“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”—Sir Isaac Newton
Besides the money, we have spiritual and physical bank accounts. As with the financial, it’s prudent to make regular savings deposits, spiritually and physically, against those inevitable rainy days. In our recovery, we place rightful emphasis on the need to build up our spiritual account. It’s hard to beg and borrow your way to a robust recovery…
However, many of us in recovery have not been so adept at building up our physical health account. This can have unfortunate consequences. While we can never do more than stack the health deck in our favor by regular exercise and sensible diet, having no deck of cards to speak of can be a grim alternative. Nature loves to slap us around the face or kick our legs out from under us, every now and then—just to show who’s boss. If we don’t—or simply can’t—bounce back up from those mischievous hits, we can be in a world of hurt. Hurt that might threaten the stability of our serenity.
Exercising for strength and vigor has an immediate payoff. But, it’s the consistent practice of demanding exercise that will give us a fighting chance to ward off those future blows of fortune. Physical resilience is a necessary companion to spiritual resilience. Deep pockets physically, deep pockets spiritually. It just makes sense, right?
For bang for the physical buck—and to avoid bouncing those resilience checks—there is no single exercise that beats the full bodyweight squat. It’s not even close! As we progress through our year, we will return over and over and over (and over) to this magnificent drill. Repetition is the mother of resilience. Let’s show that mother some love, now:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Cross your arms over your chest and squat down as low as you can, preferably below parallel and eventually with your thighs touching your calves. Keep your knees from bowing in by aligning them with your feet. Keep your back as straight as possible. Come back up and lock out your legs and hips completely. Squeeze the muscles in your legs as tightly as possible for a second, relax and repeat the squat. Inhale and hold the breath as you descend. Exhale as you ascend. Do two sets of ten repetitions, with a ninety-second rest between sets. Do more sets if you want and can…
I’m loving the surge of well-being that comes from vigorous exercise!