Why is your body awesome?

[weirdquark]

I was reading Reboundstudent's epiphany about how she thought about her body and realizing all of the amazing things that it could do while I was resting in between trying to lift increasingly heavy weights on my squats this morning.

I used to gauge how intense/difficult my Saturday morning workouts were by whether or not I could still run up two long (56 steps) flights of stairs when I went to work several hours later. More and more lately, I could, and I didn't really think about whether this meant my workouts were getting less intense or if I was just getting stronger or recovering faster.

I've been doing a split routine this week for fun and to test out 1RMs on all of the major lifts on different days. Today was 'thigh' day, so I did squats, RDLs, and finished up the workout by doing ten burpees a minute for ten minutes. I spend about 45 minutes doing squats, and there was a lot of rest and not many reps, but I was lifting pretty heavy, and my legs were feeling it by the end.

I finished my workout, took a shower, and drank a protein shake. An hour later I'm at work and needed to climb those two long flights of stairs. Ran the whole way, no problem.

So what awesome things has your body been able to do lately?

[Guest guest4729]

So what awesome things has your body been able to do lately?

It's weird, because I was kinda thinking about starting almost the same post today. Funny how that works.

Basically, I haven't been able to do too many new things, but I have realized that I AM capable of doing new things and lifting heavier weights, I just need to practice. I can't get to a 100lb deadlift without practicing and adding weight, first. I am hoping that by next week my body will able to keep proper deadlift form. *crosses fingers*

[spatzcat]

I can change the water cooler water jug all by myself. I used to ask a boy.

[Rosie]

On tuesday night I managed a 5+ at climbing (my centre uses the french grades for some bizzaar reason) which is the first time I've managed it. Usually I'm stuff on 4, 4+ and maybe a 5 if I'm having a good day. I even attemped a 6a and got a fair amount of the way without having to resort to cheating (Until my arms just couldn't any more and I have to use the 5 route the rest of the way up)

[The Tin Man]

This calls to mind one of my all-time favorites posts ever on this site (of both NF and Community blogs), from catspaw:

http://nerdfitness.com/community/entry.php?1683-Happy-With-Me

For the lazy (but minus pictures):

Happy With Me

by catspaw , January 18th, 2012 at 03:04 PM

For some reason, I caught a glance of myself in the mirror just after my workout this morning.

I was feeling kinda pissy because I hadn't made the 5x5 @ 180 squat that I'd been planning to, and on Monday I'd failed to do a 210 deadlift.

"Stupid body," I muttered to my reflection. "Why won't you do what I tell you to?"

... and then I burst out laughing at how absurd my request was.

"Look," I scolded myself, "we've been doing just fine."

"Think about everything we've accomplished together in the last year."

"We trained up for and ran a marathon. A full-ass marathon! In a typhoon!"

"We hurt our ankle, and learned lessons about slowing down in life, balance, and patience."

"We quit our job and traveled all over the world for 3 months."

"We went from being a long-distance runner to picking up strength training. And we can now deadlift 200 friggin' lbs!!"

"We got a new job, a pair of kittens, learned a whole bunch of new skills from knitting to kombucha brewing."

"And you're complaining because we're not doing enough fast enough?!"

And suddenly being angry at not getting my 180 squat today felt pretty damn stupid. The race is long, I'm definitely pointed in a good direction, and I know how to course-adjust if I want to.

I think that for certain personality types, worrying too much about that end goal can make you miss all of the awesome achievements along the way. I haven't done everything I want to accomplish yet, but that's what makes it fun!

And it's worthwhile every so often to slow down, look back at everything I've done, and take some time to just be happy with me.

[LRB]

I can sling either one of my kids over my shoulder and run them up the stairs to bed (they're 11 and 9 years old - around 80lbs each), and then come back downstairs and do the same for the other one. All while they giggle and squirm with glee. Core, squats, deadlifts, balance, cardio -- all combined into one!

Oh, and nine years ago, and eleven years ago, I grew a human being from scratch. That's pretty amazing.

[Guest guest4729]

Oh, and nine years ago, and eleven years ago, I grew a human being from scratch. That's pretty amazing.

