Since 2009
THE PRAYFIT DEVOTION
Shackles and Heavy Burdens
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, where he prayed. --Mark 1:35
Way back in the day, I would often incorporate various tools and tactics into my training in order to become stronger, better. One of my favorites was the use of big, heavy-linked chains. Yes, chains. Boy how times have changed. Seen rarely, and often only in shipyards, these chains were massive. Popeye would be so proud. Well, depending on the exercise, you attach them to the ends of the bar (which already have free weights on them) and perform the exercise.
I got to thinking about those old chains recently. See, chains provide a unique value to training. As you raise the bar higher and higher, the bar actually gets heavier. Why? As you lift the bar up, more links of the chain leave the ground. As you lower the weight toward the floor, one-by-one, the links begin piling up and the load you're carrying gets lighter. Simply put, the load is lightest the closer you get to the floor.
What are you lifting? What burden are you carrying? In many ways, our obligations and daily demands -- linked together -- create a pretty heavy load. Family, work, bills, deadlines, grades, health, illness, link, link...link. Even if you love the calling and the work, the occasional rest is necessary.
Friends, why do we stress quiet times? Because burdens get lighter the closer we get to the floor. If the day were a heavy set of deadlifts, then the quiet, prayerful rest periods do a soul good. Matter of fact, back in the weight room, it's proven that short periods of rest help the lifter sustain the workload with greater success. Beat that with a stick. I just knew those old chains would come in handy someday.
--Jimmy Peña
P.S. For the old-school among us, sing with me some Gaither Music...
"Shackled by a heavy burden. 'Neath a load of guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched me. And now, I am no longer the same.
He touched me. Oh, He touched me. And oh the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know, He touched me and made me whole."
EATING IN BALANCE
Scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that the body responded best to a diet that was split equally among the three macronutrients — carbs, protein and fat. Their research pointed out that this type of diet, where you get 33 percent of each day's calories from these three sources, limited inflammation as well as certain type of cancers by acting favorably on key genes. In addition, this type of eating provides enough healthy dietary fat to support joint and heart function, enough protein to support muscle repair and metabolism and enough carbs to power your daily activities.
What else can this type of balance do for you? Find out here!
If God Asks...
"We live by faith, not by sight." --2 Corinthians 5:7
I know we typically end our study with a question, but today we're starting with one. I'm wondering: Would you forfeit your health for the Lord? More specifically, would you give up your fitness lifestyle if God asked you to?
Maybe you're a runner. An avid runner. Your calendar is marked -- not with holidays and birthdays -- but with 10Ks. Or perhaps you're a fitness junkie. You lift, you sprint, you jump rope, you sweat and you repeat it...six days a week. What if God asked you to give it all up? And no, He doesn't give you His reasoning because He doesn't need to explain Himself to you. All you know is that the one passion you have in life -- that one thing that fulfills you and makes you you -- He wants you to relinquish. No more gym. No more road. How would you feel? Sad, confused, both? What would you do?
Well, before you say, "Jimmy, I doubt God would ever ask me to give up something like that," let's visit a couple guys who would beg to differ...
When Abraham got to the top of Mt. Moriah, he was confused and saddened. "Daddy, where's the lamb?" asked Isaac. But Abraham took the son he loved more than life itself, set him on the altar and raised his knife.
When the rich young ruler approached the Lord and asked Him what he needed to do to have eternal life, Jesus said to sell all his possessions, give to the poor and then follow Him. But the bible says the rich man walked away sad because he was rich.
Two men, both asked to sacrifice the love of their life. One was sad but obedient, the other was sad because he couldn't be. The difference? Faith. Faith saved Isaac and spawned generations that outnumber the stars. Faith loved. Faith sensed guidance. Faith followed. Faith swallowed fear. Faith didn't walk away sad.
Now, Lord only knows what He's calling you to do (or not do) when it comes to His purpose for your life, but is there anything you need to sacrifice in order to be closer to Him? Since He's likely not asking you to give up your pursuit of fitness, could it mean you need to carve out time alone with Him? If He's asking for time with you, do you walk away sad because you're so "fit"? Or on the flip side, if you're not honoring your health like God desires, perhaps stewardship is your sacrifice. Maybe the hill of discipline is your Mount Moriah. What is God asking you to do?
--Jimmy Peña
ONE-MINUTE LESSON:
Fitness books and even websites like this one are filled with ideas on exercises and activities that can help you get healthy. But one exercise that comes up on everyone's list -- the one area where there is little dispute on effectiveness -- is the squat. Unless you are limited by injury, the squat can help you in a number of ways: it builds muscle, burns fat, improves bone density, enhances athleticism and improves metabolism. But since anything worth doing is worth doing right, we offer you this one-minute lesson on how to squat well.
