And the Greatest of These is Love

In honor of the Valentine's Day holiday earlier this week Ryan challenged his members to "write a love letter"  to NLXF telling the world in six sentences or less what they love best about the program.  Grand prize was a month of free tanning.
 
The resulting entries, all posted on Facebook, were fun to read.  And as someone who also crafted a submission, it was fun to write.  But what was probably most significant from my perspective is that people participated....LOTS of people, as writers, readers and of course, comment writers.

As I read each and every post I could only be struck by the reoccurring themes that began to emerge.  Most made mention of particular exercises that really pushed them to their physical and mental limits.  While it is true that "the burpee" was mentioned most (see my previous post for more details on this most dreaded of exercises), pushups, lunges, high knees, planks, butt kicks and squats also received "honorable mentions."  But always, always, the letter would go on to explain how much the writer LOVED their NLXF experience. They cited the confidence they had gained, the self-esteem that had increased,the personal pride they took in their improvement, and the sense of "family" that had grown among all of the participants.

How is it that a program that brings so many of us to our knees both physically and emotionally can generate so much love and respect among its membership?

My opinion...Ryan and his staff are Master Motivators.  Let me explain.

In his best selling book Drive, author Daniel Pink explores what it takes to motivate persons in the 21st century.  In an effort to avoid a lengthy book review or academic diatribe let me try to summarize his premise as simply as possible:

Fun (the desire to stay involved) happens when effort (what I have to put into  it) and enjoyment (what I'm getting out of it) are fairly equal.  In other words, most people don't mind putting in effort as long as they can find something to like, both long and short term, within that effort.

I'm sure that each of you reading this blog can come up with an example of this in your own life; an illustration of a time when even though something was hard or difficult, you persisted because it was...well...FUN.  There was enjoyment in the process.  This doesn't mean it wasn't hard or uncomfortable.  What it means is that you found something to like within and/or as a result of the effort. 

An example I can give from my own NLXF work would be the Friday Kickboxing Gauntlet.  It's hard; you move constantly; the routines really make you push yourself mentally and physically.  We are coached to hit each bag, each time, as hard and with as much full body power as we can.  And we do!  And part of the reason we do is that it is FUN.  I feel effort and enjoyment are pretty much balanced during Friday Gauntlet.  We all let our inner beast emerge.  None of us are motivated by the "prize"  offered weekly...the month of free tanning.  We are motivated by the pleasure we get from giving it 110%

This "formula" may also explain why I hate burpees as much as Jake Lewis loves them.  I struggle with burpees...they are hard.  Despite what Ryan thinks I'm putting in a boat load of effort but alas, I'm reaping little enjoyment.  Jake on the other hand, puts in 110% worth of effort and loves the way burpees make him move his body and challenge his strength.  I aspire to be Jake Lewis...I am motivated to find the fun factor in burpees (but probably not next week)!

In addition, Pink believes that motivation, the desire to find enjoyment through effort, is contingent on three factors:  Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose, and that Master Motivators bring these factors into the work place with them.  Pink calls this Type I behavior.  Simply put, Ryan doesn't try to "control" us; (except of course, when he's blowing that damn whistle).  Instead he does everything he can to awaken a sense of ownership within us.  We get meaningful feedback, we are given choices, and we are encouraged to take on a bit more each and every time we enter the gym.  Ryan helps us discover the fun of taking responsibility for our workouts.  Ryan is a Type I Motivator.

Secondly, he keeps us engaged because he helps us discover that with effort we can improve.  Our improvement, which can be measured by reps, inches or pounds lost, or positive self-attitude gained, feeds into our enjoyment.  Our effort has paid off, therefore I want to do more.  How else to explain why so many of us are signing up for another 10 week session.  Mastery is painful:  Ryan and company help us discover the enjoyment that can come from pursuing it.

Thirdly, is purpose.  And this is where I feel the spirit that is NLXF plays a key role.  And sorry Ryan, while you get most of the credit here, you can't have all of it.  We, your members, contribute significantly to this as well.

Highly motivated people and master motivators connect their desires to a cause larger than themselves.  And while it is true that all of us at NLXF are working to improve ourselves, we don't do so at the expense of others; we do so in collaboration with others.  This is why I think there is such a  strong sense of "family membership" among the NLXF

In closing, I'd like to share a line from Lisa R's NLXF love letter that I feel best summarizes the unique Type I atmosphere instructors and participants have generated:

We love you NLXF for bringing people  together...one burpee at a time!