Coming from someone who has never had a child and doesn't really want I child, I find this freaking amazing. The fact that you can grow another person INSIDE of you? That's like...the coolest thing ever. Yeah, it's cool that yeast can just keep growing and you can make things in labs...but to think that I came from inside of someone else? Super cool.

[Moxie Hart]

My body allowed me to give birth, at home. And then feed those babies everything they needed.

More recently? My body allowed me to take 51 seconds off my 25 lap skating time in just one week... and I wasn't nearly as dead as I was when I did it last week. Thank you spin class for that. (Which was equally hard after not doing it for months). I am so incredibly sore today but... it was worth it.

[The Tin Man]

I realize I never updated with what my body can do. Despite my imploring others to be positive I realize I've been having a bit of a pity-party for myself by being down on my physical abilities. Here are some of the things I can do:

-Last week I ran 3 miles with a cold and stomach issues. Almost every time I run I feel like I'm surprised that I did it at a pace of about 9 minutes/mile, which is my goal half-marathon pace.

-Walk up to a pull-up bar and knock off 3-4 good-form pull-ups.

-Drop and do 2x15 perfect form push-ups.

-Touch my palms to the floor with straight legs and feet together.

-Plank for at least 60 seconds

-Hold a full bridge, or do 2 sets of 6 full bridges

-Do a full range-of-motion squat

-Run up a long, broken escalator in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport with a full suitcase and backpack (sorry for the convenience)

This is in line with my recent motivational tactic: thinking, "if you broke your leg, it would kill you not to be able to run today!"

[LRB]

My body allowed me to give birth, at home. And then feed those babies everything they needed.

Hey! Me too! Two planned home births, exclusively breast-fed for the first six months. First one had no formula, second one had the occasional bottle due to pumping/supply issues once I returned to work.

I kept saying it was a good thing my brain wasn't in charge of the process -- I would have forgotten something pretty important, like eyelashes, or fingernails, or a spleen. My body just did it - and did it right.

[weirdquark]

I realize I never updated with what my body can do. Despite my imploring others to be positive I realize I've been having a bit of a pity-party for myself by being down on my physical abilities. Here are some of the things I can do:

-Last week I ran 3 miles with a cold and stomach issues. Almost every time I run I feel like I'm surprised that I did it at a pace of about 9 minutes/mile, which is my goal half-marathon pace.

-Walk up to a pull-up bar and knock off 3-4 good-form pull-ups.

-Drop and do 2x15 perfect form push-ups.

-Touch my palms to the floor with straight legs and feet together.

-Plank for at least 60 seconds

-Hold a full bridge, or do 2 sets of 6 full bridges

-Do a full range-of-motion squat

-Run up a long, broken escalator in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport with a full suitcase and backpack (sorry for the convenience)

This is in line with my recent motivational tactic: thinking, "if you broke your leg, it would kill you not to be able to run today!"

I liked Catspaw's "Happy With Me" post too. These kinds of posts are important because when we're trying to achieve new goals we sometimes get hung up on all of the things we can't do yet, so it's good to take a step back and think about all of the things that we can do now that we couldn't do before.

[weirdquark]

It's weird, because I was kinda thinking about starting almost the same post today. Funny how that works.

Basically, I haven't been able to do too many new things, but I have realized that I AM capable of doing new things and lifting heavier weights, I just need to practice. I can't get to a 100lb deadlift without practicing and adding weight, first. I am hoping that by next week my body will able to keep proper deadlift form. *crosses fingers*

Realizing that that you are capable of doing new things is a good first step. It's what makes you willing to try!

[shutterpillar]

Mine has also grown, given birth to, and nourished two children.

Small victory, but I noticed the other day when I sat up in bed, I sat right up using my ab muscles instead of kinda half-rolling to the side and propping myself up with my arm to get up. Woot for ab muscles!

My body can memorize songs like nobody's business.

[Atalan]

My body can do 10 more consecutive push-ups than the body of a man 8 years younger than me and 100lbs lighter. Two months ago I couldn't do 10 consecutive pushups.

