Raise your hand if you’ve ever taken a spin class.
Now raise it if you’ll ever do it again.
I’ve been taking indoor cycling classes on and off for about 9 years. Off for my pregnancies (and that one time I pretty much got banned from one) and then on again in between. The first time I endured an hour in a dark, close spin room I wondered one thing:
How did they get their feet to go so FAST?
I mean, they don’t go that fast all the time, but when the instructor calls for a sprint, we all pump our legs as fast as we possibly can but I could never keep up.
After my first few cycle classes (and trying so hard to mimic the form and speed of all the seasoned cyclers) I still didn’t get it. Now I was armed with dual water bottles, new cycling shoes that clipped into the pedals and some questions: the girl I asked told me to focus on the PULL not the PUSH.
Oh.
I’d been focusing on the pushing down of the pedal during the sprints. Doing that, I would never go as fast as anyone else. If I focused on the up motion and pulled the pedal rather than pushed it, immediately I could spin my feet as fast as the rest of them.
It had nothing to do with physical prowess or fitness, but it had to do with how I completed the action. What I spent my focus on. The funny thing is, to the outside observer, the motion looks exactly the same. Totally different muscle groups are used but it looks the same.
Hmm.
So now I spin fast during sprints and share my tiny bits of indoor cycling knowledge with others if they ask.
Who was it who said that the definition of stupidity or insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results? That’s what I’d been doing those first few classes.
I sat in a cycle class yesterday morning and I wondered what else I was pushing in my life.
The styles of disciplining my children I’ve settled into: is that a push? Are there better ways to accomplish the same (or better) things? What about the communication with my husband? We seem to fall into the same three arguments over and over again. Should I be looking at us with fresher eyes? And to be really really honest here (because you all pretty much know all of my stuff) I’ve been trying to lose the same ten fifteen pounds for about 2 years. And I know it’s because I am too lazy to give up certain foods I love. I am doing the same thing over and over again and wondering why I’m not losing the weight.
I need a new perspective. I need to get up, grab my new cycle shoes and take charge of those situations in my life that seem to present the same (unhappy) results over and over again.
I need to learn to PULL.
What about you? Have you been PUSHING when you should be PULLING?
Tags: communication, cycle class, determination, drive, focus, kids, marriage, weight loss
Every day!!! I teach spin and am really glad that you have given me a new perspective. I guess I have a few things to work on in my life. UGH!! It is interesting to have a different point of view, now the hard part…making the change.
I am a pusher, BUT God is teaching me to be a puller. To me a pusher, pushes against what God is trying to do-most of the time-not on purpose, it’s just the nature of what pushing does. A puller on the other hand is cooperating with the Holy Spirit to pull out of the spiritual all that God is accomplishing in thier life.
The difference here is that pushing requires a LOT of effort and pulling just requires cooperating-with the Holy Spirit, the Word and the promises that God assures us of if we cooperate. Somehow Satan and our own flesh convince us that pushing is so much easier than cooperating and in reality it is the other way around.
Praise God for lies being exposed and truth being revealed. Where would we be without the truth in our life?
One last thing I thought of as I was rereading what I wrote is-God has already put for the effort-we just need to walk it out.
Of course, you meant this as a deeper lesson, but WOW! You just saved me another year of embarrassment in spin class.
THIS is awesome. So glad to help a little Bethany. =)
Really good Sarah, some stuff to chew on…I LOVE IT!
Call me a quitter, but it took only ONE spin class for me to say “y’all are nuts” and walk away, never to look back!
I’m thinking about the push vs. pull analogy. You just might be on to something…
Relevant on SO many levels–it’s like I can FEEL this motion on the proverbially pedals of life. Love the analogy, but hate the questions that come with it.
Alas, more food for thought.
I’m loving your push vs. pull analogy. I recently had a big discussion with my parents about their discipline style with my teenage siblings; I feel strongly that my parents are just trying to establish who is in charge a lot of the time without thinking long-term big-picture children-of-God. My dad likes to misquote ‘honor your father and your mother’ a lot without thinking also of the responsibility and obligation that comes to us as parents when the Lord is called our Father – we have to lead in love, stay in control of our actions, and PULL our children back to the cross, not PUSH them into the mold we are hoping they will fill. Especially with older children/teens. Forcing them along does nothing, even if you’re trying to achieve the same goal that you would achieve my taking them by the hand and pulling them up. I’ll have to bring this analogy into the discussion if it comes up again.
What a deep, thought provoking post. I did spin a few times about 10 years ago and loved it. I tried it again about a year ago and only went that one time, never to return. My tail bone hurt for a month every single time I sat down.
I’m going to have to think on the push/pull thing. I think I’m a pusher. I definitely have some habits I really need to get rid of. That definition of insanity? Yep, that’s me in a lot of situations!
Thank-you Sarah, I needed this today. Definitely gave me some things to seriously think over.
Thank you for this post…just the push I needed. Without this reminder I don’t know if I would have been able to share the good news of my recent blog post….You will never know how much this meant to me! Thank You!
Thanks be to God!
Sheena