End note:
Every effort was made to authentically and accurately summarize and present the work of Daniel H. Pink. 

Second End note:  Ryan sent me a dozen long stemmed roses (yes, they still had the thorns on them) for Valentine's Day.   Not sure how that factors into Type I motivation behavior but I  will say I've been smiling ear to ear ever since!

BURPEES

I really thought that perhaps I could go a few more weeks without having to blog about this most dreaded of exercises.  However, the recent appearance of “pyramid” Burpees in my NLXF class warrants some discussion (not to mention ranting and raging) about The Burpee.

Frankly, I think any and all discussion about The Burpee can be summarized in two short words:

BURPEES SUCK.

But that would be too short for a proper blog.  So here we go.

Prior to my enrollment in NLXF I was a Burpee Virgin.  Somehow, I had managed to live more than 50 years in pure ignorance of their existence.  I sure as hell had never done one.  And I’m pretty sure I could have happily lived another 50 years blissfully unaware of them.

Sadly, all of that changed in October 2011.   I distinctly remember the exact moment Burpees entered my life.  It was week three of my first NLXF session.  Ryan announced near the end of a Thursday class that we would do Burpees.  And by the way, he doesn’t just say the word Burpees…he ROARS the word Burpees, making the U-R sound resonate like the engine of a small aircraft taking flight.  Then he demonstrated one.   You can imagine the look of shock on my face as I watched this exercise unfold before me.  I looked around.  Surely this was some kind of cruel hoax and in a minute everyone would start to laugh and tell Ryan that was a pretty good trick.  But no one did.  Everyone just started flopping to the floor and then pushing themselves up to a jump, repeating the entire process over and over again. 

So I jumped in, too.  I had no problem hitting the floor; that was the easy part.  It was the getting back up just using my arms and toes and then leaping up again that created all the problems.  By the time I was done my knees were bruised, my arms hurt and I HATED Ryan; I didn’t talk to him for two days.

What are they, you may ask?  Well first, a bit of history.  The exercise was named in the 1930s for American physiologist Royal H. Burpee who developed the Burpee Exercise as part of his PhD thesis as a “quick and simple way to assess agility, coordination and strength.”  Royal’s “invention” required simply that the exerciser move a “large load over a long distance in a short amount of time.”

A CURSE ON YOU AND ALL YOUR OFFSPRING DR. BURPEE!

Of course the true irony is that Dr. Burpee's research didn’t remain obscure like 90% of that carried on by most academicians annually, my own included. The US military LOVED The Burpee and immediately adopted it as a way to assess the fitness level of recruits during WWII. And then sports teams adopted it as well.  I don’t care if the Navy Seals and the Green Bay Packers do them; I Hate Burpees (although I LOVE watching Clay Matthews [insert big swoon and sigh] do them before a game J).

For the unenlightened, a Burpee is pretty much the most work you can do just using your body for resistance.  It begins from a standing position. From there you simply prepare to die. 

You move to a squat and then fling your full body weight all the way to the floor by way of a single quick plyometric move in order to assume a plank position.  From there, in yet another one quick plyometric motion I might add, you return  momentarily to the squat position and from there you “jump up” in order to move your entire body weight off the ground before landing in an upright standing position, eager to begin this sequence from hell once again.

A PLYOMETRIC MOVE!  Just bite me!

I can do the start from a standing positon but from that point on, the entire process becomes a cluster of painful disasters.  Trust me, the only quick motion I’m good at is inserting and withdrawing my Visa card into the ATM machine.  And of course it doesn’t help my process at all to have Ryan hovering over me from start to finish yelling “get lower,” “faster”, or “jump higher.”

Burpees continue to haunt me at NLXF since my first encounter with them four months ago.  I continue to hate them and every single permutation of them that Ryan brings to the NLXF workouts including but not limited to:  the Squatting Burpee, the “Burpee Pushup,” the “Baby” Burpee, the Burpee in our kickboxing gloves while our partner “works the bag,” and my most recent nemesis, the Pyramid Burpee.  I am HIGHLY ANNOYED that Burpees are infiltrating additional workout days.  It used to be that Thursdays were Burpee days.  Not anymore…we do them on Tuesdays…we’ve done them on Wednesdays.  Is nothing sacred anymore!

