My project to design a new fitness routine has led to many realizations than I had not anticipated. I am uncovering weaknesses, strengths, values, beliefs and other significant life impacting lessons every day. Yesterday, as I was reading one of the old books I relied on when I first learned about functional training, I discovered another one.
When I began this project a few weeks ago, I recollected that I transitioned to my most recent fitness regimen about 6 years ago – right around the time my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. Prior to that, I had practices functional training for about 5 years.
Well, I wrong about that.
I checked the publishing date of one the book, which I had purchased when it was first released. It was 17 years ago! Reading one of my old blog posts, I also discovered that I started the gymnastics routine almost 8 years ago.
It turns out that I spent 10 years doing functional training. I haven’t done it since for nearly another decade.
No wonder It’s been harder than I expected to jump right back in where I had left off.
Duh.
I remember when I ordered the first book 17 years ago. Ironically, I had just injured my lower back doing my previous workout routine. Apparently I’m a slow learner. Pain continues to be a primary motivator for me to make a significant change.
Those numbers help me make sense of my current experience:
- When I first started functional training I was 40 years old. Now I’m 57. No matter how much I’ve learned and how “fit” I am, expecting to jump back in 17 years later is completely unrealistic. I’m not a young man entering middle age. I’m a middle aged man readily approaching senior citizen status.
- I haven’t picked up a weight, a kettlebell or a sandbag for 8 years. I naively that my gymnastics and swimming workouts provided me with well-rounded strength and capabilities that would easily carry over to the exercised I used to do. Wrong. Some parts carried over, like aerobic capacity, balance and core strength. But much of my strength, coordination and skills in the new exercises requiring relearning the movements, rebuilding my strength and making adjustments to accommodate my current fitness levels.
- I remember how it was much easier, physically, when I picked up functional training 17 years ago. Of course it was. In addition to being younger, I was coming off a minor injury that had only required a few days of rest to recover from. And, prior to that injury, I had been lifting weights consistently for 22 years. My weightlifting strength base carried right over to functional training.
In my mind, it wasn’t that long ago when I did this the first time. In reality, the numbers tell a different story
When I was 40, I had just started down the path of trying to get our finical lives under control. We had just moved to a new house when I was fired from my job. I found a new job within a few weeks, but was basically starting all over in an entry level tech sales position at a new company. Again.
We were in massive debt with maxed our credit cards, a 95% mortgage on our home, no savings, no investments and living paycheck to paycheck as we had been doing for decades.
I remember thinking at the time that we had much of our lives still ahead of us. I was only 40. My wife was older but not “old” to me. My career progress was stalled, but not hopeless.
I had found a ray of hope from Dave Ramsey and others. I was still thinking about improving my fitness following programs designed for college athletes.
I was happily married. We had a good relationship with my wife’s son. Our 2 dogs and two cats were happy and healthy.
Life was good, despite the many challenges.
Life is good today too, despite how different it is today for me.
If I make it another 17 years to age 74, I expect it too will pass in the blink of an eye.