squats

What Will Be Our Legacy?

February 25, 2018 By John Du Cane

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”—Shannon L. Alder

When others talk about us—now and in the future—what would they say? And what would we hope they’d say? What would they say about our character, our deeds, our impact on their lives? What about us would have left a mark—and in what form?

These are questions we mostly used to shy from, in the days of our addiction. We knew all too well that our character was cracked and flawed, our deeds so suspect, our impact mostly hurtful and destructive. Our lives had become unmanageable—and that unmanageability was like a poison seeping into the groundwater, tainting all it touched.

Let’s face it, we could barely bear to face the harm we wrought on the world. We hid from our own selves and formed a kind of delusional casing around ourselves. We made stuff up and threw it into the air to distract and hopefully dazzle away the curious. We were ashamed of ourselves but scared to change. Whatever public contributions we had made seemed to pall against the ignominy of our inner lives.

As we straightened ourselves out and started to rebuild our shattered lives, we dared to dream that we too could still have a legacy to leave our world. That our presence on this planet had not, after all, been a vain exercise in wonton self-centeredness. That we could still be remarked on and remembered for having brought beauty, grace and love into the hearts of others. Perhaps we could—yes—even be admired and respected for our reborn hearts and resurrected character. Something of us wonderful could live on beyond and after us…

So, today, let’s contemplate the legacy we are leaving to the world. What more can we do to burnish its gold? What unfinished act could we now complete, to the betterment of all? Sometimes it can be tiredness—a kind of world-weariness—that holds us back from such acts of completion. We were so close but never quite crossed the finishing line. What—perhaps small—thing can we complete today?

Need an energy boost to get moving on the task before you? Nothing ever beats the good old full bodyweight squat to get your heart pumping and putting a blaze in your eyes:

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 twenty repetitions—or as close to twenty repetitions as you can manage while maintaining good form.

I am grateful to contribute the legacy of my self to the world.

The Trick to Recovery Is Having Some

January 20, 2018 By John Du Cane

“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!

The Giving Game

January 16, 2018 By John Du Cane

“The wise man does not lay up his treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.”—Lao Tzu

In our using days, we tended to be hoarders and takers. We weren’t too famous for our philanthropic acts. When our lives were dominated by the bottle or the needle we were less into “sharing is caring” and more into “finders, keepers.” To give, felt dangerous. We would be risking our safety net. We would be leaving the door wide open—to be stolen from blind. Or so we thought.

What we discovered as we hit bottom, seemed counter-intuitive. The more we tried to keep, the more we lost. We were a fist tightening around sand—watching the grains spurt out from our grasp, the harder we squeezed.

In early recovery, we—perhaps rather grudgingly—accepted the gift of support and care from our new fellow travelers. As we grew in our recovery, we became ever more capable of reciprocating that care. We learned to love to give—for the sheer pleasure of the giving. And a magical thing started to happen for us: the more we gave freely from our hearts, the more we received back. A process we might once have dismissed as a spiritual cliché, became a self-evident truth… A remarkable and wonderful change.

As addicts, we would often write checks against our bodies that we could barely cash. We would rip off our own adrenals with the same negligence and disregard that we would rip off our friends and loved ones. We stole from our own energy with reckless abandon—depleting ourselves and putting our resilience at risk. In recovery, we need to give back as generously to own bodies as we now do to others. Here’s a squat variation that will help to energize and restore those depleted adrenals:

Stand about three inches away from a wall, feet facing forward and about six inches apart. Exhale as you slowly sink down into as low a squat as you can manage, while keeping your back relatively straight. The wall is in front of you to make sure you don’t lean forward too much while performing the movement. Inhale as you come back up.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, if we put our attention at the bottom of our feet and run our attention up our legs as we rise up, we will help enliven our kidney/adrenal energy. Our bodies can be considered as a series of ever-more-subtle hydraulic systems. When we perform this Wall Squat we are pumping the various levels of our hydraulics, be it the blood, the lymph or the chi… We influence the pumping by brute physical action, by breathing and by guiding the chi with our attention. The more you practice the attention part, the more natural and potent it will become. Just like the persistent activity of giving to others…

It feels so satisfying to be restoring my body by giving it the care and attention it deserves.

Commit to Commit

January 8, 2018 By John Du Cane

“It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.”—Ralph Ellison

It’s easy to flip the switch for change—when you have decided that there is no other decent option BUT to flip the switch. There is no such thing, after all, as a casual commitment… We are all in—or we are all out.

The commitment to sobriety is re-committed to day by day. No half-measures. No “just a little bit pregnant”. Nothing taken for granted. We stay clean—that’s what we do. Because we believe it’s what we need to do. We believe that clean is the only way to go, the only bearable way to be…

How do we strengthen that commitment? By persistently, consistently repeating the small steps of healthy habits—until it will feel like it would be an atrocity to abandon those habits.

Committing to a consistent movement regime can bolster our mental and emotional commitment to our recovery. Just promise yourself that there is a bare minimum you’ll get done every day, come what may…

You can set the minimum bar at any height you want. It might be just the one or two movements from Spark Your Day. It might be a round of Tai Chi. Five favorite Yoga stretches. Six mobility exercises. One strong strength building drill, for five hard reps. You get the picture. And naturally, if you miss the boat for whatever reason— and find yourself sloshing about in the water—well no reason to beat yourself up. Just note and re-commit for the next day… You’re still a good person…

We’re into our eighth day of the new year. How are those resolutions keeping up? Feel ready to test the strength of your commitment? Your resilience when faced with a challenge? Good! Then let’s jump in and up the ante for today’s “absolute minimum”.

We are going to revisit the infamous full bodyweight squat, but instead of the ten repetitions we did on January 2, we are going to aim for 30 reps this time. Are you already moaning and groaning? And we haven’t even begun? Come on! You can do this!

Each squat rep, you will be able to go a little bit lower—if you let yourself. When you arrive at a sticking point on your way down, tense your legs as much as you can for three seconds then exhale and release down another inch or two.

Take your time and keep good form. Keep breathing. If you need to hold on to a chair or table, then be my guest… Go as low as you can without hurting yourself. Discomfort will happen. That’s a good thing. Your body is being forced to adapt to the challenge. You’ll be stronger next time round. Just don’t injure yourself.

Here’s a reminder of how to perform a great full bodyweight squat:

Congratulations, you made it!

It feels great to strengthen my recovery by committing to and conquering a physical challenge.

My Body, My Art Work

January 2, 2018 By John Du Cane Leave a Comment

“The human body is the best work of art.”—Jess C. Scott

It’s helpful and healing to think of our bodies as ongoing works of art. We are all creators of the flesh that carries us through life. We can choose to further refine the natural beauty of our bodies through graceful movement, toning exercise and the infusion of energizing breath. We can be proud of our creative play—and delight in our ever-changing shape and form.

All too often though, our recovery is bogged down by shame and self-disgust at what we perceive as our ugly bodies. We despair at the state of our physical beings and would prefer to hide rather than display our “goods”. This can be a risky, slippery slope for those of us in recovery. A self-defeating cycle of revulsion can tempt us to medicate our distress. An attitude shift of acceptance can change all of this in a heartbeat. Let’s take the art work we have in front of us—and today take a step to making it stronger and more appealing. Let movement and breath be our medicine…

A fine body needs a fine pair of legs to present itself on and to move around with confidence. Let’s work on those all-important pistons today—with the Full Bodyweight Squat!

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 ten repetitions—and feel the energizing rush to boot!

I am proud to be recreating my body, each day anew, as an ongoing work of art.