Hey Team,
Happy Father’s Day everyone – many thanks to my trio who took me out last night (Saturday) for pizza and a couple of 1980’s movies…well, what should have been a couple of movies that turned into one 1980s movie (The Lost Boys) when I decided that the beanbags supplied were multi-purpose BEDS/Theatre seating! What can I tell you – when you start work as early as I do 10:30pm is waaaaay past bed-time! In any case, it was a lot of fun and it seems the older I get (and the less necessary me being present is to each of their lives) the more I treasure any time with them…we always want what we haven’t got I guess.
Speaking of wanting what we haven’t got – doesn’t it always seem the way that whatever it is that we are ‘excelling’ at (big claim in my case) we want something else? When our weights in the gym are going up, we wish we had time to run more. When we are off running, we wish we were stronger…and on it goes. And the problem with all of that (of course) is that we all end up jumping from one thing to another in the hope of ‘improvement’? I guess?
Back when I first started playing guitar, one of the reasons I started was to develop a ‘relaxing’ hobby. But it wasn’t really very relaxing – I basically was such a gumby that I couldn’t play enough to ‘relax’. These days (well, in theory these days but I haven’t been playing as much recently) I am ‘good enough’ to sit down and play and actually relax. Our boxing sessions – and funky sessions (not to mention doing things like starting a running program or a swimming regime) are the same. Well, maybe not ‘relaxing’ but certainly triggering enough hormones to give you that awesome ‘I just smashed it out’ post-session feeling.
When you first start training it 100% – probably 150% – completely sucks. It is supposed to be good for you but you can’t actually breathe and the so-called targets being called out by the trainer seem as if they are a million light years away. You don’t breathe ‘heavy’ as such – reality is you feel like you are barely breathing at all – but when you do manage to get some air in it feels like your lungs are actually on fire…feels good right? Uhhh. No. No it does NOT feel good.
An observer would say you look fine – maybe a bit pale – but from INSIDE your body it feels like every particle of water in your body (and maybe some of the blood!) has found it’s way to the outside of your skin and you feel like you are completely ‘wet down’ with sweat…and now you are being asked to do some exercise that you have never heard of by the trainer – and everyone around you simply pops to attention with weights that look 10000 times bigger than the one you chose ‘cos it seemed ‘OK’ but now can’t even pick up…
The point is that things 100% DO get better. Everything sucks when you first start…because when you start you are no good at it. When you first run, you can barely run down to the end of the street! And whilst it always seems like you will never get any good at it, soon enough you will be swimming 2kms, running 5kms, finishing a boxing class, squatting 100kgs, playing a ‘C-sharp Minor’…you know, doing the things that you see other people doing ‘effortlessly’ but that seemed impossible when you first started.
What’s the point of all this? Don’t be held back by your own perceptions of what you are/aren’t capable of – and everything sucks when you first start. Just have a go, do the best you can, and don’t give up…over time, everything will be OK and eventually, YOU will be one of those people who (seem) to be doing stuff effortlessly when the next ‘new person’ is just getting going…
See you in the gym,
Michael.
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