Elevation Place 30/30 Week 3

From an output standpoint my week was pretty disappointing.  Two days out of seven working out at Elevation Place is going to make it difficult to get to 30 days total by the end of this challenge.  From a mental standpoint though…I feel fantastic!

If you’ve missed any of my previous blog postings on the Elevation Place 30/30 Fitness Challenge you can find Week 1 here and Week 2 here.

Day 11: More Treadmill

Not too much new to add about the workout itself.  The real breakthrough came about the next morning.

When I woke up the following day, after a really great night of sleep, for the first time I felt…strong.  The muscles in my leg and back felt noticeably tighter.  As someone who wasn’t really into physical fitness it was something I’d never experienced before and it felt really good!  In fact, I was in a great mood the entire day.  And the more I thought about it the more I realized that I’d been wrong about something my entire life.

First, some context.  Growing up I always equated physical fitness with team sports.  And I generally suck at team sports.  I was always the last kid picked to be on a team in gym class.  I played baseball when I was younger and was always the one who the coach sent to Right Field.  I’m not looking for sympathy here; I got past the childhood rejection a long time ago and am comfortable with my personal strengths and weaknesses.  But I think those experiences soured me to the idea of staying active and when I reached adulthood I never incorporated it into my lifestyle.  That’s not to say I’m not active at all.  I walk the dog all the time so I get that 30 minutes of light activity daily.  You know, the bare recommended minimum.  So when I read articles that talk about physical activity improving one’s quality of life, not just with regards to physical fitness but also with ones mental well-being, mood, sleep, stress, blah blah blah…I always thought that was just  for those who were inclined to work out and didn’t apply to me as that wasn’t really ‘my thing’.  Yet I was feeling all of these things the research says one feels when they’re taking part in regular physical activity.  The add-on about it not applying to me was a logical fallacy that I’d never questioned until this day.  Conversely, if working out did indeed make me feel this good, perhaps it had suddenly become ‘my thing’.

Hmm.  That was unexpected.

Day 12: Tabata

As I mentioned in my Week 1 blog, Sally Caudill from the Town had encouraged me to try the Tabata drop-in core class on the second day of the challenge and I balked.  I was now feeling good enough to give this oddly-named class a try.  So what the heck is Tabata anyway?  The word immediately brings to mind some sort of Central American percussion instrument.  Or perhaps a type of artisan bread.  I asked my wife Lauren, who has tried it before, and her response was “It’ll make you wanna puke!”

They should probably leave that slogan off the poster.

The Tabata class was packed.  There were about 16 women and me.  Where were all the other guys?  My hope was that by the end of the class I would discover the answer.  For this class we were given a couple of pieces of equipment that I later described to Lauren as “a thing that’s like little soccer goalie posts and a piece of bondage equipment.”

I believe they’re actually called an Equalizer Bar and Resistance Bands.  Either way.

Tabata was hard work – 20 seconds of hardcore physical activity, a 10 second break, and then seven more sets of 20 and 10 until a longer break and a new set of activities.  This activity could really be anything – our instructor Meg had us walking backwards with the resistance band around our shins, moving our hands around the floor while planking, launching ourselves in the air using the Equalizer Bar for support, and more.  The most challenging one for me was lying on the floor, pulling myself up on the Equalizer bar, and then switching hands back and forth.  Lauren told me to not worry about what everyone else was doing – if the activity is too difficult then it’s perfectly acceptable to modify it slightly so it’s still challenging but at least doable.  Meg did a great job working a little bit of everything – upper body, lower body, core, and many of the muscles in between.  I spoke with her after the class.

So where were the guys?  After this class I could only come up with one logical conclusion. Men are wimps.  Tabata is not for the faint of heart and only women are tough enough to handle it.  Prove me wrong, men.  Prove me wrong.  It was a heck of a workout and afterward I had a heck of an appetite.  A sandwich seemed like a perfect lunch solution.  Perhaps on some type of artisan bread.  That’s right, my friends…

A Tabata Ciabatta!

The rest of the week ended up being a workout write-off.  That’s not to say I wasn’t active – I spent two days in Fernie skiing with my dad and then a day at Nakiska with my little guy Ben.  I expected to have to take a few days off but I’d been hoping to at least get to Elevation Place on Wednesday.  Unfortunately my schedule ended up going crazy that day and it didn’t happen.  I was genuinely disappointed!

Wait, I was disappointed I didn’t get to work out?  Also unexpected.

My dad is a high school teacher in St. Albert and the trip to Fernie was with his school’s ski club.  I’ve tagged along with them for a number of years but this was likely the last as my dad is officially retiring at the end of June.  Skiing has always been a glaring exception to my ‘No Sports’ lifestyle and it was my dad who got me into it from a young age.  I’m sure it won’t be my last ski day with my dad but I’ll definitely miss being able to join him for two days at the end of almost every January!

Over lunch on this hill the topic of physical fitness in schools came up and one of the other teacher supervisors stated there should be mandatory daily Phys. Ed. and personal fitness time as part of the regular curriculum.  I suggested she may have been talking about two different things.  In my experience, school Phys. Ed. is fantastic for those who are already athletic and into team sports but for those on the other side like me it can be full of disappointment and judgement from one’s peers.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t the only one who let their childhood experiences with physical activity colour their opinion of it into adulthood.  Personal fitness, where one sets their own goals with no judgement of good or bad from anyone else, is something else entirely.  I learned this week that those two things can be mutually exclusive and that a person can enjoy one without necessarily having to love the other.

I’ve had five days off and am looking forward to getting back at the 30/30 Challenge today!  That feeling of strength has waned somewhat from last week and, darnit, I want it back!