Method Actor – August 30, 2022 (254/365)

I thought I would be able to start working out as soon as I jumped out of bed this morning. I got myself into my workout gear, and I took a pre-workout drink (a tried and tested yerba mate extract/blend by the good folks over at Unicity); I stretched, and warmed up with the usual jumping jacks. Because I didn’t finish the workout yesterday, I thought I’d incorporate the ‘deficit’ of 7-pump burpees I was supposed to do into today’s workout… but as soon as I hit the floor and brought my body down to the first pump (pushup), boom – my sore arms and chest flared up in pain.

Okay, I thought, maybe I should just go straight to the pull-ups I was supposed to do today… and soon as I initiated the pull, boom – pain, again. For some reason I thought then and there to Google food remedies for sore muscles / food to immediately relieve muscle soreness, and soon after I dashed downstairs – I didn’t like the bananas we had but we had a whole bunch of ‘dip-pig’, or plantains (at least I’m assuming they were plantains). I quickly put 2 of these banana ‘variants’ into the oven to bake them in their own thick skin.

I didn’t hesitate because I assumed that it was potassium that my muscles were looking for… and I don’t know if I was correct, because a couple of hours after I ate them, and tried working out again; well, it still hurt, but at this point I thought, enough procrastination, work through the pain – and that was a painful 10 sets of 7 pullups, 12 dips, 15 squats, and 12 kettlebell swings. I couldn’t lower myself fully on the pullups – if I did, it’d hurt more and I don’t think I could do 7 pullups straight with more emphasis on my form. And while I thought that was tough already, my dips were pretty laughable – I could barely lower myself on the dip bars.

The actual workout sheet wanted 30 sets, and then we had to do 100 1-pump burpees as a ‘finisher’. As I said I was only able to go as far as 10 sets, and I was only able to go as far as at least 60 of the 100 1-pump burpees required. What frustrates me is that I didn’t hit the required goal, and it took me far longer to finish what I could; I suppose I rested too much in between sets, that it took me more than an hour to do what I did. At that rate I could’ve taken 3 hours to hit 30 sets, if I didn’t pass out already.

It’s around 8-9 hours later, and I’m still out – my body is feeling ‘okay’, but I’m already planning to sleep a whole lot earlier tonight (1) to recover, and (2) to wake up earlier, so I could get tomorrow’s workout in far before the rest of the world actually starts their day.

Overall I feel pretty frustrated – I looked back at similar videos I was taking of myself working out, and I was churning out these numbers without any problem. I mean, sure, they were beginner numbers, but still, I didn’t necessarily rest in between sets quite as long as I did today, or yesterday. It leads me to think, am I getting too old for this? Should I be making adjustments to my approach to exercise?

Adjustments – again, I’m led to remember something that I wrote earlier, about it being our nature – not merely as Filipinos, or Asians, or part of a certain generation – I think it’s our nature as human beings to react and respond, We aren’t built to be proactive. Now, it’s still a theory I’m taking care of and thinking about, and before I go any further, I’m not saying that responding and reacting is all that we do – Obviously, we have our own moments to be proactive, from people who are recorded as having the most power, resources and influence, down to the unknown father of three; but, speaking in programming terms, reacting is what’s in the main code, while being proactive is more of a function. We react by default.

And while I may not have a lot to go on to support this claim, I only make this emphasis to make us aware, from another perspective, of our flaws as creations; I also say all this so we would not only thoughtlessly focus on, but truly and wholeheartedly appreciate how our Creator loves us, from yet another perspective.

I have reason to believe that God is not only aware of all our possibilities – He knows all that can unfold for us as individuals and expanding out to us as a species – no, much more than being aware, He sees all of it from His everlasting love for us, and the God who is capable of such everlasting love, surely He does so with peace beyond time, and power beyond borders – much so that not only can He know all that there is, but He can certainly do as Paul says He is faithful to do – That is, to make all things work for the good of those who love Him, and are called according to His purpose.

I’m not saying we don’t adjust because it’s bad to be reactive – not at all! Again, let me emphasize that my premise in all this is that we MAY be proactive, but because we are creations with a beginning and an end, our default ‘mode’ is us being more reactive, waiting on things to happen to us more than us making things happen. I guess I’m going this far into it – and probably really going nowhere – only to say that whether we act or react, the One who does know everything is greater than all we could react to, and He is faithful to make all things we act on, good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The One who is BOTH the Beginning and the End is with us FROM beginning to end, and because of what He has done, we are guaranteed to have Him just as much as He has us, both now, until the end of time or our end (whichever comes first) and beyond.

We make our adjustments, and Christ is with us. We take the initiative, and Christ is still with us.

Truly, in Him we live and move and have our being. Christ, who we called our Hero – He’s didn’t just come to save the day, but His salvation embraces us for all of eternity… and for this, we are thankful.

I am hoping things (my body, to be precise) would function better tomorrow. However it turns out, I’m excited.

May the Lord continue to bless us as we go through this week.