Sunday 12.19.10

The Ugly Sweater Friday Night Dodgeball Team.  "If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball!"

I learned a hard lesson this last week.   I should say I re-learned a lesson I already knew.  It's the famous saying, "Moderation in all things" from Andria, written in the second century B.C. by the Roman playwright Terence (Although the idea has been around for ages by different philosophers and theologies).  I've never read the play, but I pulled the info off of Wikipedia so it's got to be completely true right?

Simply stated, everything in excess, even good things, are not always good.  Take for instance water.  We need to drink water, but too much in one setting has poisoned and killed.  We've all see the kids that are just fed carrots and their skin turns a yellow tint due to too much Carotene.  Broccoli is talked about by many to be the "super vegetable" but too much of any nutrient, even those found in broccoli could cause imbalances in the body.  But everybody's bodies respond differently to everything.

For me, recently, I learned that 23 days of Handstand Push Ups is too much of a good thing.  Now my shoulder feels like it did when I hurt it 6 months ago.  For others, too many pull ups lead to a straining sensation below the bicep.  Whatever the excess to you individually as a person, we need to monitor it and scale down if needed and change up things for our general well being.  The Mobility WOD is a great website that relieves or prevents strains.  But I have found that for one of my legs, many of the prescribed time limits for the workouts are too long and I feel a weakening on my MCL.  So I must change it up according to my abilities.  Other people I have talked to have had similar findings.

I prefer the quote based on the first one, attributed to Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, and others (Wikipedia sure couldn't narrow it down for me), "Moderation in all things --including moderation."  At times its great to cut loose, enjoy yourself, and not get caught up in if it's not necessarily the best thing for you.  It's Christmas for crying out loud! So eat even though you may feel it the next day.  It's snowing in some place, so ski to your hearts content even though you may be sore the next week.  But once you've indulged yourself remember to rein yourselves back in and remember for true longer term health and fitness, moderation and balance is key. cc