Superbody vs Captain Lazy
Our body is an amazing thing! It seriously is. I wish I could be one of those TV hosts that do documentaries on the intricacies of what it takes to keep our physical self functioning. I can see it now, me making some insightful comment using words that I can’t even pronounce properly, like Endocannabinoid System. It blows my mind when I think about how we work. And while I love to sit and think about this stuff the thing I love most about the physical body is it’s ability to grow. It’s like the body is addicted to being challenged.
If your body was a superhero, lets call it ‘Superbody’, it would be a bugger for its enemies because every time Superbody was confronted with a physical challenge it would grow stronger due to its phenomenal ability to adapt to the stress it gets put under. ‘Captain Lazy’, the enemy (I know, don’t give up my day job), would have no hope against Superbody for this reason. But Superbody does have its Kryptonite. If only Captain Lazy could figure out that by not putting physical challenges in front his nemesis, Superbody would grow weak and he would be able to defeat him.
Ok I’ll stop my boyish analogy, although I did think it was pretty cool. My point is, our body loves being physically challenged and it rewards us when we do this. When you do strength training, your body rewards itself by making your muscles, tendons, bones and so on stronger. When you do cardiovascular training to a level that is uncomfortable it improves your hearts ability to function. It’s like our body wants us to be put under stress. On the flipside when you aren’t doing these types of activities our body takes a step backwards and gets weaker and functions at a much lower level.
If your body was a superhero would it be the stronger one? or would it be losing the battle against the enemy? Really, what would your body be doing? Are you doing enough exercise with high enough intensity during your week to make sure you body is working in the way it’s designed to work?
In these modern times the physical body has taken a bit of a back seat for a lot of people and it has became a low priority. Exercise is the first thing dropped off the list when we get busy. We need to make a commitment to ourselves to make sure that we put our body higher up the list of priorities and that we challenge our bodies in ways that make them grow.
Our body will reward us in so many ways if we do. And Captain Lazy will suffer a fall into the deep, dark hole of the unhealthy world! (I couldn’t help myself).