Sunday is my fitness day of rest

Just as God “rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done” (Genesis 2:2), human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of Sunday as the “Lord’s Day” helps me enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate my family, cultural, social, and religious life.

On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, I try to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder my worship owed to God, the joy proper of the Lord’s Day, and to relax my mind and body. For me, this means no fitness training and hopefully a good mid-afternoon power nap. Every blue moon now and then I’ll make an exception but generally that is how I strive to live my Sunday.

Have a great Sunday!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

No thank you but I am an athlete

I do not drink alcoholic beverages and have not for many years. 

But I use to – beer and wine as a teenager, then mixed drinks later. In my world that was what everyone did and I was no different.

I remember as a teenager in the early 1970s, Coors was the beer of choice among friends at $1.69 for a six-pack of 12-ounce cans. After much practice, drinking seemed so natural in the world in which I lived.

I got better at it while in the U.S. Army, and even better later as a young man during the disco-era nightclub scenes. But that was then and this is now.

I no longer have any desire to drink so I do not with one exception. 

Every New Years’ Day, my karate dojo trains early in the morning, then afterwards we all join in for a ritual of downing a shot glass of bourbon or something similar, a salute to our good health and fortune in the coming year. Afterwards we all go out to eat breakfast.

It use to be difficult not being a drinker when among my middle-age brothers and sisters. I would get offered a beer or a glass of wine at a social event, and I would say no thank you but I don’t drink. 

This was oftentimes not an acceptable answer so in response to my decline would come an insistence that I have at least one. They were persistant but so was I and always got my way.

Then I discovered a new reply – “No thank you but I am an athlete.” Guess what? It worked really well and I have been using it ever since.

I pass no judgment on anyone who enjoys a bottle of beer or a glass of wine but, at this point in my life, if it doesn’t make me run faster, jump higher, react sooner or perform better during a gym workout or athletic event, I am not interested.

If you offer me a beer or a glass of wine, I'll politely reply with: “No thank you but I am an athlete”.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Something is better than nothing

Many years ago, I use to have the "all or nothing" training mentality. If I could not do all the workout I was "supposed" to do, then I would do nothing at all. 

This training mindset did not serve me well and during my busy work “tax season” from January through April (I’m a self-employed CPA) I would experience "fitness erosion".

Then I discovered a new mentality - the "something is better than nothing" mentality - and my fitness life has been different ever since. I no longer experience fitness erosion, or as much of it, as I use to during this busy time of year. Some of the most demanding workouts I have done with this new training mentality were completed within 10 minutes or less early in the morning so I could get to work early for a 12 hour plus work day.

I personally like early morning workouts as they energize me and set the pace for a highly-productive day at the office where I sit for a living. They seemed better when I was doing volume-oriented bodyweight-only training. Now that I am doing more strength training, I actually prefer early afternoon, but I still do train early in the morning at least half the time.

It is all good - we just gotta show up because something is better than nothing.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Welcome to Pierini Fitness

Welcome to Pierini Fitness, a middle-age man's cyberspace chronicle of his journey down the superfitness highway in the fast lane.

For the past four years, I have maintained a training journal on two different fitness forum websites. I've created this new blog to continue my cyberspace training journal, and to record anything else I have on my mind for my archival benefit and for the benefit or disadvantage of anyone else who happens to stumble across Pierini Fitness.

Read at your own risk. I make no guarantees and I do not profess myself to be an expert at anything other than my own pursuit of my own destiny.