Image credit: sandpeat.
Reader Billy asked:
What do you do when life hits you square in the jaw? Where your commitment and focus is 24/7 at the bedside of a love one after a long illness and their recovery takes up your full attention?
What to do when you obviously can’t workout under these types of life’s blows and your diet is going to suffer as well?
Maybe you can offer tips on when life hits you square in the jaw and how to stay moderately fit until you get back to the routine.
The Real Concern. This isn’t really about how to maintain the muscles you’ve built or how to prevent your body fat to increase. This is more about your physical, and more importantly mental health.
Your environment influences your thoughts & actions. Being 24/7 with someone who’s ill will affect your mood. Some people stop caring about everything when life hits them hard, including their own health.
Your loved one getting your full attention is good, but don’t forget about your own health. If you get ill, who’s gonna take care of her? You don’t want to get into self-destructive situations of starvation & pseudo-depression.
When Life Hits You Square in The Jaw. Strength training is a great way to de-stress from life and forget about everything for an hour. Strength training also reminds you that life is hard, and that you’d better get used to it.
The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.
The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black.
I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds. – Henry Rollins.
How to Stay Fit. You’ll have to cook for your loved one so she recovers. Cook for yourself too. If time is a problem, cook all meals in the morning or evening. Microwave the food when it’s time to eat.
Training wise you have 3 solutions:
- Starting Strength routine. Same as StrongLifts 5×5, but 3×5. Replace Rows by Pull-ups/Chin-ups. Drop Dips.
- 2 workouts/week: workout A Monday, workout B Thursday.
- Worst case scenario: drop all exercises except Squats.
Avoid getting into this self-destructive behavior of stopping to care about everything. Get a change of mind.
What do you do when life hits you square in the jaw? Do you workout? What about your nutrition? Share in the comments.
Great Post On Overcoming life’s obstacles - Perseverence’
On the microwave - No Plastic in the microwave - Ever !!!! If you insist on using a microwave please use glass instead of plastic.
Great stuff. I think you could have gone even further, though, to really stress how important it is to NOT STOP LIVING your own life. If someone is sick, it’s good to take care of them, but not at the cost of your own health. Sitting there every moment and obsessing over their well-being is sacrificing your own. (I’m reminded of Rocky wasting away at Adrian’s bedside when he should have been training for the fight with Apollo.)
A healthy body makes for a healthy mind. When life deals you big stress, you can’t shut down… you have to face it head on and deal with it while continuing to press on in your life.
When life hits you square in the jaw, don’t go down to the mat… FIGHT BACK!
What about when the punch hitting you isn’t about caring for your loved ones? Often times it is a major personal stressor like a job loss, the loss of a loved one, financial challenges, a failing marriage, failing health, etc. When those things happen, your cortisol levels go through the roof. You need to find a way to train, yes, but it is likely you will have cut back on the intensity. Your body doesn’t need the additional stress. I would advocate staying with it because for the long haul consistency is more important than intensity. If you are going through a crisis, honor the mind and body appropriately.
That quote is getting printed, framed, and hung next to my power rack.
Henry Rollins is spot on. Everyone needs time to themselves no matter what your situation, I ALWAYs give myself time to weight train or mountain bike. I am like an eager little kid, I just can’t wait till my next workout.
That Rollins quote is awesome. Last year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer in February and hospitalized. As a family, we all continued our lives, working etc. while also visiting daily for many hours. Her condition deteriorated through the summer and she passed away in late August. I started back into training after a few years of nothing (I was in bad physical shape) in mid August, and got more serious about it in October. I found it to be a great healing mechanism in terms of something positive to focus on. I think the advice in the article is very true, when caring for someone else’s wellbeing, you have to make time for yourself to maintain your sanity and physical/mental/emotional health. I think you are a greater help to the person you are caring for when you are also caring for yourself. For my situation, I know my mom wanted this (for us to continue our lives during her battle).
Rollins is dead on target with that quote. My life has been pretty crappy since I got back from Iraq, but the only consistent I always have is weights and I am always eager to workout and happy when I get too. I’ve had to cut my workouts back due to such a heavy schedule, but that makes when I go workout that much more satisfying.
Jorge,
Thanks for your service in Iraq and I hope your life turns around in a great way, but in the meantime, keep slingin’ the iron!
Going to print this too.
When I’m down I tend to get mad too. I can’t explain it, very physically and mentally agressive. I burn myself out in the squat rack or the bench until I’m a weak kitten and walk the 10km home, no mp3 player, nothing but me and the sound of the cars and the blood buzzing in my muscles. That normally sorts me out.
@Jorge Keep with it! I’m routing for you and welcome home!
Very good article on a very good topic. Life is full of ups and downs and a lot of times there are things such as work, school, stress, and home life that we have to deal with and find ways to set them aside and train.
I always try to keep a positive attitude and keep things in perspective. I’m thankful for strength training cause I feel it has helped me learn to cope and deal with things much better by helping me keep my mental focus.
We can’t just crumble when times get hard. As the old adage goes,”when the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
I take a small break and then step right back to it.
The most I’ll ever miss is 1 or 2 workouts.
Whatever a persons crisis, I can summarize in one sentence:
Stop making excuses.
Life can indeed be tough, there is death and sorrow all around in this world. Having a positive attitude is a great thing to strive for. Having an activity to funnel aggression or grief through is phenomenal. But none of these deal with the underlying truth of our time here on this earth. Creation itself demonstrates that it was intentionally designed (nothing as complex as all the things in our world could have occured through chance…just think about the human eye for a minute). Jesus offers us hope in this fallen world through our obedient faith in Him. Our Creator gave us all the gift of Free Will. You can choose what you will believe and how you will spend your time while you are here.
Great advice. I also find weight lifting to be extremely beneficial when I’m down. The hard part is getting to the gym in the first place, though. However, even if I don’t want to go, I’m always glad that I went.
Eating unhealthy when I’m down is my biggest struggle. I try to just focus on my planned diet and know that it will all be worth it.
#12 mutt
Most of the time I would agree with that but sometimes there are higher priorities in life than you working out and you have to discern between priorities and making excuses. For you, perhaps, training trumps everything else.
MarkFu:
No, not true at all. In fact, the words you put in my mouth are quite far from what I said. Stop making excuses means quit lying to yourself. If you can’t go, then don’t. If you can, but dont’ feel like it.. you are making excuses.
Mutt,
Re-read what you wrote. Your words were all-inclusive.
.
But not to quibble, your #16 explanation made much more sense and is far more practical.