Life throws curve balls, doesn’t it? Your car could break down…you could get the flu…your smoke alarm could go off in the middle of the night and you’d have to get out of your building quickly. Are you ready for the challenge?
Exercise prepares us for the unexpected challenges of life. Exercise builds our muscles and strengthens our bones. Exercise revs up our metabolism, which increases our energy. Exercise gives us stamina, the capability of sustaining prolonged stressful effort. In other words, exercise builds endurance.
Here’s a note from a Shaped by Faith reader that illustrates this point exactly.
My friend, Cheryl Smith, is a registered nurse who volunteers at disaster sites through Christian relief organizations. She went to Indonesia for the tsunami and Texas for Hurricane Katrina. Now she is leaving this week for Haiti.
She said she isn’t worried about her stamina, strength and energy because she has been working out with your Shaped by Faith DVD for two months, twice per week.
Last fall she called me to say that she had turned 60 years old and she was exhausted all the time. When I told her she needed exercise, she said she knew but didn’t know what to do that would be convenient and not cause her injury.
I recommended the Shaped by Faith DVD. She loved it! She told me that she has muscles where she never had muscles before. She has energy and can tell she is much stronger.
Thanks to regular exercise, Cheryl is physically prepared for the hardships she will encounter as she helps others in Haiti.
Here’s an exercise I recommend for building up endurance. It’s called Front Raise and Tilt:
Start by balancing on one leg as you contract your abdominals and hold a set of weights (or soup cans) straight down with your palms facing your legs.
Exhale and slowly lift your arms up to shoulder height, keeping your elbows slightly bent. Hold this position and then tilt the weights in toward one another and then back.
Tilt four times and then lower the weights back down as you inhale. Repeat this for 1–3 sets of 12–16 repetitions. Balance on the opposite leg after each set.
Blessings,
Theresa
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Get more advice from Theresa!
Find all you need to know on whole-person
wellness in Shaped by Faith.
Theresa is a former model and nationally certified fitness professional who teaches people to use their faith to inspire fitness and their fitness to strengthen their faith. She is the author of Shaped by Faith: 10 Secrets to Strengthening your Body & Soul, and two exercise DVDS: Pilates for the Soul
She and her husband, Robin, have seven children and live in Calhoun, Kentucky.
