Me 'n my boys!

Something happened with Connor  over the past few days that really amazed me…

I try to exercise every week.  With work and the time it takes to study with, cook for, read scriptures, and raise these two little boys it doesn’t always happen.  But I try to.  And when it comes time to get some exercise, they almost always beg to join me, so we usually head downstairs to the gym  all together.  

Our routine usually consists of me trying to get my workout, while the boys play around the gym, sometimes riding on the treadmill, sometimes crawling up the dip and pullup station like a jungle gym, and sometimes just dancing around the room to the music.  In the end, however, they always get in a little exercise...

You see, they love the Proflex protein drink that comes after the workout.  They love it.  But I’ve told them, the protein drink is only for people who exercise, for them that means pushups, and they always ask me how many push ups they need to do.  For Connor, it’s usually 20, and for Rocky it’s 10.   They do their pushups near the end the session and then we all go upstairs to have some Proflex. 

Well, 3 evenings ago it had been several days since we’d exercised, so we all went downstairs to hit the gym.  Pretty routine… We were all having a good time…  Connor had asked me how many pushups he needed to do, and since he had completed 25 last week without much of a problem, I told him 30. When it came time for the boys to earn their Profex drink, Connor started off a little upset, because he’d said he had already done 6 pushups earlier.  Wanting to teach him the importance of doing the excersize consecutively, I told him we needed to start over.  So, although reluctant at first, he got started…

He did 5, then 10, then 15.  Got up to 20, then 25.  When he hit 30 he was still going strong, so asked him if he thought he could get to 40?  He got this little smile on his face, picked up the pace just a bit, and continued to 37, 38, 39 and 40!  And he was still cruising!  So I told him he could earn some ice cream if he could make it to 50.  Now with a full on grin, he continued to 45, 46, 47, 48….  now slowing down just a bit…  49… and 50!!! 

That’s right, that little guy did 50 pushups straight!!!  I couldn’t believe it! 

But that’s not the end of it!  Two days later we hit the gym again.  Grandpa was walking on one of the treadmills and Connor decided to walk along side.  I was getting my workout done, and Connor all of the sudden said,  “I’m going to get strong today, Dad!” and turned up the treadmill to a level 5 and started running at a pretty good pace for a 7 year old.  I watched him for a bit, and when he got to 3 minutes, I said “Wow, Connor!!! That’s 3 minutes, good job!  Do you think you can do 5?”  “You bet, Dad!” and sure enough, he kept going till 5 minutes, then 6, 7, 8, 9, and then 10 minutes!!!  Then, he did something that blew me away.  He’d gone about 8/10 of a mile already, and he turned up the machine to level 6 and kept going!  He kept going till he’d run a full mile!!!!  And he did it in under 12 minutes!    I was so proud!!!  I had to laugh, though when he got off the treadmill and started feeling his bicep to see if it had grown at all. 

But that wasn’t the end for Connor that day.  He did several sets of pull ups, used the ab roller several times, and used the dumbbells too.  He was going to town!!  He did it all with this amazing determined little smile on his face.  I’ve never seen such determination in a 7 year old before.  It’s a reminder  to me that you can accomplish amazing things if you’ll just set your mind to it.   Inspiration from these little guys never seems to stop.  What a blessing it is to have them!