Use It or Lose It

I decided to use my bands for the 44 today  – I did a leg abduction with the resistance of the bands.  

I only did one side for this demo – but you can sort-of see that I stepped on the band with my stationary leg to get the resistance.  Besides working my thighs and hips, this is a great balance challenge (I wobbled a lot and had to tap my toe/foot a lot!).  And, of course, I did 44 with each leg!

Then I pulled out one of my favorite workouts – Les Mills Combat – Combat 60 Live – Ultimate Warrior’s Workout.  This workout is awesome because just when you think your legs can’t handle another rep, you switch over to punching again!!!  The hour flies by in a sweaty blur!!!

Screen shot 2013-11-19 at 6.53.17 AMI’m sure that everyone has heard the phrase “Use it or Lose it” many times before.  I think it’s true in lots areas of our lives – fitness, knowledge, some insurance plans, vacation days…

We all know how hard it is to achieve the level of conditioning/strength that we want to be at and many of us have seen how quickly those gains can deteriorate when we can’t work out because of injury, illness or whatever other reason.

Screen shot 2013-11-19 at 6.51.38 AMI think another area that we can quickly “lose it” is our brain power!!!  

Yesterday Jordan was talking about the Trojan War and the guy who suggested that they get in the horse (I can’t remember his name!).  He said, “Didn’t you learn all of this in school?” Ummm…Yes – like 30 years ago!!!  And, I’ve never used it since!

There was a time (in grad school and for a few years after) that I could do a thorough observation of the entire human body, palpating and naming each bone, tendon and ligament as I went.  Now, I can name and identify only a very few of those because it has been 20 years since I really studied and applied all of that knowledge.

Sometimes I look back at all the years I spent in school and wonder how hard it would be to re-learn all that I’ve forgotten.  

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Maybe I should work on actually using some of the information that I’ve learned over the years so that by the time I’m 70 I have at least a little knowledge of something left!!!

What have you lost because you haven’t used it?  (please tell me I’m not the only one!!!)

Happy Tuesday!!!  I’m going to try to learn and apply at least one thing today!!!

Kim