Strengthening Muscles

Last Wednesday I started a total body conditioning class that runs Mondays and Wednesday at 6:00 AM until 7:00 AM at my local Parks and Recreation Department. Since it was also the first day of the school year, I only stayed for the first half of the hour long class. My desire to be home and get a picture of my youngest on the first day of her last year of high school preempted my desire to be fit. I could not be two places at once.

This class is intense. There is lunging and jumping jacking, weight lifting and band stretching. It is a nonstop hard core, everything is going to hurt workout. My measly half hour of working out that first morning left me feeling sorry for the women that did not leave after a half hour…every part of me was sore. After one half hour I was already feeling like I had never before used a single muscle in my body.

This morning I shared my pain with the instructor and the rest of the class. I also shared with them how I marveled at their bravery for returning. I felt I had barely made it out alive and they had hung in there for the whole hour. They all laughed at me and said they had been sore too, but having the weekend to recover had helped. Then we got down to business and worked out. Towards the end of class, the instructor shared that no matter how sore we were, we should keep coming. That when we skipped class thinking we were helping ourselves heal we were only making it worse. She also said that by hanging in there and keeping at it the workout would get easier and the pain would subside.

I thought about what our instructor had said on the way home. Isn't that how life works too? If you hang in there and keep at it, almost anything will get easier the new job, the stressful family situation, dealing with a difficult person. I have always told my girls that the tough stuff in life is there to teach us and if we don’t walk through it, it will come back around again until we learn the lesson. I realized this morning that the tough stuff in life builds are emotional muscle. That by staying at it and making your way through it and not skipping it, we build ourselves into people that have the strength to handle most anything.

I am determined to stick with this class for the remaining seven weeks. I am not going to lie and tell you I like being sore, but I will tell you I do feel good about the accomplishment. It is two hours out of my week that is teaching me that the hard stuff can pay off. I am strengthening my emotional and physical muscles and the pain is worth it.