Live, Eat and Sleep
There he is. He's been up all night. If you've been with us the last couple of days, you know what he's writing and to whom. He's almost to the end of one of his letters. The rhythmic regularity of the occasional drop of water echoes off the cold walls of the prison, and the light of the lamp is now competing with the small ray coming from a window near the ceiling. Staring at the new patch of light on the floor, he finishes this sentence. "...training it to do what it should."
Paul knew that athletes live, eat and sleep their sport. He understood the rigors, the devotion, the sacrifices, and the quest to be the one to win. If you're a competitive runner, he could've easily been describing you. That up-at-dawn discipline inside you? The dedication toward winning your next race? Paul got it.
But unlike the runner who trains for a race, we train during one. We train daily and compete daily, don't we? So with that in mind, notice carefully his choice of words. Training (a process) it (the body) to do (to act, proceed) what it should (the right thing). Paul wants us to train our eyes to notice the lonely, our ears to hear the helpless, and to deny the flesh. We're to run to Christ, run away from sin, run to those in need, and to do it all the time.
And he knew that in order for us to do that, we have to live, eat and sleep the Word of God. You know, like athletes. The kind that -- like Paul -- train to win.
--Jimmy Peña
For Discussion: Tomorrow we'll finish our study, but as you may have realized, Paul isn't talking about a concern for how the body looks, but he's claiming the kind of spiritual discipline in his life that athletes have in their sport. Imagine how equipped spiritually we would be if we studied God's word as much as we trained physically. That's what Paul is talking about. Are we training to win?
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EXERCISE IN FOCUS: Bodyweight Squat
Many of our workouts here at PrayFit.com revolve around bodyweight training. Why? The reasons are numerous but this form of resistance training can be done by practically anyone, anywhere and at anytime -- no equipment or expensive gym membership necessary. But to get the most out of these exercises, it's important to become a student -- then a master -- of the fundamentals. Today, we take a look at the best lower-body exercise around: the squat.
TARGET MUSCLES: Quads, glutes, hamstrings
EXECUTION: Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, a light bend in your knees and your toes turned out slightly. Keeping your head neutral, abs tight and torso erect, bend at the knees and hips to slowly lower your body as if you were going to sit down in a chair. Pause when your legs reach a 90-degree angle, then forcefully drive through your heels, extending at your hips and knees until you arrive at the standing position.
>> For more exercise descriptions and videos, click here.
>> Looking for a workout to develop your squat proficiency? Try one of the many options available at our Fitness page.
Grace Solves for Why
"But he gives us more grace." --James 4:6
Max Lucado once wrote, "Grace is the voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off." I thought of that last week as my doctor cleared me to start healing on the inside. See, my 14-day check-up was all about wound care -- no MRIs, no CT scans, no surveying his deeper work. He just wanted to make sure that both the scar across my stomach and the one on my back were healing as planned. And as Eric shared with you last week, all looks good. Now it's time to take really good care of what we can't see.
How many of you reading this today are doing just that? You eat right, get your exercise in, take your vitamins. But there's something that's been missing. Something more important. Something...deeper. A show of hands of those that have taken care of the body, but you hear God knocking on the door of your heart, letting you know He misses His time with you. Or maybe the voice inside is urging you to improve your relationship with your spouse, someone at work, or "that" neighbor. Until now, you've shrugged it off. You've done the math and you can't figure out why. Besides, the mirror agrees with you, the money isn't bad, and you suppose, "If that neighbor wants to talk to me -- then, well -- they can come talk to me." But that's what grace is. It's the solution to our toughest equations.
I know sometimes the math of life just doesn't add up. We scratch our heads. We multiply our hurts and subtract our days. We feel divided, because it's not always easy to forgive, or cope, or strive, or to be modest, or patient. But the longer I live, the sweeter the proof is that when you carry the One, grace always solves for why.
--Jimmy Peña
GRACE WEEK This week is all about grace and how our health fits inside its all-encompassing arc. Do you have any questions? Give us your thoughts or post a question and it might make tomorrow's entry. Thanks everyone. Have a great, great week!
WORKOUT OF THE WEEK: Scrambled Legs Tough leg workouts help you improve overall body composition because you are training the largest muscles in your body. And the more muscle you're breaking down, the more recovery needs to take place, the more calories you burn. Strong legs beget strong backs and stronger cores and keep you prepared for everything in life from the stairs at work to running around with the kids in the yard. Here's a routine that you can incorporate to challenge those legs this week.
