A Physical Transformation of Biblical Proportions

11/11/08 Posted in News  |  0 Comments

The weather was a little foul yesterday for our church’s weekly exercise class, so, in preference to running laps in the rain, we stayed inside to do a little light weightlifting.  We began, sitting on gym balls, doing leg raises, sit-ups, push-ups, crunches, and what-have-you’s.  Then they got out the weights:  the light, little 5-and-10-pound chrome dumbbell jobbies–for the  “little, light, weightlifting” I was telling you about.

We started out well with the military presses.  Except that it’s been several years since I’ve sat down to press a weight.  I tried a couple reps seated, but the gym ball was rolling out from under me; so I abandoned class etiquette and stood for the remainder of the set.  The instructor counted off twelve reps.  I did O.K.  with my 35 pound kettlebells on the first set (it was bring your own weights day), but found myself in the old “dragging a cannon to a gunfight” situation:  the reason people do high reps with light weights is that they stick with light weights so they can do high reps.  Okay, no problem:  I’ll just do alternates or singles or whatever–five on the left, five on the right.  So we can all finish together.

After the three sets, it was on to tricep kickbacks, and bicep curls.

Now the thing that I like about the military press is that it’s all covered in there.  Start with palms towards chest, turn them out to face front, while pushing away the weight and locking out at the top; works the shoulders and the triceps, as well as the pectorals, which also happen to belong to the shoulder group.  Now actively pulling the weight downwards, works the lat, shoulder and the biceps.  Simple!  Right?

So why are we now isolating the biceps that already got worked, already?  (I realize that last phrase was a redundancy, but so is a biceps curl after you’ve already done military presses.  And so are triceps kickbacks–which is probably why they’re called kickbacks.) 

Yes, I think I could do biceps curls with my kettlebells–maybe, even, kickbacks.  But it’s against my religion–it’s in the Bible, even:  “…the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”  Ephesians 4:16

A clean, a press, a squat, a lunge–are essentially, acts of love.  The muscles, bones, and nervous system, build a living edifice, not only wonderful to behold, but capable of lifting a laughing grandchild into the air, or helping to move your grown-up kids’ furniture to their new house.  Or even to scale the partition that divides your neighbor’s side of the garage from your’s, and slip through that 12-inch space at the top, after you remembered you’d forgotten your house key.  (These things happen.)

In the meantime, I’m biting my tongue:  I’m good for curls and kickbacks; but I’m even better for a couple more rounds of cleans and presses, while the rest of ‘em do their own thing.  I’m biding my time as well:  next week, I get to lead the class!