Middle-age man morning report

When in the U.S. Army five decades ago, I remember how each morning there was a morning ritual leading to what was known as the Morning Report.   A fellow soldier friend of mine had as one of his many duties its daily preparation.  

The Morning Report was a document produced every morning for every basic unit of the Army.  It reported head counts of Army soldiers and changes in status from the previous day.  Once completed, it was reviewed and approved by the unit’s Commanding Officer and then punted up the Army chain of command. Basically, it was a daily measure of Army soldier resources, strength accountability and military readiness. 

Fast forward to my middle-age man present.   

Nowadays, I do a morning report of sorts with my middle-age man body to assess its resource availability and readiness for another day of fitness training.  In 2 Thessalonians 3 we read: “If any man will not work, neither let him eat.”   Pierini Fitness says, “If I don’t earn my calories from activities of daily living and exercise, let me not eat.”

My morning report assesses my body and mind’s readiness for planned daily living activities and fitness training.  Nowadays, it’s giving me much different information than a noon or early afternoon report.   

For example, yesterday, upon awakening and crawling out of bed, one of my first thoughts was how sore and stiff I was, and that perhaps my planned fitness activities for the day might not take place.   

My wrists, hands and ankles were sore, and the rest of my body “radiated” signals that perhaps a day of fitness training rest was a good idea.  My previous day’s workout included a short morning kettlebell workout and then later in the day, 150 burpees performed at a moderate pace. 

This has become a common morning experience for me that’s more pronounced than decades earlier.  I remember when in my late 40’s until my early 50’s hitting the gym at 6:00 am sharp, roaring, and ready to go, each Monday through Friday.  I don’t have the physical ganas to do this nowadays.  Did it, done it and gone! 

What I’m also finding is that as time passes, these morning report feelings begin to dissipate so that by noon or early afternoon, I’m ready to tackle my fitness training for the day.  Yesterday, for example, after my ganas woke up, I went for a great 6-mile early afternoon run.

So, my middle-age man morning report is often not a good measure of my middle-age man body's resource availability and readiness for another day of fitness training.

You may recall from what I’ve previously shared that my fitness training approach is an intuitive one.  I’m never quite sure what I’ll do even though I have some ideas and preferred exercises to select from in my fitness training cafeteria with workout duration and intensity depending on what’s being reported in my morning, noon, and early-afternoon reports. 

Works for me. 

Even though it doesn’t always give me the good report I’d like, I’ll continue each day preparing upon awakening and crawling out of bed, my middle-age man morning report. 

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Severe enthusiasm deficit

Photo in graduate psychology textbook of middle-aged man 

afflicted with a case of Sunday severe enthusiasm deficit.

As I was sitting on my butt yesterday doing absolutely nothing, it dawned on me that I was afflicted with a Stage 4 case of Sunday lethargy. It happens every now and then and maybe more often for middle-age men. We sometimes don’t have the gumption to go here and there, doing this and that like we did in our olden days when younger.

I’m sure some middle-age men are still doing the Sunday full-throttle thing, but I’ll also venture to say that many have discovered the joy of a good Sunday sit.

It seems, though, my Sunday sit was more intense, both in duration and pleasure. I was suffering from delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) from consecutive days of kettlebell training on Friday and Saturday after having not swung my bells in a while. 

I was sore in all the typical places you’d expect to be from a good kettlebell workout – traps, back, arms and legs – but nothing extremely painful to be concerned about; rather, nice sensations that I had worked muscle areas that hadn’t been worked in a while from the other fitness training I’ve been doing of late.

The great plan I had of going on a longer-duration Sunday run wasn't going to happen and this I realized early in the morning. Thoughts of keeping it Sunday simple danced in my mind of doing a relaxing middle-age man trilogy of “eat, shit and sleep” done with a wash, rinse, and repeat cadence throughout the day.  

As the day wore on, it seemed like a little more pep started to surface but nothing of enormity making me want to redeem myself in the physical fitness department. It was destined to be a complete day of rest; after all, my body needed it and who am I do disregard the obvious cues it gives me that my Sunday was destined to be a rest and recovery day.

Still, though, there was an emerging mid-afternoon urge I felt to do something like, perhaps, go for a walk and work out some of my lingering DOMS. 

But it never happened because this emerging urge to do something was met by a more formidable and stronger force of something I experienced that can best be described as severe enthusiasm deficit.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum