Tomorrow is the Big Day! How Mixed are Your Feelings?

To everyone participating in the February Fitness Challenge: We start tomorrow - Good Luck!

I always have a few mixed feelings just before we start the fitness challenge. I'm excited to get going.  I'm a bit nervous - is anyone else really going to participate? I'm more confident that I can do it (than the first year), but I'm also a bit daunted by the challenge. I'm proud of the many people who have undertaken the challenge, and especially proud of some folks who have really stepped out of their comfort zone. And sometimes I feel a bit discouraged that more people are not part of the challenge.

But I really can't complain at all. The efforts I have seen from other participants literally inspires me to keep at it myself - not just to do the kettlebells (anyone who has swung those suckers can probably relate - it takes a bit of inspiration), but also to keep going with the whole idea of the challenge, and of the blog (p.s.  I LOVE getting comments).

So for what it's worth, thank you everyone taking part and for sharing your stories with me. It reminds me that we're all in this together, as Red Green so aptly put it.

Doing the Backstroke

I go to a swimming Stroke Improvement class with my wife twice a week. I learned a reasonably-correct front crawl about 13 or 14 years ago, and sort of figured out breaststroke and backstroke by myself. Pretty clever, I thought. . .

At Stroke Improvement, however, the instructors seem to want me to improve ALL of my swim strokes, and so I've finally realized that it's time to take them more seriously. Which means getting them to correct my stroke.

As far as I'm concerned, backstroke always looked to me like synchronized swimming, and everyone I saw seemed to know how to do it. I avoided doing it. Mostly because of the up-the-nose water. Well, that was a big part of it. It was mostly because I didn't feel like I was doing it properly.

The point of this post is really that I realized something about a week ago which has adjusted my attitude. I already knew that I was avoiding the backstroke (reasons above). What I realized was that by successfully avoiding doing the backstroke, I was also successfully remaining very bad at it. The tiny attitude adjustment sounded (in my head) something like this:

...Maybe if I commit to getting some feedback and then actually doing a reasonable amount of backstroke lengths, I might conceivably get better at it. Maybe even good at it...

Don't worry - I haven't been called up by the Olympics (well, not yet). But there has been a transformation. I'm not avoiding the backstroke any more. Don't hear me say I'm enjoying it. I'm just not avoiding it. The difference is that I decided to try, to deliberately do it, to listen to my coaches and to incorporate their feedback into my technique.

This seems to just be one of those non-glamorous things that requires effort to engage with and effort to improve at. But when I consider my own life, it has been things which require effort which seem to be the most meaningful.

Essentially, I have learned that doing the backstroke (literally) has helped me remember that small decisions can have a large bearing on performance and success. Improvement - at least, meaningful improvement - requires an investment of energy and, often, time. And a teachable attitude.

You probably have your own "backstroke" activity which leaves you less-than-enthusiastic. A small decision to engage in that activity (with appropriate support) might be all it takes to re-orient you.

Third Annual Kettlebell Challenge!

It's official!  The 10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinsons challenge is a go for 2018.  You can read the back-story from the links on the nav bar above, but here's the main idea:  This is a fitness/wellness challenge to promote physical fitness AND to support research into Parkinson's Disease.  February (at least here in Canada) can be a cold, bleak month with not a lot going on.  Plus, it is usually a short month.

Here's what we suggest:

• Use the month of February to take up a new fitness/wellness challenge, or to ramp up one you are already doing.
  
• Do your challenge throughout the month.  Be sure to get some coaching and encouragement.
  
• When February is over, we invite you to make a donation to the DR. ALI RAJPUT ENDOWMENT FOR PARKINSON'S DISEASE AND MOVEMENT DISORDERS RESEARCH, one of the fundraising campaigns of the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
  
• Read through our blog posts to learn about this project and find out the inspiration behind it.
  
  

What we have heard from many of our participants is that the fitness aspect of the challenge did not really end. . . even though February came and went, they had developed a new mindset.  And the hospital foundation was very pleased to have received several thousand dollars in new support.

So, thanks to everyone who has participated and (we hope) is participating again!  Here's to another great fitness February!!