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.