Rollercoaster

Yesterday’s Boot Camp was killer both physically and emotionally. Who knew that working out would be stressful on the body and the mind? I went into class pumped and ready to rock but quickly felt myself become more and more self conscious about my poor form and “weakness.” Whenever I was on a “high” I quickly came slamming back down to earth.

Station 1: Box Jumps
After the second set of “jumps” (where we had to jump on and off a mat platform about 1’ off the ground) my enthusiasm and energy had diminished significantly. My legs just didn’t want to cooperate and jump up; they kept trying to sneak in a step instead of a two legged jump. I found my brain chanting (out loud) “you can do this, you can do it, you can do it.” My teammate, Hope, quickly joined in with, "you’re doing great girl….good job Jo.” Seeing Hope struggling with her own modified “jump” and somehow finding the strength to motivate me made me push a little harder and find the courage to keep jumping to the end.

Station 2: Step Downs
At the next station, we stood (on one leg) on a step and attempted to touch the floor without having our standing knee go over our toes. Simple enough…I think not! I thought I had it all figured until Trainer Mike walked over. He stood next to me and just stared…I quickly responded with, “I’m doing it wrong,” in my most pathetic voice. “Yes,” he said simply and started to correct my form. After 3 attempts the buzzer went off (our queue to move to the next station) and still I had not figured it out. I lowered my head, and feeling a failure, sheepishly moved to the next station...Mountain Climbers.

Station 3: Mountain Climbers (with Sliders)
If Mountain Climbers were an Olympic sport I would be in Canada (cleaning up after the real athletes). Imagine yourself in a push up position and then climbing/sliding one leg at a time on the floor. The goal is to move your foot as far forward and to the opposite side as possible, rapidly. I had finally found a station that I could complete with decent form and without being sent to the morgue. What I didn’t realize until this morning, was that when you finally utilize “good form” you hurt in all the right/wrong places. This exercise has muscles I didn’t know existed in pain, but at least I can do it for…30 seconds straight! That’s enough to get me on a high.

Station 4: Shoulder Press with Ropes
This station requires you to do a “butterfly stroke” while standing and holding the heaviest ropes in the world. At least that’s what I thought the exercise was about until….Trainer Mike walked over again and said “What are you doing?” This straightforward statement made my stomach drop. Here I was, on this high from the last station only to be told I was doing something wrong again! Did I mention this was our second round at this station so I’d been doing it wrong for a while? To make, matters worse the buzzer went off again before I could correct my form. I thought to myself, “this sucks!” and then I remembered the sign on the wall behind me that says…”Sucking, sucks” –Bart Simpson. Talk about inspiration…I will not suck!

Station 5: Skaters on BOSU
This is easy breezy. That’s not to say it wasn’t hard work, but at least I can do this. This station is about endurance more than strength so I was able to push myself. There were a couple of times when I nearly tripped over my feet (and the half sphere I was bouncing off of.) The trainers may need to invest in a mouth guard for this station now that I’m here. Having never really skated (unless 3 skating rink parties in 8th grade count) my coordination needs some work. But I left this station feeling encouraged and capable until…

Station 6: Pull up on rings
This by far, has got to be the most difficult of all our stations. Rings hang from the ceiling and we are to pull ourselves up using the rings. My mind started racing…”Ha! Are they kidding! This must be some type of cruel joke, there is no way I can do this.” But, we are in competition so I have to give it my all right? Well I guarantee that if anyone was watching me they would have had no idea that I was giving it my all. Picture this… I have to stand on my tippy toes to reach the rings, then, I hold them in my hands and let out a squeak/grunt as I jump up and try to hold myself up. This is definitely not correct form but at Week 2 it’s all I’ve got. The girl next to me, alarmed by my squeak/grunt looks over and cracks a smile. I can tell she wants to laugh but is too polite. Can’t say I blame her though. After doing this 10 more times the buzzer goes off and…..

we get to do this rollercoaster ALL over again!