High Gear
"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." --Ephesians 2:10
Read: Ephesians 2
On a recent Saturday afternoon, my husband came home beaming with excitement. He had the rare opportunity to view a friend’s personal collection of 50 vintage cars. Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Model T’s, some first editions and even one-of-a-kind vehicles -- it was a car lover's dream. He went on and on about this car and that car and the rarity and value of some in the collection and I finally had to ask, “How in the world does he have time to drive them all?” I mean, 50? Really?!
“Oh, he never drives them,” my husband said, “They’re in storage, he doesn’t use them anymore.”
He doesn’t use them anymore?
My mind immediately went to the Faithful; countless believers, each one a unique, priceless, first edition that is now sidelined, unable to be used by God due to health issues. Like these cars, we were designed for high performance; our bodies are complex vehicles that carry our souls, minds...and potential. As the verse above states, each of us has good works that God prepared in advance for us to accomplish. It’s our purpose and why we were born. With our different upbringings, gifts, talents and personalities, there are things that only we can do. But we can’t do the things we are designed to do, nor be used by God to our fullest potential if we are sidelined by fatigue, addiction, and disease.
As PrayFit founder, Jimmy Pena says, “The goal is not a better pair of biceps, but a pursuit of the healthiest possible version of the body He gave us so that we can better fulfill our purpose, whatever the calling might be.” Friends, we have work to do, and we "live" in a showroom of divine craftsmanship. Let’s never again be content to sit idle.
--Catrina Vargas-Cormell
An entrepreneur, Catrina Vargas-Cormell, was one of the first five members of the PrayFit community. Catrina is now a PrayFit contributing writer and Prayfit group leader in El Paso, Texas. You can visit her at www.catrinaishungry.com, join the hundreds of others that are following her on her Facebook page HUNGRY! and check out her PrayFit workout journal by clicking here. You can also check her out on Pinterest and Twitter.
TRAINING SESSION: REP MAX
Many of the weight-based programs you read here at PrayFit are based upon your ability to estimate your one-rep max, or 1RM, the amount of weight you can lift on an exercise one time.
The reason is because certain muscle fibers respond to a certain rep range. Fast-twitch muscle fibers, the ones most responsible for tone and speed respond to a certain weight or percentage of rep max (RM), while the fibers most responsible for endurance (slow-twitch) respond to another percentage of one’s RM. It’s important for people to know what weight causes failure from 1-20 reps so that they can gauge what weight to choose for a particular exercise as they pursue a specific goal.
Someone who is wanting to gain strength wouldn’t necessarily reach for weight that would allow them to do 20 reps when they should be concentrating on sticking with weight that causes them to reach failure -- the point at which you can no longer complete reps with good form -- around six reps, since the strength fibers respond to weight that causes failure from 1-6. Here's the quick guide:
Strength: 1-6 reps Size: 6-12 reps Endurance: 12-20 reps
But research shows that if you don’t know your 1RM, you can still estimate it with accuracy as long as you can determine at least your 5RM. So we’ve provided an equation of determining your 1RM through your 5RM. Since many of you might train alone, and the ability to test your 1RM might prove difficult, this could be your best way to go. To test yourself, choose a weight with which you can do five reps to failure. Then plug that 5RM weight (in pounds) into the following equations.
Upper body: (5RM x 1.1307) 0.6998 = 1RM
Lower body: (5RM x 1.0970) 14.2546 = 1RM
Be Healthy, Quietly
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” --Matthew 6:1
Read: Matthew 6
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the importance of our physical health as a means of praise, and if that has reached your heart, we’re so blessed. If the mere prospect of a new day is reason enough to praise God with smarter choices at the dinner table, then great. Because you’re right…it’s not about the body.
With that said, perhaps the challenge is to be healthy, quietly. In truth, if our health is praise, there’s no need for a declaration of independence from a sedentary lifestyle, and no need to sound the alarm against a less-than-stellar diet. No speeches, no “look at what I’m doing for God” announcements. Practice modesty. We’re called to take care of the body that carries the soul, period. So let’s allow the byproducts of our obedience do the talking.
--Jimmy Peña
WORKOUT OF THE WEEK: Bolder Shoulders in 10
People’s motivations for exercise may vary but the desire for stronger, better looking or just plain healthier shoulders is pretty universal. This complex joint possesses of the most delicate and amazing musculature in the entire body, which is to our benefit because that allows for a variety of ways in which they can be trained. For this quickie shoulder routine, which will walks the line between strength and endurance, grab some light dumbbells or even a pair of soup cans. Trust us, this won’t take much weight. If you need a shoulder smash — a new challenge to set the foundation for a remade set of deltoids — then this week’s 10-minute workout is just for you.
