Insane inhibitions

Yesterday, I went for my first appraisal since Christmas. I was happy with the results, but that’s not what I want to write about. What I do want to write about is how little - and I’m talking, I’ve probably never wanted to go to the gym as insignificantly of an amount as today - I desired completing my newly designed, hard-ass training program when I woke up and realised this was yet another day at the gym. I dragged myself out of bed, and actually questioned, for the first time in a long time, whether I even needed training at Aqualife this Sunday. Of course, my motivator of a fiancé got us there right on time, but even with a larger portion of energy drink than normal, today’s workout was absolutely awful. The weights felt twice as heavy as when Ebony showed me my new exercises yesterday, and the sets were a never-ending horror story from beginning till end. My muscles were aching; I was practically crying, and sets I usually love turned into monstrous, impossible challenges. Why? you may wonder, and this is all I have to say: Nothing compares to the excruciating battle that has to be won over one’s mind in order to go training when you’re on your period. 

There is literally something fiercely reluctant pulsating through your entire body, and today, that something was hitting every single cell in my brain.  And it was incredibly frustrating. 

“Okay, I’m going to do another set,” said my muscles, keen to get going.

“No, you’re not,” replied my head, leaning back, clenching my eyes together and demanding that my body stay completely still and undisturbed.

Hadn’t it been for the general misconception that may arise when you shout “Shut up!” to yourself in a gym, I probably would have done so. Several times. I was annoyed with every part of my being, but also somehow fascinated at the pure unwillingness my mind was casting upon my entire body. Remember how I talked about this last week? Mind trumps body every time? Well, it’s just as true this week. 

“It’s a two way street,” my mind whispered to me, “what? You think I’m just gonna let you kick it with your muscles every week? Uh-uh. Nooo, ma’am. You’re gonna have to work for it today.” 

And, man, did I. One hour and twenty-nine agonising minutes after I entered the gym, I lay down on the mat to stretch my dreadfully tired body. Then something strange happened. While listening to my mind laugh at my pitiful workout, I could hear my muscles shouting right back at it: 

“You better shut up next time, brain, or we’re gonna have everyone at the gym think you’re absolutely crazy with our chicken dance and locomotion moves.”

Mindblowing opportunity

The physical capability of the human body truly is an astounding phenomenon. Whenever I’m pushing myself really hard at the gym, I always ask myself: How much further could you go if you had to? 

When I first went through my new training program a couple of months back, it was the most challenging, physically difficult hour of my life, from the squats to the jumps, from the lunges to the pulldowns. I was exhausted, and thought that there was absolutely no way I could have done any more than what I had just pushed myself through. On the 14th of December 2012, I took one hour and 21 minutes to burn 690 calories. I did three sets of all my exercises (there are twelve of them), and I was utterly beat, and incredibly proud. 

Of course, the first time you do something physically challenging is always going to be the hardest, and so it’s gotten easier and easier for me to complete the training program, each session feeling just that little bit less intense and arduous. I think that because my mind had learnt that “Yeah, I can do this,” the body simply followed. Which is why I’m certain that a human being can do practically anything, once they decide that they can with their entire mind.

Today, my body managed to do something I didn’t think would be possible such a short time after that intense day in mid-December. In fact, I didn’t think it’d be possible at all. I probably realised that it would be, at some distant, far-away time in the long, long, long ahead future. But not now. No way. Then, something magical happened; my mind made a judgement call and decided that my body was capable of what I thought it couldn’t do. And this is what happened: I went to the gym to do my training program. But today, I did four sets of each exercise. So instead of 45 squats, jumps, push-ups, lunges, pulldowns, and shoulder lifts, I did 60. Which may not seem like a huge deal, but when your heart is beating at 193 beats per minute and you still have 10 jumps to do, it’s hard convincing. But I did it. My body did it, and the best part? I completed this entire ordeal in one hour and three minutes, eighteen minutes faster than in December, burning 656 calories. My heart, pushing more weights and beating harder, still finished with a lower average heart rate at the end of a workout session that had been increased with 25% of its original volume.

I couldn’t believe it. When I pulled my green, elastic band its last fifteen times, I smiled in utter joy and pride, and my mind silently said to itself: That’s how far you can go, when you have to.