It’s that time of year again. Punxsutawney Phil might have prognosticated that we have six more weeks of winter, but the feeling of spring is in the air. It’s time to get ready for the beach. It’s time to get your body ready! It’s time to burn some calories and tone that physique.

You might have already fallen off your New Year’s Resolution wagon, but you can still get busy in the gym. I know I am. I might look like a bag of marshmallows, but under all that fluff is a high performance machine that is getting ready for the beach!

Just this morning I was in my garage doing my “Insanity” workout and found a new muscle. I didn’t really know I had it, but apparently there is a muscle inside your thigh called a “hip flexor.” You can’t really see it, but it is there, believe me! I was supposed to be doing these knee lifts and extension exercises for three minutes, but only made it like a minute before I felt this crazy muscle inside me leg talking to me. It said, “Stop it. Please, stop it. If you don’t stop it I am going to make it difficult for you to walk. If you don’t stop, I am going to make you walk like you have rocks in your socks. If you don’t stop, I’m going to hurt you.”

The hip flexors are actually stabilizer muscles or “core” muscles that make you stronger and better balanced. They aren’t the “glamour muscles” like your biceps or deltoids. They are your hidden strength....or weakness!

Your muscles have a way of talking to you in real and painful ways. They remind you when you haven’t used them. They remind you of how weak you are. They tell you to quit and that you have already done enough. They remind you that they are there when you have forgotten them. They need to be used and pushed or they atrophy away. As we get older, these core muscles give us balance, flexibility and strength that can keep us from being injured by a fall. We need to work our core, not just the muscles people see.

You know, there are some metaphorical muscles too. Some of them are visible and some are hidden, but they all need to be exercised. As you prepare for a spring on the beach, have you exercised your hospitality muscle and invited someone new into your life? Have you stretched your generosity muscle and given to a charity to the point it hurt? Have you pushed your limits with patience and self control? Have you exercised temperance in your life? These core muscles will make the rest of your life stronger and more attractive. In the long run, they just might keep you from injury, too.

I think of all the health problems that are avoided with exercise and a healthy diet. One of this community’s great strength is that our core muscles of hospitality and generosity is so strong. It takes a lot of work, but together we can keep this community strong and healthy.

May you and your families exercise your bodies, minds, and souls as we keep Gulf Breeze as healthy as we look!

Love one. Love another.