The holidays are upon us. We are assaulted with ways to spend our money. We are encouraged to focus on the big things. I have already seen my first Christmas tree go by on the road so its that time again. Without a doubt, we are encouraged to spend more money on things that are materialistic or focus on the numbers in our life. It is those big things that we are hit on the head with for now until the end of the year.
We are always guilty of focusing on the big movements: weight, number of pounds lifted, anniversaries, new gadgets etc…
What about the little movements?
Recently I was sitting down with a gentleman during a consult prior to his 3 personal training sessions with me. He was a very interesting individual and began telling me about himself. It was great. However, I was falling into that trap of the big movements. I asked him about what kind of exercise he was doing. He talked about his swimming but then about his son and his life in Tel Aviv. I kept thinking…but what are his fitness goals and how can I help him?
He talked about the fact that years ago he was so overweight that it was a struggle to get out of a chair. He is an attorney. He would wait until his client left the courtroom to struggle to get up because it was such an ordeal. Now he has lost a substantial amount of weight between changing how much he ate and swimming. Yes, the weight aspect was about the numbers…
However how many times have you gotten out of a chair? It is usually an afterthought to many of us. Even with physical restrictions that we may have – there are little movements that we take for granted.
- Reaching out and grasping a glass.
- Opening a car door.
- Turning your head to look behind you.
- Picking up a gallon of milk.
- Sitting down and getting out of a chair.
- Scratching the top of our head.
- Going for a walk.
These little movements may seem little to those of us that have little to no difficulty in doing it. These little movements can have a huge impact on our quality of life though. Those that have had to put effort and work into being able to do it…or do it again have more perspective than the rest of us.
I encourage you even on your worst day to notice the little movements. Keep on challenging yourself & allowing yourself to be challenged by others to move better in life. Simultaneously revel in those little movements that began when you woke up this morning. Ensure that those little movements continue to be an afterthought. Regardless of your age exercise in its many forms allows you to continue to do what you want to do and like to do in life.
Lastly…back to that gentleman. After I took my trainer hat off and just listened to him I saw the joy he had in his little movement today. He wanted to do some work on the recumbent bike for about 15 minutes. We talked more about his life, family and his perspective on how far he has come. In this instance, it was definitely a situation where he was doing much more for me than I for him in that session.