My body can place a 3" diameter circle on the end of an 8 foot pole inside a 3.5" diameter target on a person that is trying to keep me from hitting the target with enough force to knock the wind out of the person.

My body can process the food I eat from bits of chicken, beef, scallops, peppers, onion, and numerous other varied vegetables into my own muscle and bones (though, I am jealous of chickens... they can turn junebugs into omelets, how cool is that?).

My body can take sheets of metal and bits of leather and turn them into a viking helmet, splinted bracers, or splinted greaves.

My body is pretty amazing, and I'm going to keep pushing it to make it more amazing.

[weirdquark]

My body can take sheets of metal and bits of leather and turn them into a viking helmet, splinted bracers, or splinted greaves.

Cool! Do you sell them or make them for yourself?

[bigm141414]

My body can lift 355lbs off the floor like it ain't no thang.

My body can run an 8.5min/mile

My body can now be called graceful where before it was flabby and awkward.

[Corbab]

My body can lift itself completely off the floor from a pushup position.

My body can sprint back and forth around my school for an hour.

My body can take awesome food and turn it into thoughts (and lifts, steps, other stuff).

All in all, pretty cool. Keep it up, bod!

[Viking]

My body can do 3x10 box jumps on a 12'' box, even though I still weigh 244 lbs and it seems odd that I should leave the ground willingly.

My body can lose 5.5 lbs in a week when I'm exercising and watching my calories. (I weighed 250 last Thursday! Woo!)

My body can run through my circuit training and be utterly exhausted at the end, and then somewhere deep in my gut find that reserve of berserker rage for one big push.

My body can do full body weight squats indefinitely. (Well, not indefinitely, but for a long farking time.)

My body can do dorsal rows with a 35 lb. dumbbell -- five pounds less than my husband.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

My body took a hit from a 20 mph SEPTA trolley, bounced off, with the only injuries being a fractured temple, concussion, and a gash is the thigh. The other two people this happened to on that line are no longer with us.

[Bellatrix]

My body has grown two little people and fed them for a total of 4.5 years (tandem feeding too). I can squat more than my own body weight and deadlift half my weight. I can rising trot my horse bareback which is lots of core strength and I'm not afraid to ride the trail bareback. I can lower myself to plank and half plank in my balance class and my arms support me (as do my abs). I can run 5 km without effort and I can sprint intervals easily. I have beaten breast cancer without drugs.

[ZenGwen]

I had a moment similar to the one in the quote from catspaw a while ago. I was utterly failing at a 45 kg bench press, and I was on the verge of tears. Later I realized - what am I getting so upset about, I'll get there eventually, and pressing 40 is already 2/3 my body weight!

My body is awesome because I can now sprint for the bus or walk up the stairs to a friend's top floor flat, and not be sweating or out of breath when I get there.

My body is also really awesome because I can now pick up and carry around my boyfriend. I've been able to get him off the ground for a couple of months, but we just discovered that I can now actually functionally move him around. And he is not a skinny guy! This is us at my graduation a couple months ago.

It's so cool to be able to do that. I picked him up and threw him on the bed the other day, just because I could.

[21katykat01]

Haha ZenGwen I love that - go you!

My body's pretty awesome, because despite years of poor sustenance, being pushed to it's limits hunger wise and just generally being taken for granted, when I've asked it to do all these tough things in training it does it.

It's also pretty awesome because it's gotten super flexible - in taekwondo on Wednesday we were doing stretches, and I was stretched into a vertical splits position, both legs, with no pain. W00t!

And I think it's pretty awesome because despite everything else I've been through, I've still got it, and all in one piece too.

[Mb82]

Why is my body awesome?

Because it has learned that give up is not in its vocabulary.

[spatzcat]

I now have to buy jeans in a bigger waist to fit them over my ass, but then they don't fit in the waist.

[Novius]

My body is awesome because no matter what abuse I have put it through it always keeps going. Broken bones? No problem. 22 years of crappy eating? No biggie. Now it's ready to prove it can throw around weights heavier than I ever thought possible.