THE WAIT ROOM:
TRAINING FOR LIFE
We planned the trip, coordinated the itinerary down to the last detail with the friends we were visiting, and packed on Saturday for a Wednesday departure. Late Sunday afternoon, my husband drove me to the emergency room. I spent the next two nights in the hospital. By Monday afternoon, it was clear to everyone but me that we would not be boarding a plane on Wednesday. Three months later, we planned the trip and coordinated the itinerary down to the last detail—again. His bags were packed by Friday morning for a Wednesday departure. Early Friday afternoon, our friend’s name flashed on my phone. Her voice was less than steady: “We are standing outside our building. We just experienced an earthquake.” By Saturday morning, everyone but my husband knew we wouldn’t board that plane. The four of us settled into the truth that our wait was not over. All we could do was pick up the weight of planning again.
On the weekend we should have been traveling, I began thinking about W-A-I-T training and W-E-I-G-H-T training, which I get to do almost every day. They have a lot in common.
Both begin in the right head space. Effective waiting means accepting what we can’t control and choosing our attitude; it does not mean doing nothing. Weight training asks the same: show up at the gym with a can-do attitude. Both require practice, persistence, and patience. Complaining won’t shorten the road to your strength goal or to the end of the wait. Stay the course; it’s the only way through. And don’t go alone. Find a community or a partner to help you lift the weight (pounds or wait).
Now for the truth: none of us like to wait or to weight train. Strengthening the body is a choice—one all who are able should choose. Wait training is most often not…things happen. Weight training can end; wait training never does. Wait is always poised and ready to interrupt. Frustrating and powerless as it may feel, W-A-I-T training transforms us in ways we may not recognize until the wait is over. W-E-I-G-H-T training transforms the body’s form, endurance, and shape, and science tells us strong bodies enjoy a better quality of life as they age. Both the waiting and the weights are worth it.
I hope our third planned visit will end the wait to see our friends, and I know it will be sweeter because of the delay. I’ve learned that the season of wait training is a good season for weight training. I recently carried two fifty-pound kettlebells at the gym, and my delayed plans gave me space to support a friend facing difficult challenges. The wait made me stronger in more ways than one.
READ, WAIT FOR THIS THOUGHT TO ENLIGHTEN---Joseph Campbell, “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
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