Endurance

To my son Tommy,

This morning I did my little wall push out exercise thingamajig. I was on repitition 45 of my second set of 60 when I realized some thing. Endurance exercises are a perfect metaphor for life and train much more than your body.

Low weight high reps are usually not recommended for optimal gains in exercise. Or so says many of the experts. If you ever need to know what the literature on health training and weight training and such says, ask a fat guy. They have read every diet book and exercise book and such. Though they rarely utilize that knowledge they sure are inundated with it. Some experts say medium weights for three sets of 8-12 for power is this best. Some say high weight low reps for mass supplies the most gains, etc etc. Very rarely do these experts suggest 2 sets of 60 of anything.

I am not going to argue that they are not correct. Physically I am sure each knows what they are talking about. There is science to back that up. But what they are missing is they aren't just training a body, they are training a mind and a person. To lose weight you have to do the same small task over and over. At first it is easy, then it gets harder and harder, and you have to learn to push through. This is the same thing you do when you do endurance training. The first 10 or so at such a litter weight is a cinch, but when you are on your 105th rep for the day, then it gets hard.

This is the perfect metaphor for life. Those that succeed don't just have these big burst or sprints and then nothing and then another burst and then nothing. Those that succeed tend to have small sustained effort, day in and day out, rep after rep, and push through and don't give up when it gets tough. Everyone can handle a little bout of adversity but much of life is adversity. You have to learn to deal with it every day. The really neat thing is if you master this, others will look at you and think you make life easy and wonder how you do it. Just like us fat guys look at the skinny folk and wonder how they do it as we continue our cycle of starting and quitting diets.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo