Practice Makes… (Day 28)
You know what’s not fair? Well, a lot of things, but we don’t have time to discuss all of them at length now do we?! Sadly, no. What’s really grinding my gears this week is the fact that I took three days off from my F45 workout since I was at home in Sacramento over the weekend and have been riding the struggle bus ever since I got back. I returned to my routine Tuesday since I didn’t get home until Monday at 3am which truthfully I was okay with because Monday was a brutal cardio workout which would have no doubt kicked my butt. Nevertheless, Tuesday, a strength day, was JUST as hard. I could tell I had taken a few days off right away. Truthfully, it makes me feel like I can never take time off from working out, like ever! Traveling for a couple weeks? Forget about it! Better hope there’s an F45 where I’m going!
Obviously I would never deprive myself of one of my life’s greatest pleasures - traveling - but it definitely gives me pause when thinking about my next trip and destination. The fact that it takes so long to build up strength, to get to the point where you show up feeling confident and strong in the gym or whatever your respective workout is, but it takes a quarter of the time to lose it all is honestly just cruel. I’ve been working out consistently at F45 since February of this year, building up my strength, my cardiovascular stamina, and honestly I’ve been feeling pretty good about it all! Then, just like that, I take three days away and I feel like I’m back to square one. Of course I’m not actually back to square one but my body feels like it is at the present moment.
It makes me think about other things in our lives that we’re constantly working at though. Namely skill sets, rituals, practices and the like that we’ve incorporated into our every day routine. For example, I learned, well ‘re-learned,’ how to crochet back in December. My instructor told me to practice my stitches every day for at least five minutes. Just five minutes a day to keep my new skill set top of mind and to ensure my hands stayed familiar with the movements.
After a few weeks I dropped my five minute a day practice as I didn’t have any specific projects I was working toward but I’ve just recently picked crocheting back up again. As was the case with taking time off my workouts, taking time off crocheting means I’ve lost a little bit of the confidence and the strength in my hands to crochet. It’s nothing I can’t regain once again but time away from this practice means I’ve lost some of the familiarity with it.
There are things in each of our lives that are skill sets that we’ve acquired, strengths we’ve developed over years of practice, determination and patience. Things that unfortunately can be lost just as quickly (if not MORE quickly) as they were once discovered. Take this as your friendly reminder to keep after those skill sets, even if it’s just five minutes a day. The things that are important to you should be looked after, kept after. Just like you’d keep after your health and well-being. You know what they say, practice makes perfect…