Don’t Just Do It Because You Used To Do It
September 8, 2008
I heard that one of my daughter’s friends
tried to pierce her own ears.
Not only did she end up with an infection
but she ended up by getting less of what she wanted
in the first place.
It will probably be awhile before she has
jewelry dangling from her ears, I am guessing.
And after I finished ranting to my daughter,
which, by the way, gets ME less of what I want -
which is information about why this young girl would attempt such a thoughtless, not to mention painful procedure,
Then, it occurred to me that when I was twelve,
I marched down the street and Nancy,
our neighbor,
put me on a stool in her kitchen,
put an ice cube on the front of my ear,
a potato on the back
and after a few icy minutes,
she took a darning needle and
VOILA!
Pierced ears.
This reminds me of how how people at the gym
tell me how far and fast they used
to be able to run but now,
now,
they have to ice their knees for a half hour
after a run or
if they sit down after a jog, they can’t get back up.
In other words,
what used to be totally normal is now
not only NOT working
but in some cases, NUTS.
When my friends from the gym complain
about pain or limiting tightness from their running,
they ask me why I think they should give up doing it when it is their passion,
I explain that just because we used to blood-let
in the Middle Ages
doesn’t mean we do it now, right?
If we want to keep doing what we love doing
then we have to be smart.
We have to switch it up.
That’s why cross training is so important.
Not only should we do different types of exercises,
we should do different durations
with some workouts longer and slower,
then some shorter and more intense.
It would be nice to imagine ourselves
at seventy years old, running like those runners
in a triumphant NIKE commercial,
but if we keep doing workouts
that jeopardize our joints,
just because we used to ,
the end result will be more crippling than triumphant.
Find something that feels challenging.
But don’t just keep doing it because you used to.
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