Casting Bread on the Water

[Greg Newton]

I don't know where that saying came from, but I always thought it meant what you spread returned to you. Today one of my fire fighting students from last year came to see me. When he was my student I got John away from the weights and got him hooked on pushups and situps.

John has the thick boned red-headed Irish look, but today I noticed his shoulders, arms and chest were bigger since I'd seen him this summer. At 5-11, he was probably going a solid and muscular 200.

I asked him what he'd been doing and he told me that he'd been doing 100-200 pushups and situps a day in sets like I'd taught him. He'd even been using the Perfect Pushup handles I'd given him, and he could do an all out set of 75 with them if he pushed himself. He said it saved him a lot of time to stay in shape like this. Needless to say, It made my day.

[MikeNY]

gtlaau it is a expression from the Bible Eccl 11:1-6

[farrout]

Hey Greg,

Thank you for sharing.

You have planted a seed & now it has grown, that's AWESOME!

Let's take Transformetrics to the whole world!

Take care,
Steve

[Greg Newton]

Hey guys thanks! And Steve it is good to see you around!

There is another student I've high hopes for this year. Hershel has been a large, good natured pudge pocket since I had him as a sophomore three years ago. He desperately wants to be a fire fighter however. Sometimes his class does the Powerflex DVD for their physical training, so I gave him the Powerflex DVD and gave him the instructions to do the chest workout everyday and add one of each of the other workouts in sequence during the week.

So far so good. He appears to be losing weight and when we were doing defensive tactics in the law enforcement class, which he also attends, I noticed he was a lot stronger. I'm hoping he'll keep it up until graduation. He is very responsible and is very knowledgeable about fire fighting. The physical condition is the only thing that will keep him back.

And Mike, I need to get back to the Word! I didn't know that verse came from and I teach Sunday School!:foot-in-mouth:

[MikeNY]

Greg your living the word, God bless you, yours and all that read this forum. Thank my religious educartion teachers through the High School years. I don't think most faithes now have the solid religious education they had in the 1960's. Pity much of the West was born with Abraham and our faith have steered the West.

[gruntbrain]

Keep planting the mustard seeds

[Huskerdarren]

Greg,
I enjoy the stories about your students and the people you've known through the years that have gotten acquainted with Transformetrics. I think there is just a mind set out there that if you want to build muscle and strength, you go to a gym. That doesn't have to be the case as many are finding out.

[tom]

That's a good feeling, Greg. Until this year I spent five or six years of lunchtime working out with some students, sons of friends I knew, who needed some strength or body control. Watching them turn into big strong kids over four years was well worth it. I used the bench to do the teaching, It offers good teaching points especially suited for teenage boys. - and encouraged them to just use bodyweight and DVRs for longterm maintenance.

Find the quote at http://bible.cc/ecclesiastes/11-1.htm

The explanations are all wrong. In going from oral word to the local dialect to ancient Aramaic to ancient Hebrew to Hebrew to ancient Greek to Latin to Olde English to whatever we speak now, it ignored the fact that bread gets soggy and becomes useless to anything but promoting algae growth in the water in which it is cast. The true meaning is an instruction on how to feed ducks at the park.

Anyway, didn't mean to get academic on you. Keep casting and teaching those kids. I think you wrote about Herschel a few years ago and posted a great picture of the two of you. You're doing good stuff.

Tom

[Greg Newton]

Hey Tom, thanks. It might have been one of my other students from a few years back. I have a special heart for those who are unathletic and who struggle for acceptance, or who are shy or awkward. I get all kinds of students, from honors to special ed, but it does seem that I often attract the underdogs. I guess having been there as a teen myself, I want to help others who are like or worse off than I was. As a teacher who cares about their students I know you understand that.

By the way, you are looking quite impressive!