity.
I am pretty resistant to discipline. I like to do whatever and go wherever, and often fall victim to going by my feelings instead of what I know I should be doing. In school that looked like procrastination (I don’t feel like doing that, until I feel like I’m going to get in trouble if I don’t. I never liked being in trouble.)
In adulthood, if I let it, it would look like eating my feelings and only doing exercise that didn’t challenge me. The more physical activity became a part of my life, the more self-discipline that came with it. Training when I didn’t feel like it, running in the rain, coming back from illness and injury when it would have been easier to take more days off than I actually needed to.
This discipline has also helped me to create better order in my days, to get up and get moving (man, I love a slow morning), to care for my family, and provide structure for them. Do I do this perfectly? Absolutely not, but I have slowly harnessed my weaknesses and turned them into strengths! I can be flexible inside of routine. I can stop what I am doing to care for others, but not get distracted from my goals.
I also found that I was more resilient in the face of failure (and the fear of it). I have fallen off of boxes, dropped barbells in very uncomfortable ways, and not done as great in workouts that I really wanted to be better than. And then I have gone back and tried again the next day – and that’s the really important part.
Some of those things have worked out beautifully, some were absolute and utter failures, some are still a cause of fear at times. And yet, here I am. Realizing that failure is a part of life, and not something to be feared.
Now, admittedly, CrossFit didn’t teach me all of this. I have amazing mentors in my life too. I read, listen, seek counsel…and exercise. Respecting and caring for my physical body has taught me limitless lessons about respecting and caring for myself emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
This is my favorite part of Coaching people. Seeing them hit barbell personal records is great, but seeing them show up for themselves when they want to quit is better.
If you are looking for any of these things in your life – resistance, resilience, discipline (not to forget weight loss and strength) – I encourage you to take a hard look at the choices surrounding your physical health. Great things can start out seeming superficial and actually change your life!