Family Group Exercise and How I Learned Pride Comes Before A Fall

Proverbs 16:18 says "First Pride, then the crash-the bigger the ego, the harder the fall."

I took a pretty hard fall yesterday, and somehow again exercise parallels the spiritual lessons for me. The more I work out and experience different exercises, the more spiritual lessons I take away as much as physical ones. I love how that works.
 
But I am getting ahead of the story.

 My brother is in town. And anytime he comes into town, we always work out together. If you know my running story, you know my younger brother is now a former marine drill instructor and he is the one who truly taught me about running in the beginning. He helped me grow in that way and every time he's in town and we work out together, he continues to push me and help me grow. 

 So, in our endeavors to hang out and have a workout time together, my older brother asked to join, which we were excited about. And then my cousin, in town from MD, asked to join. Lastly, my son decided to come as well. So, we had a family group workout session, which was totally awesome.

 
We were all on different cardio levels, but that didn't matter. What we proceeded to do became like an outdoor natural TRX class kind of. Tim led the way, of course.

Steve, Michelle, Joseph, me, Tim

  

 We warmed up, we did crab walks across the yard one way, bear crawls back. We did stretches. And then we ran, keeping our heart rate at a certain place. 3 out of 5 of us were wearing heart rate devices. I am new to paying attention to my heart rate. Yes, I have been a runner for years, but I always just ran and knew when to slow my pace, but due to multiple conversations with my brother about a natural method, I am trying to be more aware. 

 So we ran about a mile down to the local park. Then we did crazy exercises, led by my brother. We did pull-ups, or modified ones for the 3 of us who could not manage a pull up (I have a new goal I want to reach now, in being able to do a pull up on my own.) We did hand stands against a wall. We did bicycle kicks and other calisthenics like those. We really did a true body work out. But now enters the story about my pride and my fall. 

 We did what most would think of as box jumps. Only there were no boxes around, we were using wood beams. There was a set of beams pretty low to the ground and the next one up was probably a height just below my waist. Well, of course I wanted to keep up with the big boys - aka my brothers- so when they were doing the jumps on the higher beam, I decided I needed to do that, too. After all, I work out, I should be able to do those no problem. 

 
WRONG. 

When my older brother finished the set, I began my prideful attempts. My first one was an "almost" success. I got one foot on and then another, but not in a stable way, so I jumped backwards quickly. The goal is to do one jump, landing both feet on the beam. It's a box squat jump. Anyway, my second attempt was an utter fail. I missed the beam totally and caught my leg coming down, leaving a nasty scrape/bruise and scratches all down my back and leg (the area was mulched underneath, not grass.)

Pridefully, I kept going, refusing to move to the lower beams where I could successfully do a jump. I was determined to keep up with my brothers and accomplish this jump. It became a matter of pride instead of a goal of getting better. 

 In the end, we moved on to a new exercise and instead of accomplishing this one at all, I moved on with the rest of the group.

 Now, it was no big deal that I could not do this, except my pride was wounded. I so wanted that accomplishment for no other reason than to keep up with the boys and to feel like I was as good as they were. Much of the problem with the jump was my mind. I was fearful of taking the leap with both feet and falling flat on my face. Result? I still fell flat, though it was on my back, and I did not make the jump. I pretty much accomplished nothing out of that moment, except that later in the day I was able to use it as a lesson to teach my son, because he was watching me get frustrated over not being able to do something I so wanted to be able to do. 

 We walked back as our cool down and as we talked about various topics, including my attempt at box jumps. My older brother indicated my pride. When I rebutted his statement with an insistent "No... it wasn't that..." my younger brother called me out, as my rebuttal proving the pride statement.

 I hate it when my brothers are right! But they were.... 

 My pride kicked in and then came my fall.

 I don't mean to cliche the Bible verse. It's a very accurate verse. Anytime I get prideful, a fall is bound to come around. Be it'd in the physical realm or the day to day interactions I have or the spiritual realm. I am often humbled, only to realize I was letting my pride get in the way. 

 My physical world and my spiritual world collide again. 

 I am thankful for the lesson, honestly.

 I am not going to give up on box jumps... I am still determined to conquer them. But I will humbly begin with baby steps and choose a lower platform. After all, I didn't run a marathon the first day I tried to run; I could could only plank for 20 seconds when I started TRX, but I have tripled that now; and I cannot jump a high platform on my first try..... but one day I hope to be able to tell a different story. 

Humility is a great teacher. 

 (And  So is my brother. )

They tease me relentlessly, but they love me fiercely. My brothers.(As they were pushing my hand in this photo to try to shift the camera and it was causing us all to laugh hysterically)