We have a remote Dynamic Strength and Conditioning member who follows our workouts from Maine and challenges herself on a regular basis. She's never been to the gym but I'm looking forward to the day she comes because she'll fit right in with the rest of us. Anyways, Cindy is a 50-something grandmother that just completed her 100 Burpee Challenge today. For the past 100 days she has done burpees. Starting at 1, 100 days ago, and moving up one burpee per day until she completed 100 burpees today. I love this because it's a perfect example of what we're all about here at the gym. Challenging ourselves, pushing ourselves to new levels, getting excited about physical achievments, developing mental toughness, looking forward to the next challenge. These are things that we don't have to do, these are things that we challenge ourselves to do. Things that we set out to do where we know it's going to be difficult and there's no guarantee we'll even achieve it and it will take a huge effort to get there.
Today, in support of Cindy's 100 burpee challenge, I put a 100 burpee challenge into the gym workout. The challenge was to get 100 burpees in 10 minutes. Everybody tried it. Some doing full burpees with pushups and jumps, some without pushups, some without jumps. It all depends on the level they're at. Nobody really wanted to do it, but they were all psyched when they completed it and proved to themselves what they can get their bodies to do now that they've been training here for a while. And that's one of the greatest things about training here. People continually amaze themselves at what they're able to do. It's very inspirational. We had 39 people complete the 100 burpee challenge at the gym today.. Amazing!!
I often push myself beyond my limits. I get an idea in my head and I go for it. Once the idea has been set, I finish what I set out to do. It's usually something idiotic that I pay for the next several days as my body recovers from the punishment it had to endure. Like the other day, I took my power wheel and went down to Stellos Stadium (site of my first 100yd power wheel challenge) and decided to do a 100 yd crawl 3 times. It was cold, raw, and windy. Knowing I was going three times I paced myself on the first one. It took about 1:30.. I rested 1:30 and did it again. Much more painful the second time. I rested 3:00 and did it a 3rd time.. I was physically spent by 40yds but mentally there was no way I was stopping until I crossed 100yds. I made it on sheer determination and I knew immediately that my core was going to be shredded for days. I'm still feeling it today and I did the PW crawls two days ago.
I decided this morning that I would do something kind of idiotic (yet again). I decided that I would complete the 100 burpee challenge with every group session of the day. Seven times total. 700 burpees in one day. After my 400th burpee of the day I went for a 36 mile bike ride into another windy spring day. I got back and completed the last 300 with our last 3 group sessions. The last 200 burpees today were beyond miserable. 700 burpees. I ask myself why? And the answer is always just to see if I can. Just to see how much I can endure physically and mentally. It's an endless test with me. But I keep getting stronger so it must be working.. Can't wait to see how 700 burpees and a 36 mile bike ride feel on this 41 year old body tomorrow :) For now, I think I'm going to go lay down....
Train hard, challenge yourself regularly,
kevin
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