3/20/15

for time: 50-40-30-20-10
russian swing
air squat

*post results to comments

"Man is what he believes."
- Anton Chekhov

Windy City 2015 Spring Challenge!

Self Defense Seminar @ Windy City

Comments

[FidRock]

For the sake of introspection and gratitude, I recently began keeping a personal journal. I remind myself to write something everyday, no matter how short or how long it may be. I usually do this at night, but today something dawned on me, so I wrote it down. If you all will indulge me, I'd like to share it with you...

Yesterday it hit me that the gym has become my new happy place. Leaving work after an aggravating day and a long week (which is not over yet) I can feel my brow furrowed and I know my face is scowling. Barely 5 minutes into the warm up for GST class with Sam, I catch myself smiling. The stress melts away and nothing else matters too much at this point. Let's do only THIS right now. How liberating.

This morning came around and I woke up in a pretty good mood, slept in a little longer than I planned, and rushed to the gym for the 8:30 class with Tony. We warmed up and hit the MetCon. 50-40-30-20-10 Russian kettle bell swings and air squats. Tony gives us a couple of quick tips: Break up your sets early, challenge yourself with the weight on the kettle bell, and go deep in the squats to "bounce" up from the bottom. I grab the 20k kettle bell for a warm-up 10 swings and then I decide to go with the 24k for the workout. We start, and I make my way through the swings with a set of 30 and a set of 20. I hit the squats 10 at a time and I learn quickly what Tony meant when he said to "bounce" out of the bottom. I continued through and finished in just over 15 minutes. All athletes but one finish before me, and I assure myself that it is due to my heavier kettle bell selection and the fact that I am heavier than the girls, so my squats are harder than theirs. Makes sense, right? Right.

I finish the workout and I hang back for several minutes of stretching. A little cat/cow, a little child's pose, a little pigeon action, and I'm all set. I head to the bathroom for a quick shower and shave before heading to work and I realize that for whatever reason, I do not have a clean pair of underpants in my gym bag. This means two things. First thing is that I will be going commando at work today. Second thing is that I will most likely have to explain to my wife why my underwear was left on the coffee table at home. The underwear situation really has no bearing on the story, but I felt it was worth mentioning. I digress.

As I leave the gym and head to work, I feel GREAT. I feel productive, I feel strong, and I feel happy. It shows in my face. I am smiling and I say, "good morning" to the strangers that I pass on the way out of the building and on the way to my car. Three in a row look at me with a blank stare and a slight grimace which tells me that they are just starting their day, on their way to work, and they probably didn't hit the gym this morning like I did.

The way I feel today tells me that they probably should have.

[carmen]

awesome post, thanks fidrock.

[J. Marcis]

FidRock -- Great post! Thank you for sharing. And be proud of all that you've accomplished so far at Windy City. A complete transformation from when you first came in. Well done!