Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Its all a metaphor

Warm up: run 800m, then 3 rounds of kbs, lunges, mtn climber, back ext and situp

Workout:
3 rounds of
20 wall ball,
5 heavy hang clean.  rest 2min at the end of each round
then

3 rounds
25 jumping pull up,
25 double under,
30 over head walking lunge
again rest 2min at the end of each round.
m:45 f:25
Metaphor Man


Well... I got to thinking.  There are many guys, hell, maybe even girls that would like to look like this dude.  Well, minus the weird handcuffs and the bloody patch on his chest.  What kind of work does it take to look like this?  How much do genetics play a role in looking like this?  "I mean its his job.  He gets paid to look like this!"  I hear ya.  Believe me.  To quote someone, not really sure who, "I mean I really wanna be all jacked and tan but dude, that shit is hard."  It is hard.  It takes around the clock attention.  Attention to all the big things: rest, diet, workouts, motivation persistence. 

I spoke to a client the other day about motivation, persistence and a few other topics a few days ago.  He was ticked off that he let himself get sooo out of shape.  However, he wants to change things.  Dare to be great right.  As we kept talking, he re-dropped a bomb on me, "You know man, all of this stuff-workouts- is just a freaking metaphor.  If you don't push yourself in the gym, you can't really expect to  push yourself outside the gym."  Now there's a guy that gets it.  Really, its just working out right?  Not to me.  Believe me, I'm not the only one that feels this way either.  Working out is an outlet for some people, a sense of accomplishment for others, defeat for some, a mystery for many but for starters lets look at it as just a challenge.  The "challenge" (metaphor success!) you partake in every day, prepares you for harder challenges that will cross your path every day.  Mark Twight eloquently puts it like this, "Punish the body to perfect the soul."  Work hard in the gym so life's challenges don't seem so hard?  Yup, you bet'cha.  More on this later...

2 Shout out:

Kellar said...

"If it wasn't hard everyone would do it! The hard is what makes it so great!" Someone told me that once! Or maybe its a quote? Regardless, it's so true!

JP said...

I could write a whole book about this topic. I am very passionate about this way of thinking. HIIT-style workouts have completely transformed my way of thinking over the past year and a half. Life's obstacles are no longer things that are best sat out. I now see these hardships as things that not only do I face head-on, I take them on "for time." Having someone yelling at you while doing burpee pull-ups to "Keep moving! Don't stop! It's not going to kill you! Keep going!!" will resonate in your ear when life throws you a 100-lb bag of lemons.

Life is not going to quit. But when you finish Fran faster than you ever have, or you've done 100 burpees or 150 wall-balls faster than you have (or fast enough even to get on the white board), the way you look at life's troubles is definitely going to change. Don't stop. Keep moving. It really isn't going to kill you if you just keep going. And, after you are over it after attacking whatever it is head-on, you will hear whispers in the back ground of people saying, "That guy/gal is a beast! Part cyborg! Did you see that??"

THAT is what working out is to me. I enjoy getting fit and looking good naked and all. But that's maybe 10% of the benefit of this. Don't monitor at your progress by your shrinking pant size. Monitor it by how you deal with an illness in the family. Or how you deal with temptation at the restaurant. Or how you handle cleaning up a messy house or, God forbid, a flooded house.

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