4th of July weekend is a weekend looked forward to by many. If your weekend goes anything like mine it usually consists of a full weekend on the lake. Good food, drinks, a lot of sun, late-night boat rides, and early morning fishing trips. A long weekend is much needed but also can be a little bit taxing. I don’t know about you but after that type of weekend, I feel it’s important to get back on track. Getting back on track isn’t always easy. A short work week should be an easy transition back into a routine, but after a long weekend sometimes it can seem like there is more to do than there is time in the day. Workouts seem a little bit more challenging, and you sweat a little more than normal. The list goes on, but the bottom line is, we have to get back on track. Unfortunately, sometimes this can take a little longer too. The older we get, the more responsibilities we have, the longer it takes to get back on track.
Sometimes it’s not a long weekend. There are many other things that can throw us off our ‘A’ game and force us to need to get back on track. From stress at work to relationships, to social gatherings, school, etc. the list goes on. Getting back on track fits right into where we have been going the last couple of weeks. There is a process and training involved in getting back on track. It starts with acknowledgement. Acknowledge where you are at and where you need to go to get back on track. Acknowledge that it’s ok to take a break and relieve stress, take a few days off of work and take a rest day or two from the gym. The key to the acknowledgment piece of it is to not be overwhelmed by wondering if the weekend was too much, or that the time off added to the stress, or if the responsibilities of life are too much to handle. See once we acknowledge that it’s ok to feel a little off-kilter, then we can focus our attention on where we need to go.
Once we have acknowledged where we need to go, we then start attacking it. I recently had a friend tell me in reference to my girlfriend’s recovery that it’s a “one step at a time” process. That resonated with me and I felt it syncs up well with getting back on track. That first workout back in the gym isn’t going to be your best, that workday back is going to feel a little bit longer than normal. There are going to be errands to run and things to get done. But if we attack it one step at a time we are able to focus on a single part of the process and build back to our normal routine and get back on track. We may have all heard the saying, “don’t bite off more than you can chew.” And this is exactly what the attack looks like. We feel we have to jump back to normal, it means we chip away at the process and slowly work back to normal, acknowledging that each step back on track is a step in the right direction.
There is the reward in getting back on track. The attack can be seen as a success, as an accomplishment. See the point of the process and attacking it one step at a time allows for our focus to remain on getting back on track. A verse that comes to mind when I think about staying consistent with the process and attacking it one step at a time is Matthew 25:21 that says, “Well done, my good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” I read that and feel affirmed to know that each step towards getting back on track is celebrated and leads to feeling accomplished when getting back into a routine.
In closing, I don’t know what it is for you that has thrown you off course, but what I do know is that we can get back on track. It takes time. It takes acknowledgment and an attack/process. Then once we have gotten back on track – we can feel accomplished and receive the reward, whether it be tangible or intangible. Be encouraged as you move forward through moments of being off-kilter and off track, that there is hope and you can do it.
WORKOUT
To get back on track, we can’t just stay in a routine. It sometimes takes a reset and chipping away one step at a time. One way we can do that in our workout routine is to reset and take a day to get back on track. I like to do this by taking a day to stretch. To reset the body and get things feeling normal again.
Go through each block 3x, holding each exercise for 10-15 sec. This can be done as a workout, or before/after your desired workout for the day.
Block 1:
- Toe Touches
- Right Lunge Hold
- Left Lunge Hold
- Deep Squat Hold
Block 2:
- Right arm across chest
- Left arm across chest
- Right arm overhead (pull on elbow for deeper stretch)
- Left arm overhead (pull on elbow for deeper stretch)
Block 3:
- Butterfly stretch
- Pike stretch (right leg extended, lean over left leg bent)
- Pike stretch (left leg extended, lean over right leg bent)
- Downward Dog
Hammer and Anvil 