I know walking on the treadmill is good for me. I know it’ll make me feel better when I’m done, give me energy throughout the day, and even help me sleep better at night.

But it’s so monotonous, and in the moment, anything else feels more urgent or interesting than putting in the work to exercise.

On the treadmill, I’m working but not getting anywhere.

My view doesn’t change one bit. It’s lonely — just me and the machine.

And with no one else to hold me accountable, it’s astonishingly easy not to put my heart into it.

More often than not, my intended brisk walk on the treadmill becomes more like an amble once I pick up a good book and forget that I’m supposed to be exercising.

My glacial pace is just a half step above hanging on the handles and letting the conveyor belt drag my feet behind me.

Sometimes, the workout is so pathetic that I stop or don’t even start, because why even bother at that point?

Instead, I’ll sit down next to the treadmill and read, as if proximity to it counts for something.

Imagine my surprise when I don’t hit my fitness goals for the month. Incomprehensible!

A look at the Rosary

As we wrap up October, the month of the Rosary, I can’t help but feel that the Rosary sometimes feels like the treadmill.

Long. Repetitive. Difficult to keep up, and not very fruitful when done poorly.

The chain of prayers that lend themselves to meditation on the mysteries of Christ’s life can just as easily set the stage to contemplate the difficulties and worries of life.

How many times have I sat down to pray the Rosary and instead spent those 15 minutes moving the beads through my fingers while coming up with a meal plan, replaying something dumb I’d said earlier, or worried that I’ll forget about tomorrow’s dentist appointment?

I may be holding the Rosary and saying the words, but my mind and heart are a million miles away.

It’s no wonder that after that kind of half-hearted effort, my Rosary feels flat and perfunctory.

It’s as good a workout as sitting by the treadmill, and suddenly I find it a lot easier to come up with reasons to skip it.

At the end of the day, I might realize that I’ve found time to do everything else — including watching a face yoga tutorial — but somehow couldn’t squeeze in a Rosary because it clearly wasn’t a priority.

Our Lady sure seems to think it’s important to pray the Rosary.

She’s been asking her children to pray it since the 12th century, when she appeared to St. Dominic, and she continues to do so, like during her apparitions to St. Bernadette in Lourdes and to the children at Fatima.

Like every mom, she’s found it necessary to repeat herself.

When my kids were little, I wished they knew how much better life would be if they just listened to me. (Hiding crickets in your bed is a bad idea — trust me on this one.)

I suspect Our Lady feels the same way — that if we would just trust her and make time to meditate on the events in her son’s life, we’d see that those prayers would channel God’s immense grace into our lives to bless and transform them.

Padre Pio certainly thought so. In fact, he really never stopped praying the Rosary. He was known to pray dozens of Rosaries every day!

The stigmatist and miracle worker thought it necessary to work in that prayer around his very important work of administering the sacraments.

I suspect he, conversely, found that he did not have time to watch endless skin care videos online.

Do the workout

This October, is it time to finally do the workout? What if I actually exercised when I was on the treadmill? What if I made time every day for the Rosary and truly prayed it when I did?

Maybe I’d experience what St. John Paul II spoke about in Rosarium Virginis Mariae: “The Rosary is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who is ‘our peace’ (Eph 2:14).

“Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ — and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary — learns the secret of peace and makes it his life’s project.

“Moreover, by virtue of its meditative character, with the tranquil succession of Hail Mary’s, the Rosary has a peaceful effect on those who pray it, disposing them to receive and experience in their innermost depths, and to spread around them, that true peace which is the special gift of the Risen Lord (cf. Jn 14:27; 20.21).”