A good warm-up is always important but it could be argued that it is most important on shoulder day. The wide range of motion with you shoulders is maintained by several small muscles that can injure easily if not properly prepared for the work ahead. For this, or any other shoulder routine, follow the prescribed warm-up as the bare minimum of your training prep.
Warm-up | Raise your arms out to your sides until they’re parallel with the floor. Make small circles with your arms for 1-2 minutes. Without rest, go right to into this routine. Rest as little as possible as you go from one exercise to the next.
Using your soup cans or light dumbbells: Lateral raises for 1 minute Alternating straight punches for 1 minute Front raises for 1 minute Alternating straight punches for 1 minute Bent-over lateral raises for 1 minutes Alternating straight punches for 1 minute Overhead presses for 1 minute Alternating straight punches for 1 minute
–To keep your alternating straight punches effective, simply focus on punching to full extension at eye level or just above.
>> DVD: have you committed to taking the 33-Day Total Body Challenge? Learn more by clicking here.
DEVOTION COSTS
September 19, 2011Read: Luke 10:38-42
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." --Luke 10:41, 42
When I was 19 years old, my college buddies and I would base the week's success on how well we did in the squat rack. "Leg Day" was the focal point of our week, around which everything else rotated. Well one day, someone among us -- someone bigger and stronger -- put leg day on Sunday.
I'll never forget the feeling I had in our campus cafeteria. I sat there drenched in my old T-Michael sweatshirt with traces of chalk still on my hands, when a group of students fresh from church joined us at our table. Having spent practically every Sunday in church since the 8th grade, I knew something was "off" for me. My legs might have been growing, but my heart wasn't. I determined at that point that if I didn't get my training done in six days, it wouldn't get done in seven. I couldn't help it. Someone bigger and stronger had set my schedule. And for the rest of my college days and to this day 20 years later, I've never trained on Sunday.
Friends, I'm not suggesting you never train on Sundays, but I am saying to make sure that you rest. Renew your mind, your heart and your body. Let all three heal, repair and grow. It might mean a sacrifice. It might mean surrendering the dearest things in life. But He's honored by what we're willing to lay down.
--J.P.
Please join us this week as we look at our health as a sacrifice, a means of praise, and what that means for our daily lives.
SCRAMBLED LEGS For those of you who hit the gym frequently, here's a similar workout I wrote when I was with Muscle & Fitness magazine. It's based on a principle I've published and preached for over 10 years, called pre-exhaust. Basically, you destroy the target muscle with isolation moves (which are basically exercises that have one joint moving) before finishing it off compound moves (which are basically multi-joint and multiple muscle moves). Enjoy and hit them hard.
Exercise, sets, reps Rest 1 minute between each set
Leg Extensions (5-6 sets of 6-15 reps) Squat (4 sets of 8-10 reps) Leg Press (4 sets of 10-12 reps) Leg Curl (5-6 sets of 6-15 reps) Romanian Deadlift (4 sets of 8-10 reps) Glute-ham extensions (4 sets of 10-15 reps)
Note: Be sure to utilize a weight that allows you to fail at or within the rep range listed. The lower the rep range, the heavier the weight required to achieve failure. The higher the rep range, the lighter the weights.
AN ATHLETE'S FAITH
January 10, 2010Read: 1 Corinthians 9
"All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.: --1 Corinthians 9:25
PRAYFIT QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"It doesn't take faith to be physically fit, but if we have faith, we should try to be." --Jimmy Pena
WORKOUT OF THE WEEK: Shoulders
Building stronger, better looking shoulders is a good goal whether you're a hardcore lap swimmer or a desk jockey. Anyone who has ever had a shoulder injury will attest to that. Because of how critical your shoulders are to any exercise or everyday life activity, it is important to train them to be fit and functional. This short workout works provides a dose of both.
If you have set of two-pound dumbbells, soup cans or other handheld object in that weight range, you can do this workout. But don't let the light weight nature of this routine fool you -- done right, a deeply effective burn awaits. By working without rest, you will stress both slow- and fast-twitch fibers to the point of complete exhaustion. Do as many rounds as you have time for, or as much as your shoulder can handle, performing each exercise to failure.
Bent-over lateral raise Lateral raise Front raise Overhead press Straight punches
TRAINER PLUS: For those who are curious, the order of exercises is strategic in that each move puts you in a position that is stronger than the previous. So when you fail at the bent-over lateral raises for example, when you stand up, you gain a mechanical advantage and are able to continue without rest. After the last exercise, rest anywhere from 30-60 seconds -- but no longer. This will add a cardio element to your workout, providing an extra dose of physique-friendly calorie burning.