One of the things I’ve missed most while living in Covid captivity was going to the gym. For more than a year, instead of working out several times a week, I was pretty much sedentary, spending countless hours sitting in front of my sewing machine making face masks, streaming tv shows and movies or worst of all, baking and eating goodies. These combined activities have transformed my body in a larger mass of accumulated aches and pains.
For a while I tried walking. I’d get myself dressed after breakfast and hit the road, walking up and down our street for half and hour or so and then head back. It was boring. I’m not sure why I stopped, it might have been the weather. Routines are always easier to break than make.
Once I was fully vaccinated, I reactivated my membership with Anytime Fitness and then waited a few weeks before making that first step through the door. Once I finally made it through the door, it was like coming home after being away. I spent the next few weeks working out on the various machines, and attending classes and began to feel immediate improvement in my general well-being. My back was strengthening and so was my resolve to get back in shape.
A fews ago I began one-on-one training with my old buddy Lorenzo. It’s been about two years since I had to stop training when I went to work my short stint at UVA. But after more than seven years of training with him, I knew that if anyone could help me reach my goals, it was he. I was apprehensive about starting training again, but I knew I had to try.
Years ago, in my early days of training, I didn’t know what my body was capable of doing. I resisted and questioned and soon learned that whining was not an option. These days, even after months of inactivity, I know what I need to do and appreciate and respect the guidance I am given. The hardest lesson I have learned in my personal training is not in the individual exercises but in trusting that Lorenzo isn’t going to ask me to do anything I can’t do. I’ve learned to accept my orders and execute them to the best of my ability obediently.
As I’m writing this, I am stunned by how closely my experience of returning to training and acceptance of guidance and obedience parallels what I would hope for myself in my relationship with God. Some might call this a “God wink”, when God’s presence is revealed through something seemingly unrelated to God. I’ll have to ponder that for a while.