Fitness Basics

Fitness Basics

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul reminds the Corinthians that their bodies are gifts from God – he calls them “temples of the Holy Spirit.” We all know that. We have heard it before. But how many times have we made resolutions to take better care of ourselves, to get regular exercise, but then we haven’t followed through?

The American Heart Association recommends that every heart healthy person needs 30 minutes of physical exercise, three to five times a week. Their websites (www.americanheart.org and www.choosetomove.org) contain a wealth of information about the benefits of regular exercise. Again, while we know the tremendous value of exercise, do we do it?

Often we don’t. Why? Because it is hard to do. It is hard to create the time to change our clothes and our shoes and hit the trail, the pavement, the mall, the fitness room, the swimming pool. (It is even more difficult to carry extra weight, to look at ourselves in the mirror, to schedule a heart surgery or to call the ambulance following a stroke…but it is so easy to lose sight of all of that.)

Basic fitness is about a balance between work and play, about maintaining a healthy weight and appearance, about diet and exercise and drinking water and reducing the unhealthy chemicals we put into our bodies. But more than that – basic fitness is about feeling good about ourselves and making the most out of each day God gives us.

Fit & Faithful offers two tracks for basic fitness:

1) The “self design” exercise program allows you to set up whatever program works for you and then to keep a log of what you do. Husbands and wives might choose to walk together. People might commit to attending three or more aerobics classes per week. Others may keep track of bicycle mileage or swimming distances.

2) The additional available exercise programs provide a schedule of daily workouts that you may follow “as is” or modify along the way to meet your needs. For example, the “beginning runner” program takes a person from walking 1.5 miles on the first day during the first week to being able to accomplish a 6 mile run in week 12. The three “marathon build-up” programs will help someone already capable of running 6 miles to, over the 36 weeks, successfully complete a marathon.

In congregations that create small group programming around Fit & Faithful, the monthly team gatherings become opportunities for continuing education in basic fitness. Whether it is a visiting aerobics instructor who helps us learn about monitoring our heart rates or a dietician teaching us about healthy eating, we can all benefit from that which encourages us and inspires us toward basic fitness.