Fighting the Pain (Working Out)

     I believe that if my life were a book, the chapter for this week would be titled: The week in which I became a personal fitness trainer, and in which I was constantly, yet pleasantly, in pain.
Sadly, it took me about two months after not seriously working out on a schedule to get motivated again. Before the Sadie's dance, I was pretty stressed with school and with Grandparents; that was when I found the willpower to work out every day to try and get some endorphins in me. I stopped my working out phase altogether in April. A.P. test panic set it slowly but surely, and I found myself studying and doing homework from the time I got home to the time I slept late into the night. Now, three months later, I'm motivated to getting back into shape because of my cousin, who is really helping me to help her to kick us both back into shape (quite literally!)

     About every other morning, Alexis comes over to do P90X, a fairly intense work out video. The first DVD is kind of hilarious in an I'm-going-to-kick-your-butt way. The fitness trainer Tony, with all his ripped muscles bulging out from the t.v. screen, does simple yoga and stretching type moves that are somehow a lot more painful for you after than when you're getting really really into it. Honestly, when Amy came over again two days later to work out, I decided it would be best for the delightfully in pain duo to do something a little less strenuous. So nonchalantly I plucked off the P90x that had the smallest amount of time to it.

     You have no idea how much pain you can go through in thirty minutes! It turned out that almost the entire work out tape was based on upper arm strength. Several times I collapsed on the floor laughing at my lack of strength to do just one more push-up, only to make myself push through and put a couple extra in to make up for the time I spent laughing. It wasn't too long before my laughter died into a soft and not-too-subtle moan. A chorus of pleas shot to the edge of my brain, "Stop killing your arms!!" but there's no gain without the pain, so I laughed through the moans, groans, and kept pushing myself to go a little further every time.

     And of course, even though I was the one "introducing" Alexis to P90X, she easily outdid me. It was like she had a secret energy box hidden inside of her, and I could almost see it on the surface of her skin as she continuously lifted her weights up and down and over her head without a single pause. The strain in her face was practically unreadable, and that in itself was another good way to motivate me to keep going. I've learned that working out and straining yourself isn't just for your physical body, it's for your mind. When you work out, you push yourself, and in the end you can be happy with how you look physically, while mentally you gain the confidence to say, "Wow, look at what I can do!" and every time you jog a little further, and hope a little more. It's like looking at a tangible dream, all you have to do is reach a little further, and push yourself a little bit harder.