June 19th, 2009
On the bench press sweat dripping down my face a whole five minutes into my first training session – thinking to myself “what the hell was I thinking??”
I stretched my arms cracked my knuckles and prepared myself mentally – did a few deep Lamaze like breathing techniques – revved up like all the best body builders do. I let out a manly grunt and pushed the barbell off the safety latches down to my chest and back up again. I managed to do this 8 times – not bad for my first try huh?…. Gasping for air and quickly losing color in my face I went to write down the weight and reps I had done.
Hey Dan, how much weight was that? …
……..uhhh… I didn’t put any weights on the bar yet…
I was a little embarrassed but Dan was real cool about it – we all got to start somewhere, right? He was less worried about how much weight I had on the barbell and more focused on teaching me some fundamentals:
Breathing: Breathe out when you exert (push or pull) and inhale when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in).
Counting: 2 seconds when you exert (push or pull) – 4 seconds when you are relaxing (bringing the weight back in).
Form: Doing exercises in proper form will ensure maximum results and avoid injury.
On the bus ride home in between trying to remember when to breathe and tending to my sore limbs - I remembered being on a stationary bike [doing about 0.2km] at a community center in Japan watching in amazement as this tiny girl [90-100lbs tops] raised a loaded barbell over her head [Olympic weightlifting style] like it was a [insert something ridiculously light here].
One day I hope to be as strong as that a girl.
for the record the weight of the bar is about 35-45lbs
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June 14th, 2009
Monday Morning Break
Maybe it was the beat down look on his face, the bags under his eyes or the smell of ash emanating from his clothing – whatever it was – it was enough to make me think we might be on the same page. – You ever feel like your body is falling apart and if you don’t change something soon…….
ALL THE TIME MAN
ALL
THE TIME!
Throughout the rest of day we continued our conversation mostly a back and forth of self doubt and horribly misquoted motivational cliches.
WHERE DO WE START?
AT THE BEGINNING.
HOW DO WE CHANGE SO MANY THINGS AT ONCE?
ONE AT A TIME.
IT’S TOO HARD!
THAT’S WHAT YOUR GF SAID LAST NIGHT!
After much deliberation we decided that the most appropriate entrance point to our new lives would be to join a gym and start repairing some of the damage we had done to our bodies over the years. Nando suggested The GoodLife Fitness down the street.
Feeling the wheels of change starting to spin.
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June 10th, 2009
Summer 2007
Must’ve been a nice day out.. I thought to myself as I watched the sunset from my balcony. I’d been out partying since Friday afternoon and finally gotten to bed that morning around 5AM. I sat on this old wooden table my roommate had brought from his old place and lit my cigarette. I took one haul and started hacking uncontrollably, inadvertently waking up the rest of my body and boy was it ever upset!.
I turned to my roommate who had just walked out on to the balcony and asked him if he wanted the rest of my smoke because I wasn’t feeling so hot. Truth is I felt like death and not that mid 20′s hangover “death” either – it was like I was falling apart from the inside out and my body was ready to give out at any second. I was genuinely worried that I would not make it through my second smoke let alone the night.
I went back to bed with the realization that something was not right in the world in my world and at 25 I should not be feeling like this.
Something has got to change, I have got to change.
Stay tuned…..
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