Jumping Rope and Yoga

What leaving lethargy behind has reframed in my world...

Over the past few months I’ve re-engaged physical exercise. And I’m doing it with gusto. This is on the heels of COVID era lethargy, depression, and excessive day drinking. Before that winning combination I was actually in really good shape. I used to work out everyday and I felt great. It paid daily dividends. Getting back to it after a few years of neglect hasn’t been easy, especially since the aging process rolled and took its toll, as did general atrophy. But there have been some surprises along the way.

I’m not any younger and I feel that acutely. But my body is continuing to surprise me. Its return to form hasn’t been instant for sure, but it’s happening and at a rate and level I didn’t expect. A few months ago I was running up and down flights of steps to get started, and I was sucking generous amounts of wind doing it. I was stretching everyday. I was in a fight just to touch my toes again. But day by day I was sucking less wind and my muscles ever so slowly started feeling like they were made of organic material again.

Then came the push ups. I found an app that guaranteed that it could get you to doing 100 push ups in one session from any level of fitness. It took weeks but the app delivered. I could do 100 push ups in five sets with just 90 second breaks in between. Midway through the push up routine I bought a jump rope for 5 bucks. Now that was a great investment! My 90 second breaks were now peppered with jumping some rope. Then jumping rope preceded and followed the push ups. Then came cooling down with yoga.

The yoga was a game changer. Slowly but surely the stiffness I accepted as part of the new normal began to give way to flexibility. And I began to not dread the yoga. Instead of watching Netflix while I did it, I actually started listening to the breath instructions and found myself a little grounded. I wasn’t sore after my workouts and I felt better going into the day.

Then I got brave! I figured fortune favors the foolish. So I recently downloaded a workout I used to do when I was in shape, and I found it grueling then. It has the word “INSANITY” in the title. It’s been extremely challenging and soreness came back with a vengeance. But the yoga helped, and the jumping rope and push ups laid a foundation. It’s a 60 day program, but I can imagine finishing it. And I can imagine new challenges after that.

I don’t normally spend a lot of time creating content about fitness. But I’ve noticed how the journey has awakened my imagination. I can imagine feeling this way, doing that activity, I imagine looking different, and then I notice people are saying that I do look different.

A religious psychologist Paul Tripp once remarked that in his experience people really struggling don’t need information, they need imagination. I see this in my journey to recover from years of inactivity, depression, and bad habits. I needed to imagine that being in a different place was different. I had information about working out. I’m friends with fitness professionals. I’ve read a lot about exercise science. But I needed to be able to imagine that moving, sweating, stretching, aching, pushing through pain all could come together and make a different reality, one that I was invited to inhabit.

Don’t get me wrong. Limitations are real. I’m not going to be able to do what I could do 10 or 12 years ago. At least I don’t think so. But I’m already surprised at what I can do now and how I feel after just a few months. Patience and perseverance are opening up possibilities I just DIDN’T IMAGINE.

I’m wondering what else imagination could open up for me. What self-defeating stories and frustrating behaviors needn’t inevitably be part of the landscape of my story with the help of some imaginative leaps? I’ve had lots of despairing talks with friends lately who don’t know what to do with the current political and cultural realities in America. How could the grace of imagination change the tone of these conversations and open up space to hope, dream and believe? What seemingly intractable societal trends and problems could look and maybe even be different with some imaginative disruption? I don’t know. But I do know I’m going to keep jumping rope and doing yoga.