Hard Fall
Day 4 — April 11
I did not walk outside today.
Instead, I jumped.
The Hard Fall…I picked up the term from a doctor’s podcast. Though I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure I caught every detail correctly. But the concept stuck with me… you jump and land hard on your feet, at least 8 inches off the ground, letting the impact travel through your bones. The idea, as I understood it, is that this kind of deliberate, weighted landing helps keep bones healthy, dense, and continuously building.
It sounds absurd landing hard on purpose. But there’s something almost dramatic about it… sometimes the impact is exactly what strengthens you.
So I jumped.
The first 20 hard fall jumps left me breathless. My nostrils were flaring like I had just been personally challenged. I stood there, hands on waist, taking deep, deliberate breaths, waiting for my body to remember it actually likes exercise.
When it finally did, I moved on to squat jumps.
The first 15 attempts were, somehow, worse. If the hard falls were a slap, the squat jumps were a full ambush. But along the way, I noticed something weird, a kind of release around tummy. Something shifted, loosened. I don’t know quite how to explain it, but my tummy felt different. Not bad different. Just like something that needed to move, finally moved.
I did push ups too today, but not floor push-ups, rather it was from the dining table, that’s the height that I can carry for now. Ten reps, five sets.
By the end, my arms were sore, and that area just above the chest near the armpits too. But I felt good. That particular kind of good that soreness sometimes brings… earned, honest, and quietly satisfying.
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Though I did not walked outside, I jogged in place, while watching the final episode of “Still Shining” , a KDrama about young love and the particular ache of letting go. It ran for over an hour.
So did I.
I was so completely absorbed in the story that I forgot to notice my own breathing. The electric fan was blowing straight at me, my nostrils were almost certainly doing their thing, but I was somewhere else entirely, engaged in fictional heartbreak, apparently unbothered by the physical exertion happening in real time.
Honestly? Ideal conditions for cardio.
Meanwhile, Gab
While I was jogging indoors, my son Gab quietly laced up and headed out to jog on his own.
I’ve noticed a pattern forming. Every time I invite this 14-year old to walk with me outside…he has an excuse. Every time I do my indoor exercises, that’s precisely when he steps out. Solo, no announcement, just gone.
I smiled when I realized it.
He’s just like me.
We both move better alone. We both need that space, the rhythm of our own pace, the quiet of our own thoughts, the freedom of not having to match someone else’s stride.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Because being alone does not really mean being lonely.
Sometimes it just means you know yourself well enough to know how you move best, and you respect that, in yourself, and in the people you love.
Day 4 done. Hard falls and all.
