“Good Things Come To He Who Waits??”
Really? An Old Wives Tale if ever there was one.
Do you know anyone who has earned a promotion at your workplace by simply waiting for the Powers That Be to notice his awesome skills and work ethic?
No? Me neither.
It should be, “Good Things Come To He Who Waits In Readiness.”
Perhaps it once was, and everyone knew you had to be ready, willing, and most of all able, before you started to wait.
A hunter waiting for a deer to enter his sights, a fisherman casting his nets, or a farmer planting his crop.
They did their due diligence and made themselves ready, the farmer waiting for rain, the hunter waiting for prey, and the fisherman waiting for the tell-tale sign that his nets are full.
The Fitness Waiting Room
There is a kernel of truth to be found in most, if not all, Old Wives Tales, they didn’t grow to be Old Wives by being ignorant of life’s mysteries.
You Can Wait Your Way To Fitness!!
How? You might ask, no, you should ask.
Don’t misunderstand , you can’t just wait for fitness to happen, you have to take proactive steps to bring your fitness goals to fruition, otherwise you are living in the Land of “What If?”
The best way to explain the concept of Waiting Your Way To Fitness is with a personal experience of mine, somewhat painful for me to relate, but pain tells us we’re alive, gives us direction to alleviate the pain.
After losing my job in 2008 there weren’t many prospects for a newly Unemployed Middle Aged Man, no, make that there weren’t any prospects for a Middle Aged Man, too skilled or not skilled enough, and so many hungry, fresh-faced College Grads eager to start at the bottom and work their way up the Corporate Ladder.
I turned to the Internet to look for other opportunities.
I was in pretty good shape in 2008, 30 inch waist, muscular, with excellent stamina, I decided to build a Fitness Website to sell Fitness related Products. Unfortunately there is a very long and hard Learning Curve to ride before you have the skills to do all those wonderful things online.
I dug in, studied hard for any where from ten to sixteen hours a day to learn my new craft.
I started to skip a work out here and there, no matter, I told myself, I’m still strong, I can afford to slack off a little.
Three years later I had the skills I needed to build my Fitness Site properly, too bad I also had acquired a keg where my former Four Pack used to sit.
My strength had increased quite a bit, my chest, shoulders and arms have never been bigger or stronger, no wonder it was so easy to not see the bulging belly below.
In 2008 I weighed 190 pounds and bench pressed 180 pounds, very close to my weight. By January of 2011 I was a massive, for my frame, 225 pounds and was bench pressing 220 pounds.
I was finally skillful enough to build my Fitness site, but who would possibly believe a 225 pound man with a 38 inch waist knew squat about getting in or staying in shape.
Time to ‘lose’ the weight.
Our bodies change over the years and ‘Middle Age Spread’ had hit me hard and unaware. Not only that, my obsession with learning Internet Skills, all those long days in a computer chair had drastically shortened my hamstrings so that not only could I no longer tough my toes, I could barely reach past my knees with my legs straight.
I started the long road back. I began by taking progressively longer walks with my Brother’s dog, three miles was a ‘short’ walk, my legs got stronger, my breath improved, and my weight stayed the same. I was burning fat and rebuilding my leg muscles.
As anyone who has ever tried to ‘lose’ weight knows you can’t starve it off, your body will compensate by becoming more efficient at using every erg of energy you consume.
In May of 2011 I stumbled on a technique that let me drop, not ‘lose’, 40 pounds in an amazingly short time, details are on my About Page.
By the end of June 2011 I was back at 185 pounds, but my waist was now 32 inches, not my previous 30 inches, better, but not nearly good enough.
I put over 400 miles on my mountain bike that Summer, to no avail, I was stuck at 185 pounds, better than 225 pounds, but….
May is my new, first, and only favorite month. May of this year, 2012, I took a good, hard look at my abs, my Ab Wheel was flattening my upper abs, my lower abs, not so much.
Not wanting to do endless floor work for my abs I designed a regimen of stretching and calisthenics to flatten my lower abs. The work I do on the floor is multi-purpose, the Ab Wheel is great for my lower back and the leg raises increase my flexibility. Works like GangBusters. 25 pounds dropped in about seven weeks.
What does this have to do with Waiting Your Way To Fitness?
Well, like many other people these days I’m a struggling Internet Marketer, and I can’t always afford my wireless Internet fees.
I go to the Local Library to use their Internet. The Highland Township Library has three private study rooms, first come, first served.
When I need to use one of the private rooms I get there fifteen minutes or so early. I’m once again in darn good shape, and not only for my fifty years on this Earth. I just can’t see sitting on my no longer fat backside waiting for the doors to open.
While other people are waiting by the door I walk around the parking lot, that wayI get ten to fifteen minutes of calorie burning exercise, every little bit helps me to attain my fitness goals.
So, while you can’t get in better shape by waiting for it to ‘just happen’, you can, and should, use any time spent waiting for an appointment to do something mildly physical to burn off some excess calories. Pace the room, do standing squats, something, anything that makes your body move.
BTW, at the time of this writing I weigh 161 pounds and bench press 210 pounds, yes, I am now proportionally stronger than I have ever been in my life, even in my youth, when I worked at heavy construction jobs.