Pushed Beyond the Limits

Our Friday morning workouts consist of pretty much the same thing. The six or seven of us play lighting, a basketball game where you have to get the ball in the hoop before the guy behind you does. Where you place in each round depends on how many sets of exercises you do immediately following. For instance, last place will do 4 50 yard lengths of bear crawls, crab walks, split lunges or some other exercise.

Today was not my day. I'm not a great shot to begin with, but I was way off. I finished last in just about every set and ended up doing the full complement of exercises. Last place in our final set had to do 2 sets of 25 punching bag pushes, 25 push ups and 25 dips. I was dying on the last set and Kirk jumped in and did them with me. My body was screaming after doing the full complement after every exercise and about half way through each exercise I was about to quit, except that Kirk was there with me, doing the same exercises right along side me.

Call in competition or call it community, I would not have made it through the last part of the workout if someone weren't there beside me doing it with me. My muscles wanted to quit but there was something deeper that forced my brain to push harder and push through it.

There's probably a good life lesson in all of this. I can think of so many challenges that I've entered into with another person along side me that I wouldn't of touched on my own. Something about having another person there to challenge you, push you and help you out makes all the difference in the world. Makes me thankful I've got my wife, family and friends around me, who push me and give me the chance to move into areas where I'd never go myself.