The Importance of Getting In and Staying In Shape

Our post for this past Sunday somehow bubbled up thoughts about staying in shape. We were talking about the celebration of Septuagesima Sunday in the traditional liturgy of our Holy Church. It marks a tme of preparation for Lent. Our venerable tradition has us look forward to Lent before it "shows up" on Ash Wednesday.

We say "shows up" because in many of our Novus Ordo parishes, things just hum along in these days before Lent. It's still "Ordinary" time. The priest wears green. In the traditional liturgy, he wears purple. It tells us it's time to prepare. We want to be "in shape" when Lent finally arrives. Why? Because we're called on to actively participate in those Three Pillars of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving - and to do something special in each area. If you take these seriously, you know you've got to be in shape to pursue them with serious intent. 

So with those thoughts about getting into spiritual shape as Lent approaches, we turn to getting into/staying in shape so that we can do our best on the job.

At first blush, doesn't this seem an obviously good idea? We do want to do our best, right? And if we're physically struggling because we don't take care of our bodies, that's going to be a struggle, if not a non-starter.

Now we're not talking about being Olympian athletes here, although some of us may take to more vigorous even extreme forms of exercise so that we can hone our bodies as perfectly as possible. Rather, we're talking about what any of us should and can do when it comes to staying in shape.

Note that we're not offering any particular expertise in physical conditioning and fitness here. Any ideas or suggestions are based strictly on personal experience, even somewhat on personal preference. Naturally, these will not necessarily suit everyone's needs or desires. So take all that follows with that grain of salt, please.

With that said we will boldly begin with something that really does apply to and therefore should suit everyone: Nothing happens without some sort of discipline. And "discipline" implies following a plan on a regular basis.

Notice we didn't say "daily." While daily - or almost daily - exercise in some form likely should be a kind of default position, there are all sorts of regimens out there that call for various rest days, for one reason or another. But we'll stick with regular daily exercise for our purposes.

Oh, and let's acknowledge that while most of us likely work in relatively sedentary occupations these days, with some sort of computer, tablet, or phone keyboard commanding much of our attention, there remain some whose work involves actual manual - and sometimes quite vigorous and demanding - physical exertion. It's been a wile since I had such work (as in a very long time) and when I did I was much younger. At a young age, exercise was not as much of an issue. And maybe older folks who engage in manual labor don't really need an extra or special exercise to stay in shape. But since most of us likely don't fall into that category, we'll stick with the majority here.

So it's on to getting in shape.

In a sense, this can be the harder of getting in/staying in, especially if you've let Brother Ass (St. Francis of Assisi's term for his body) lazily trundle around for a number of years. If that's your situation, then getting started will likely be a first and possible large looming hurdle to jump over. Having dealt with this, there's no easy way to get over that hump except with sheer determination, driven by sincere will power. 

For some thinking of the consequences of not getting in shape might help here. There's only one way not getting in shape goes: worse shape. (Unless you're like Cary Grant. They say he never exercised. Bub didn't he always look like he was in great shape?!!)

Perhaps you're already suffering somewhat (or a lot) from being out of shape: The thought of going on like this might provide sufficient fuel to get your exercise engine started.

(A loved one who was on the brink of retiring once mentioned that he was not in very good shape, and was beginning to really feel it. Without getting into the details. I suggested he simply begin walking a bit each day. He never did. And - sad to say - things went steadily downhill after that.) 

Well, we've pretty much hit the wall for today. After all, whether or not we're in shape, work calls, right? But we'll return with more concrete suggestions next time...