Gym Reminder

Without any fabrication, the last few weeks have been pretty difficult for yours truly. Lots of changes and hardships have happened and it often feels like too much to bear. In fact, the difficult circumstances have altered my mindset so much that my workouts have begun to suffer quite a bit…

Story Mode: Thursday, April 25, 2013

As I sat in the car after devouring a 12″ Philly cheese Subway sandwich, I could only do one thing afterward, sleep. What was planned to be a quick 20-minute rest to briefly digest my food, turned into an hour nap. The nap left me quite lethargic and sluggish, to say the least. Somehow I mustered the strength to get in the gym and attempt this beast of a workout I had planned.

After warming up with a mile on the treadmill and getting through half of my man-maker workout, I felt completely defeated, exhausted and was extremely close to walking out. Sitting next to the weights in the “Bradying” pose, I felt as if everything in my life hit me all at once and I had nothing left to give. Fortunately for me, this song came on my shuffle and I redirected those feelings onto the remaining portion of my workout.

Anyone, who knows me knows that once a timely DBZ theme gets into my head during workouts, I can become quite explosive. That is what in fact happened.

All of the pain, the sadness, the rage, all of it, was transferred from a defeated stance of acceptance into overhead presses, squats, and cleans filled with enough grunts to activate any Planet Fitness Lunk Alarm. More importantly, it was filled with tears, tears of triumph and personal pride.

On my final rep, I was reminded that I had more to give, I was not leaving the gym without leaving it all in there… Crying from pain and apparent exhaustion I reached back and finished the job. Gohan’s theme still playing on repeat, I left with my head held high and was reminded that although the times may be tough I still have more to give even if I think I have absolutely nothing left.

While my triumph in the gym this day is only a microcosm of what I intend to do going forward in life, My genuine purpose of writing this was to remind myself or anyone for that matter:

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

You always have more to give, sometimes you just need the right trigger,

Never Give Up!