Don't Get Stuck on the Treadmill

Categories: Blog Sep 20, 2015

A guest post by Chad Faulkner.....

 

 

 

I recently completed the one mile spider-man crawl like Tim did so very long ago. Because of that, I decided to take a couple weeks off from distance crawling and get back to running.  So I'm going to tell you about my morning workout the last couple mornings as I'm on a business trip in St. Louis.

The motel I'm in has a nice "box gym" like fitness center. Yesterday, when I decided to go for a run, it was raining so I gave the motel's fitness center a try. I've never been a big fan of treadmills, but the treadmills in the hotel were actually pretty nice. They even had TV screens on them! After some resets I decided to step on and start walking while I figured this foreign apparatus out. The touch screen had many options, so I just picked a decent cardio workout. I had a tough time getting this thing to speed up so I could run, but it also kept yelling at me because it couldn't read my heart rate. It wanted me to hold these metal touch pads to read my heart rate. If you know movement and Original Strength you already see the issue here. That would take away my contra-lateral movement, and that's unacceptable. It also scales down the workout since your arms aren't moving. As I got done with my short couple miles, I looked around and noticed a few other people were holding the bar while running. Maybe they were tired of the machine yelling at them, so they gave into the demands, or they just didn't know any better. I don't know.

But my point of the story for that first morning? Don't get stuck on the treadmill and let it take away your chance to reset!

On the second morning I didn't have as much time for working out, so I decided the treadmill and some resets may be my best option again. Fortunately, when I arrived in the gym every cardio machine was taken. So, I decided to head outside for what I really wanted to do anyway, run in the city. I ran up by the Cardinals' baseball stadium until I wasn't sure where to go and then headed back towards the Arch. The stadium area was quiet and nice. The sun was coming up through the Arch as I ran towards it. Although construction was going on all around the grounds of the Arch, it was still a beautiful site. I ended up down by the Mississippi River before I headed back to the hotel at a fast pace since I was running short on time. This felt great and the scenery was great. I'm used to running in low populated areas or wooded trails, so this was a nice change. While I'm not a big fan of large cities it is nice to visit and see the sites. It's almost like being in a foreign land for me, which is something else I'm familiar with.

Anyway, do you know what the moral of the story is for my second morning in St. Louis? Don't get stuck on the treadmill! If I had stayed inside on the treadmill, I would have missed all the beauty that made me thankful to be outside. Not only was I able to reset my body, I was able to reset my soul. God's creation is wonderful and while the contra-lateral movement of running is a reset, it's also a great reset for your mind to get out and explore and refresh your senses.

Let me repeat: Don't get stuck on the treadmill. It's like running to nowhere.

Chad Ray is currently on active duty in the US Army for 18 years. He is an OS Certified Coach, a Firearms Instructor and life-long learner....

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