Monday is the New Thursday

Forty is the New Thirty!
Strong is the New Sexy!
And apparently Monday is the New Thursday.

For as long as I can remember, Thursday has been “Burpee Day” at NLXF.  And believe me, when it comes to burpees, my memory is more than accurate.  Thursday is when we do burpees.  Thursday is “Burpee Day.”

So you can imagine my complete shock when at 6:37 a.m. on a MONDAY Ryan informed us that we would be starting a 2 minute cardio set with burpees.

BURPEES???  ON A MONDAY???  WTF??????

To say that I was pissed off would be an understatement.  Everyone knows that on Mondays we do a moderate warm up followed by a bit of cardio.  The cardio typically focuses on the muscles and moves needed for jabs, hooks or roundhouses.  If Ryan’s feeling particularly cranky we might do some ab work.  But mostly we kick box.  We work on our form.  Ryan goes crazy because none of us shift our weight, use our toes, turn our hips, or snap our leg.  He goes especially crazy because after 22 weeks I still don’t adequately shift my weight, use my toes, turn my hips, or snap my leg.  And Mondays NEVER include burpees.

Until today.

Now, I could have spent the remaining 53 minutes of class pondering WHY Ryan decided to include burpees on a Monday, but that would have been a total waste of time.  After 22+ weeks of NLXF I have to admit defeat on any or all attempts to get inside HIS head.  I’ve tried.  And I’ve failed miserably.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Ryan.  Not only is he able to get inside MY head, he’s been living in there so long I should charge him rent.  But that is a subject for a future blog J

What I did ponder as I got onto the floor in a push up position, pushed myself to a squat in one lovely plyometric move, jumped high in the air, returned to the squat and then reversed the plyometric move back into the push up position (sucking air all the while I might add), was WHY I was so annoyed that we were doing burpees on a Monday.  You see, it wasn’t so much the fact we were doing burpees that annoyed me…they are a fact of NLXF life…it was the fact we were doing them on a Monday.

And then it hit me…Ryan had CHANGED the routine.  Suddenly I went from being supremely pissed off to embarrassed.  Wasn’t I scheduled to teach a workshop on adapting to change at 11:00 that very morning? 

For the past two years I’ve been teaching workshops for students, business people and educators on strategies for adapting to change in their respective work and study environments.  My message is always the same; to be successful in the 21^st century you have to be open to change, flexible in your approach to change, responsive to change, and most of all, USE change to move forward.  In my workshops I stress the importance of developing the adaptability skills needed to handle change:  how to take risks, stay focused, remain spontaneous and accept the ideas of others.  And here I was doing everything BUT that.  I was blocking, resisting, stalling, negating and most of all, pouting. 

I hate it when I pout!  I’m a whiner, not a pouter J

I know it sounds crazy but all of this went through my head during the first 20 seconds of burpee work.  During the second 20 seconds of burpee work it occurred to me that burpees on a Monday were a perfect way for me to practice my agent of change lessons.  I could use those darn burpee sets as a way to move forward, challenge myself and elevate my fitness goals OR I could resist the whole idea of burpees on a Monday and choose to make that resistance the focus of my workout.

I sighed and moved forward.  Not because I’m the patron saint of workouts, but because that is what NLXF has taught me.  It’s not about perfection, it’s about persistence.  It’s not about settling, it’s about setting.  It’s not about giving up, it’s about giving in.  And truth be told, I did some of the finest sets of burpees I’ve ever done in my life!

 

So thanks Ryan, for changing things up, for pushing me forward, for making Monday the new Thursday.  Now if you could just get out of my head… J

 

I'm a Whiner Not a Quitter...Unless of Course I'm Moaning and Groaning

Okay, I admit it.  I’m not the quietest person on the planet.  In fact, I can be pretty darn loud.  I don’t try to be noisy, it just happens.  Some of it has to do with being in the theatre.  I mean, let’s face it…a good part of what I do for a living deals with teaching people to express themselves.  It’s sort of the whole point of being dramatic, you SHARE the drama.

And much of my being loud has to do with the fact I can’t hear.  For all sorts of reasons…childhood illness, a really nasty viral infection in my late 20’s, too many shots of tequila with Eddie Van Halen, whatever, I have nerve damage in both ears.  Without my hearing aide I can hear about 40% of what goes on in the world around me.  With my hearing aide in I’m probably good for about 75%.  And most of the time I’m completely unaware as to how loud I might be talking, laughing, whining, sighing, moaning and groaning.   

We recently started a new session at NLXF.  I signed up for another 10 weeks.  (I know…I can’t believe it either and this ongoing disbelief will probably become the subject of a post later on this spring.)   

Now, the 6:30 a.m. regulars not only know that I grunt and groan and moan and holler during workouts, they’ve gotten used to it.  Sometimes they join in.  I know for a fact that Lisa Roussell growls as she is working out.  I’ve heard her.  The first time it happened was during a gauntlet.  I was in front of her and suddenly I heard this growling.  My first thought was that I was being chased by wolves.  Turned around and it was just Lisa!  And Lynn Day grunts…I’ve heard her, too.  True, she doesn’t grunt as loud or as often as I do, but she does grunt.   

As for other class regulars, well,  sometimes they laugh at me, or at the very least, smile in amusement, as I audibly emote frustration, incredulity, shock or just plain effort as I move through the sequence of body numbing tasks Ryan has assembled that day. And I’m equally sure many just try to ignore me.

But it has been brought to my attention that the “newbies” were freaking out just a little bit this week by all of the grunts, snorts, sighs and wails coming from the “old lady” in the front row.   One of the newbies was convinced I was dying.

First of all, let me assure all of you, newcomers and veterans alike, I am NOT dying.  While it is true that any given workout on any given day may be generating a near death experience, trust me, if the workout is in fact going to kill me my last words will NOT BE uff,  arghf, or AHHHH!  They will be more along the lines of “A curse on you and all your offspring Ryan Downs I’ll see you in hell thank you very much!”

No, I don’t moan and groan and wail and gnash my teeth because I’m giving up or giving in.  I do it so that I can get through it.  Think of it as verbally pushing my body through that 22^nd pulsing squat or 45^th lunge or 87^th backhand or 15^th right roundhouse or 25^th gut buster.  I may be a whiner but I am not a quitter.

So, for those of you new to NLXF or who find this kind of personal information fascinating, here are:

The Top Ten Reasons Why I Moan, Groan, Wail, Gnash, Sigh, Whimper, Grunt, Holler or Gasp During NLXF Workouts. 

10.   It’s rude to swear that much in an hour.
  9.       Ryan has replaced all of the 5 lb weights I’ve carefully selected with 10 lb ones.
  8.       We’ve been holding a plank for more than 2 minutes.
  7.       I’m visualizing my ex- (husband, boyfriend, etc) while hitting the bag.
 6.       It’s 7:15 a.m. and we STILL haven’t had a water break.
 5.       I feel like I’m going to puke.
 4.       Ryan has blown that stupid whistle for about the 56^th time.
 3.       My (fill in the blank with just about any body part) HURTS!
  2.       Burpees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the Number One Reason...
         1.    Creed J