Saturday, August 13, 2016

Don't Ring the Bell

Tonight, in my low intensity class, we had a visitor come watch.  But before I ever took her back there, I said “Don’t be intimidated.  These girls have been training with me a long time.  We’ll start you wherever you are and get you there.”  Watching her watch the class, and hearing her make comments like, “Wow, they have really great balance” or “Man, they’re strong” or “Wow, they are really working” gave me a chance to remember how far they have come.   I started teaching this class in October, and we started with 12 stations for 20 second intervals.  Most of the exercises, they used three and five pound dumbbells, with a very rare set of 8’s thrown in there.  Tonight, they did 20 stations for 35 seconds—and now it’s mostly 12’s, 15’s, 20’s for dumbbells.  When they started, none of them could squat anywhere near butt-to-box on an 18” box.  Tonight, they used approximately a 12” stepper—and with the exception of those with some knee issues, they rocked it.  I’ve even watched proudly as not only thirty year olds, but fifty and sixty year old women did a whole minute of hard cardio and then went and did weights.  I’ve taught them that all they are allowed to say is “I’ve got this”—and now they believe those words.  A lot of them have lost weight and dress sizes (err, also bra sizes as we frequently joke.)  But the gains they have made in their strength and endurance are impressive by anyone’s standards.  They are getting back fantastic reports from their doctors—some of them completely reversing conditions that have plagued them for years.   


Success hasn’t come over night, and in many cases, it’s not come as quickly as they wanted it.  But seriously, does it ever?  It’s been a lot of hard work. I’m sure they have wanted to quit. Who hasn’t? But as the expression goes, “ a river cuts through rock, not by its power, but by its persistence.”

 I have pushed them.  I have shown them their inner strength, not just muscle strength, but a kind of chutzpah strength, for lack of a better word.  Just as my trainer has done for me.  Five years ago, I didn’t know I was a strong person.  I never would have called myself either capable or determined.  I didn’t know what I was made of, or that I would go all-in for something I really wanted. I haven’t always liked having a trainer, because he continuously pushed me out of my comfort zone. But having someone do that for me was not only how I’ve seen great success in my body and lost 100lbs,  it’s how I realized who I was. 

My body has given me a lot of challenges, which is fair, since I spent so long abusing it. After being completely plateaued for nearly a year and a half, I started threatening to quit.  I don’t know that I could’ve done that, but it came out of my mouth more than once. My trainer had enough one day, and told me he wouldn’t train me again until I watched “G.I. Jane”.  Demi Moore plays the first female Navy S.E.A.L, and is not warmly welcomed by her male counterparts.  The first day, the S.E.A.L. trainees are shown a bell, and invited to ring it as a signal to the whole camp that they’ve given up and can’t handle this training anymore.  Over and over, the officers try to make GI Jane so miserable that she will ring the bell, but no matter what they throw at her, she refuses to quit. 

I’ve been in this business long enough to realize that the ones who quit far outnumber the ones who will grit their teeth, and dig in their heels, and push a little harder until something happens.  Some will just sort of vanish, in a wisp of good intentions.  Some will have big things happening in their lives, and will let everything else take priority.  Some just simply quit on themselves, realizing that it is much harder to be fit than it is to just finally accept an unhappy mediocrity, where your body hurts and you never feel good in your skin.

As we start a group weight loss challenge, that’s the one thing I hope I can help them achieve.  Of course, I want them to lose fat—that’s the purpose.  But more than that, I want them to realize that they are fighters, stronger and more determined than they ever dreamed possible.  Because of course, that’s what it takes. Being fit and feeling fantastic takes that sort of determination.  Life, it turns out, takes that sort of determination. It requires a flat refusal to let any one or anything stand in the way of you reaching your goals. And it’s making damn sure that YOU aren’t the thing standing in the way. 

As I watch GI Jane, and the athletes of the Olympics, and my 60 year old trainer who could probably still compete as a body builder, I realize that these people all have something in common—a ferocity that won’t settle for being anything less 100%. These people don’t let anything, not inconveniences or injuries, keep them down. 

You want the body? You want to know what it’s like to look in a mirror and not only not hate what you see, but be proud of who you have become and what you have accomplished?   Then, ringing the bell is not a luxury you can afford. 

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Lessons Learned: How bad do you want this?

One day, I will get back to being a real. live. blogger... but until then, this one's from the archives. (Really, I am working on some new material-- this is something I want to do!)  This is from my previous blog, The Pudgy Parson.  I kept that one while I was both a pastor and losing weight.  This post is from 2 years ago, after I had been on my journey nearly two years ago.  But since this is a version of something I regularly ask my clients, I thought it was time to bring it back.   I'm getting ready to start a weight loss challenge with them, so I'm asking them to dig deep and get out of their comfort zones.

I've been there.


"How bad do you want this?"

One of the benefits to being an "advanced" trainee is that I usually just come in and do my workouts on my own.  My workout partner and I are trusted enough to just handle it.  If I happen to be in the gym with He-who-trains, he is usually either training someone else or doing his own workout--which means that aside from some small form corrections, he leaves me be. But last night, I had the poor timing to come in as he was just finishing up.  And even though I had a lovely "first leg day in weeks"   workout planned due to the fact that I'm still babying a grouchy back, he decided that it was a nice day to make me cry  in just a few short minutes. Well, I didn't actually cry but that was only because all of my energy was going into not dying. He had designed a BRUTAL, but very back friendly, workout for me, and he wanted to see how I did with it.

It was baaaad. It got to the point where I could no longer lift any weight, and then to the point where my own body weight was too much. But there was a point where I was doing ATG (Butt to Ground) squats on legs that felt like cooked spaghetti noodles, and quite certain that I was not physically capable of standing back up. Either he or the angry voice in my head asked a question.  "How bad to you want this?" (Come to think of it... it must've been him.  My voice would've asked how badly I wanted this. Dying is no excuse for poor grammar.) I wish I could say that the question gave me a new burst of energy and that I finished strong.  I did not.  I had to sit down because my legs could no longer support me.  I was lightheaded. I did, however, finish knowing that I held back nothing.

 I've thought about the question a lot. Do you want this enough to give it your everything? Do you want it enough to overcome your whiny voice that gives you a thousand reasons not to?  Do you want it enough to not only do it again (and again and again), but every single time to challenge yourself to be better than the last time?

Maybe that's really a life question, not just a gym question.