When asked what is the one thing to which I most attribute my success in transforming myself from an average overweight middle aged American male with metabolic syndrome, to a healthy fifty five year old American male who takes no drugs to control lifestyle diseases, it is this; I kick my ass on occasion. What I mean is that, on occasion, I have to force myself to work out. when I really, really, don’t feel like it. Today, I needed some ass kicking, so I took myself out to the woodshed for good a whuppin’. I am not a drill sergeant kind of coach. I don’t get in people’s faces yelling at them, spittle coming out of my mouth Jillian Michaels style. I don’t like when someone gets in my face yelling, so I surely won’t do it to someone else. However, there are days we all need a little boot in the butt, and the best one to be doing that kicking is you. We all have those days that we’re feeling a little down, a little tired, no energy, you just feel like curling up on the couch and watching Friends re-runs. Today was one of those days for me. I was dragging my surly butt around, I just didn’t have any oomph. I almost bagged working out; almost. I figured I would just do some foam rolling and stretching and see what happened. It’s not th
e first time I’ve had to force myself to get my butt into my workout room and do something. The funny thing is, more often than not, once I get moving, I end up having a great workout. Today was one of those days. I started with a little myofascial release and stretching. I hit the speed bag for a few minutes to get the juices flowing. I danced around with my indian clubs, mobilizing my shoulders and upper body. I still was feeling a little blah, so I thought I would do a few double unders with my jump rope. After the first fifteen or twenty, something kicked in, and I was off to the races. I did a hundred double unders and was breathing so hard that I forgot I felt like crap. So I started to really workout. I did a HIIT workout of 25 ball sit ups, 10 dips, 10 twisting kettlebell hi-pulls, and 25 double unders. I figured I would do a few rounds and see how I felt. By the third round I was feeling pretty bad, but this is typical for me. My body needs few rounds before I get into my groove. I thought I might get five rounds in, but after five rounds I felt pretty good, so I just kept going. I finished seven rounds for 490 reps, and when coupled with my 100 double unders buy in, I did 590 reps today. Not bad for a day I was feeling like curling up on the couch. More importantly, my mood changed. The endorphins kicked in and I don’t feel down anymore. I still feel like crap, but in a good way, kind of like Rocky did at the end of his first fight. He got the crap kicked out of him, but he felt good about being done with the fight. My point is that for long term health, you can’t let your down mood be an excuse to skip your workout and curl up on the couch. Sometimes you just need kick your own ass, and hopefully, like me, you’ll be glad you did.
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