Sadly, a recent internet search reveals that there are NUMEROUS variations on The Burpee including these sick and disgusting permutations:

The Jump-over Burpee:  The athlete jumps over an obstacle between burpees.

The One-Armed Burpee: The athlete uses only one arm for the whole exercise.

The Parkour Burpee: Following one burpee on the ground, the athlete jumps upon a table and performs the second burpee on the table, then jumps back to the initial position. (I’m sorry, but clearly alcohol consumption must be a factor with this one!)

And finally, the Chirpee Burpee: Combine a pull-up from a bar extended from the ceiling with the jump.

Please God, don't let there be tables and chin up bars at the gym this week!

Ryan Doesn't Live in my Head Anymore!

I don't know about anyone else reading this post but last week Thursday, during the 6:30 a.m. workout, I'm pretty sure I had a near death experience.  In terms of an overall, in your face, kick your ass workout, it was the hardest day of work I've yet to face at NLXF and trust me, when it comes to Ryan and NLXF, I've faced some pretty nasty stuff.  I thought I was going to die...literally.  My heart was pounding, my body was producing enough sweat to sustain a school of fish; every muscle ached because every muscle was being used.  To full capacity.  For the entire 60 minutes.  I know I had an out of body experience at least once during that workout; I distinctly remember being able to "look down" at myself from somewhere high above, and you know what, it didn't look any better from up there than it was feeling down here.

When I got home I threw up.  Not so unusual for me.  But then, I cried.  Hard.  For at least 15 minutes.  And that IS unusual for me. And because Ryan's workout made me cry, I did what any woman stretched to her physical and emotional limits would do.  I hosted my very own pity party complete with Chardonnay and Chocolate.  (Don't be alarmed, I did wait until AFTER the work day ended). 

But the thing about parties is that they do eventually end.  So when this one was over I took time to reflect on just what had happened during Thursday's session that left me so emotionally unglued.

And I came to this conclusion.  I didn't cry because I vomited; I didn't cry because my body ached. I cried because I had allowed the workout to wear me down MENTALLY.  I let Ryan get into my head!

I typically get to the gym a good 10 minutes before my class starts.  I use the time to get out of the multiple layers of winter clothing one needs to wear before sunrise in Iowa in January, change from boots to shoes, and grab my gear.  And once all of that is done, I watch the last segments of the 5:30 a.m. class.

As I watched the final 5 minutes of the 5:30 class last Thursday I became frozen to the floor in horrific awe at what was unfolding before me.  By the time the 5:30 a.m. class got to its 3rd set of burpees my throat had gone dry; by the 5th set my hands were sweating; by the 8th set I had broken into a cold sweat; by their 10th (and praise God final set of burpees) I was having a full fledged panic attack.

Before I had even set foot into the gym I had allowed that day's workout to intimidate me.  Even before I took my first stretch, pulsed my first squat, walked my first push up or burned my first ab I had marked myself as a doomed woman.  And because in my mind I saw myself as unable to do the workout my body could only respond in the same way.

Thursdays, more than any other day of the week, have taught me that I'm not only exercising my body, but that I'm also exercising my mind.  And anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.  Yes, the workouts require that I physically respond to the directives and challenges Ryan and company design.  But more importantly, the workouts demand that I also respond to them mentally.  In much the same way that I am working to improve my physical strength, stamina and flexibility, the workouts are nurturing this same development within me mentally.  They demand that I expand my range of mental strength; the duration of my ability to remain concentrated and focused; they push my mental alertness.  In short, they require that I believe in myself.

Last Thursday provided the reminder I needed that the workouts I'm doing at NLXF don't start when Ryan barks "Spread out and face the front."  They start before I even get to the gym.  And like everything else we do at NLXF, that takes practice as well.

And that has been my goal ever since.  I am working hard to get my head into the workout along with my body.  I still get to the gym 10 minutes early, but you may have noticed I don't watch through the windows so much any more.  I try to turn my back and focus on mentally getting myself ready to work rather than watching the work of others.  I've decided I'd rather by shocked and awed than scared and intimidated.

And so far, I think it's working! 

And Ryan is exactly where he should be...in the gym, pushing me hard, and cheering me on!