"It all started with a pull up"

                                                                                                    ~ Saturday March 23rd 2013 ~

"It all started with a Pull-Up"

Well, it pretty much did...  On Tuesday February 5th, 2013 my dear friend and spin instructor was training for a competition. That night, she challenged me to a pull up and chin up.

For the record, I'm not the strongest girl in the world, but I work out and lift regularly, so the challenge seemed fair considering my current strength abilities ;) And I hadn't attempted either since about the 9th grade, so I myself was very curious to see what I was capable of.

With Chrissy my spin instructor and Justin my fitness guru, both very dear friends of mine by my side
I found myself peering up at 'the pull up bar' in a healthy fear.
Now, 'the pull up bar' was A, resting way too high above the floor for me, a mir 5 ft something to jump to, and B I felt like it was strategically placed in the center of this large weight floor room entirely (at the time) for everyone's pure entertainment to watch as I struggled to clear at least one chin up... and don't even get me started on how the pull up actually worked out. Needless to say it was not pretty nor were they clean. The chin up consisted of much leg kicking and grunting. The pull up... well, I got less than half way up and stalled in mid air with I'm sure of what consisted of a misunderstood, confused, embarrassed and very frustrated look on my face.
Disappointed and embarrassed I left the gym that night determined to clear at least one clean chin up and pull up in the coming weeks. 8 weeks was the goal I set. And for 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week I trained to accomplish that goal. One day I just hung there on the bar and went half way up for as long as I could stand it, for as many times as I could just to feel sore and identify all the areas I would need to get strong.
So here I am, and I am proud to say, that it's been 6 prayer filled weeks of training and I can do 1 beautiful and clean pull up and chin up :) Happy Birthday month to me indeed! But I have to say this, as I stood there off my favorite running trail, underneath the monkey bars I worked so hard on, tears in my eyes, something else was happening inside of me. It wasn't just a feeling of success in accomplishing my goal, or the thirst to set the goal higher (because I had pre set that already).. it was the 'I can do anything' adrenalin that rushed through my spirit. I say spirit and not body, because I am very aware of what I am capable of accomplishing on my own, and it is not much. But in all fairness, the moment a goal is submitted in prayer and confirmed by my heavenly father, it is Go Time :)
This experience just reminded me of what is possible with Him. I think I'm ready to accept some other challenges, Let's do it!