Sunday, March 18, 2007
The "Core" of the Matter
1 John 3:18 (NIV)
"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
Step back a moment from your life. Picture yourself on a day to day routine. Maybe you're flying along in a sort of "out of body" experience - hovering over yourself and watching yourself as you go about your responsibilities. A sort of "Its A Wonderful Life" slash watching yourself play yourself in a real life movie type of experience.
How many times do you circle the parking lot to find that choice space up front?
How many stairs do you climb to get to that meeting - or do you opt for the elevator?
How often do you send an instant or text message to someone instead of walking over for some good ol' face to face? (and what unspoken benefits of real human interaction do you miss out on by resorting to electronic communication?)
Although, much unhealthy exercise that is performed is grueling and punishing to the body and we must watch the limits to which we go to be healthy and in shape, the majority of us don't come close to even a minimum recommended daily allowance. ESPECIALLY our core strength - lower back, abdomen, obliques, etc.
In any given day you possibly:* Are sedentary while sleeping (hopefully!).* Walk short distances to your car and then sit virtually motionless while you drive to and from work.* Sit at work all day (barring any short breaks or long breaks for short walks if you're lucky).* Head home and sit for dinner.* Watch TV until bedtime.* Then repeat.* Ad nauseum.
In this scenario, our core strength goes down the tubes virtually overnight. We're no longer "hunters and gatherers" thus most of our time is spent in the same square mileage of the same town. Due to weak core strength, its no wonder that we carry the same chronic pains and problems from year to year - if we're lucky they don't get worse each passing year. Weak core, leads to weak spine, which leads to pinched nerves, poor circulation, poor transmission of signals from the brain to the rest of the body, unnecessary ailments, etc. More than likely, a NEGATIVE vicious cycle is created (along with more pain and ailments) that becomes harder and harder to get out of.
We spend our 20's partying it up (some of us longer than that and maybe some of us earlier than that??) thus letting our wellness go straight to hell. Then we hit the 30's and beyond and the rest of our lives are spent just trying to MANAGE health problems.
We need a new trend.
Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Enjoy life while you're young. Enjoy life when you're old. Enjoy life when you're in between. You only get one chance. But don't destroy the foundation needed for a long healthy life. Spend your early years developing a firm foundation that will allow you to fulfill God's purpose for your life. No facet of your life will more quickly take your focus from your destiny and distract you with needless chronic ailments - one after the other - than neglecting the most precious thing you have and one of the most important things that connect you directly on a minute by minute basis with your Creator.
Your physical being is temporary but necessary.
You're beyond your 20's, 30's or 40's? Maybe even FAR beyond these decades? There's no time like the present to take a step back from something that's not working and implement PURPOSEFUL changes that will take your life back from the destructive "band-aid" oriented vicious cycle of HMO's, medical mispractice & malpractice, and toxic pharmaceutical cocktails - often more prescriptions are taken than are needed just to offset the maladies that come from the first one that was prescribed to begin with.
Freedom never felt so good.
Bicep curls and bench presses are ok. But how FUNCTIONAL are they when applied in the day to day life of average men and women everywhere? Reaching to put tupperware away in the bottom cabinet doesn't require the ability to perform a bench press well - it requires healthy core strength. If you're not working your ENTIRE body during your workouts, YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME.
You can never do enough cardio to offset the poor nutrition that we have sunk to collectively as a nation. Even those who are "doing just enough cardio to offset the wings and beer" they are going to consume later that night, couldn't be on a track that is more wrong.
Participate in functional fitness. If you're not ramping up your training for an event - choose low to moderate impact fitness for healthy longevity. Your body simply exists to move and bring light into the dark places. And by simply moving - with actions and in truth - you honor God.
Have a strong day.
"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
Step back a moment from your life. Picture yourself on a day to day routine. Maybe you're flying along in a sort of "out of body" experience - hovering over yourself and watching yourself as you go about your responsibilities. A sort of "Its A Wonderful Life" slash watching yourself play yourself in a real life movie type of experience.
How many times do you circle the parking lot to find that choice space up front?
How many stairs do you climb to get to that meeting - or do you opt for the elevator?
How often do you send an instant or text message to someone instead of walking over for some good ol' face to face? (and what unspoken benefits of real human interaction do you miss out on by resorting to electronic communication?)
Although, much unhealthy exercise that is performed is grueling and punishing to the body and we must watch the limits to which we go to be healthy and in shape, the majority of us don't come close to even a minimum recommended daily allowance. ESPECIALLY our core strength - lower back, abdomen, obliques, etc.
In any given day you possibly:* Are sedentary while sleeping (hopefully!).* Walk short distances to your car and then sit virtually motionless while you drive to and from work.* Sit at work all day (barring any short breaks or long breaks for short walks if you're lucky).* Head home and sit for dinner.* Watch TV until bedtime.* Then repeat.* Ad nauseum.
In this scenario, our core strength goes down the tubes virtually overnight. We're no longer "hunters and gatherers" thus most of our time is spent in the same square mileage of the same town. Due to weak core strength, its no wonder that we carry the same chronic pains and problems from year to year - if we're lucky they don't get worse each passing year. Weak core, leads to weak spine, which leads to pinched nerves, poor circulation, poor transmission of signals from the brain to the rest of the body, unnecessary ailments, etc. More than likely, a NEGATIVE vicious cycle is created (along with more pain and ailments) that becomes harder and harder to get out of.
We spend our 20's partying it up (some of us longer than that and maybe some of us earlier than that??) thus letting our wellness go straight to hell. Then we hit the 30's and beyond and the rest of our lives are spent just trying to MANAGE health problems.
We need a new trend.
Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
Enjoy life while you're young. Enjoy life when you're old. Enjoy life when you're in between. You only get one chance. But don't destroy the foundation needed for a long healthy life. Spend your early years developing a firm foundation that will allow you to fulfill God's purpose for your life. No facet of your life will more quickly take your focus from your destiny and distract you with needless chronic ailments - one after the other - than neglecting the most precious thing you have and one of the most important things that connect you directly on a minute by minute basis with your Creator.
Your physical being is temporary but necessary.
You're beyond your 20's, 30's or 40's? Maybe even FAR beyond these decades? There's no time like the present to take a step back from something that's not working and implement PURPOSEFUL changes that will take your life back from the destructive "band-aid" oriented vicious cycle of HMO's, medical mispractice & malpractice, and toxic pharmaceutical cocktails - often more prescriptions are taken than are needed just to offset the maladies that come from the first one that was prescribed to begin with.
Freedom never felt so good.
Bicep curls and bench presses are ok. But how FUNCTIONAL are they when applied in the day to day life of average men and women everywhere? Reaching to put tupperware away in the bottom cabinet doesn't require the ability to perform a bench press well - it requires healthy core strength. If you're not working your ENTIRE body during your workouts, YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME.
You can never do enough cardio to offset the poor nutrition that we have sunk to collectively as a nation. Even those who are "doing just enough cardio to offset the wings and beer" they are going to consume later that night, couldn't be on a track that is more wrong.
Participate in functional fitness. If you're not ramping up your training for an event - choose low to moderate impact fitness for healthy longevity. Your body simply exists to move and bring light into the dark places. And by simply moving - with actions and in truth - you honor God.
Have a strong day.
