Exercise...

Once upon a time, I was a pretty active fellow. In Jr high and high school, I mowed grass for spending money. I generally had 7 or 6 yards on a regular basis and did others on a random basis when people went out of town or were short on time. I high school, I threw in the occasional gym workout into the mix.

Later in high school, Tommy and I would go to Red's in Lafayette and work out before school. Well, we worked out a couple of times. We would generally work out for 30 or 45 minutes, hit the hot tubs, eat breakfast, and go to school. After a week or so, we just hit the hot tubs and ate breakfast before heading to school. We told everyone we went to Red's before school, and everyone assumed you worked out when you went there. Screw that. I got enough of a workout mowing and trimming yards that I ate everything I could fit in my mouth and never weighed more than about 150.

I gained a little weight, but was still fairly healthy at 190. The summer after my sophomore year, I worked for a plumbing company. We're talking 60+ hours a week as a grunt. I drove a shovel like nobodies business, and ended up a pretty buff 175. I was probably in the best shape of my life. Those were the days. An office job isn't exactly conducive to being buff.

Anyway, Katie was talking about being in shape and the fact that in her mid-30's, she was finally able to outrun her dad on one of their recent runs. The topic of sit-ups and push-ups came up. I was challenged to see how many I could do. Well, when the rest of the family was safely upstairs, I decided to see what I could do. Here's the blow-by-blow...

I started with the push-ups first.

1st push-up: Hey, this isn't so bad... I would swear my arms used to be longer, my belly isn't very far from the ground...

2nd push-up: Not bad, I could probably do a few more...

3rd push-up: Crap, I'm heavy, it feels like Shelly and the kids must have jumped on my back.

4th push-up: Your kidding, right? Does it count as 4 if I was able to get up from the floor after this?

Now for the sit-ups. I cleared a spot on the living room floor, laid on my back, and put my feet under the edge of the coffee table:

1st sit-up: Hey, this isn't so bad. I just did one more than a certain someone I know...

2nd sit-up: I seem to remember that you are supposed to touch your knees with your elbows...

3rd sit-up: No, it's physically impossible for me to touch my knees with my elbows.

4th sit-up: Come to think of it, It's been a while since I've seen my knees. Hey, guys...

5th sit-up: Man, that's some strange popping coming from my back...

6th sit-up: Crap, this is hard...

7th sit up: FART... (sweet relief, was sick yesterday, would have been a SHART had I tried this insanity a day earlier)

8th sit-up: WHAT is that popping sound. That can't be natural...

9th sit-up: I can't believe I made it this far, thinking about how sore I'm going to be tomorrow...

10th sit-up: I determined I'd try to reach my knees with my elbows if it killed me... It almost did...

So, the total is 3 push-ups and 10 sit-ups. I'll post tomorrow to tell about the serious pain I'm in...