Fitness is More Fun with Friends

The Monday night crew

Monday night’s Spicy Strength class at 6pm was full.  This was the first time that all 6 spots had been filled since I’d changed Monday’s class focus to half strength, half functional fitness-style workouts.  The workout for the night was a partner workout.  I paired everyone with someone who was equal in skill and fitness level so that no one would feel like she was holding her partner back.  This workout was going to be grueling and would challenge the gals to strategize how to attack the workload together, divide the repetitions, and the support one another as they worked through the programming.

Everyone came in, found their mat, said hi to their assigned partner and the nervousness began.  I explained the workout’s format, its purpose and focus then gave them two minutes to strategize. They immediately went right into plotting mode.  I was so impressed with how seriously they took it.  I gave them a 10-second countdown and the battle began. 

I can’t even begin to explain the beast mode they all went into.   Suddenly the room’s energy went from vague nervousness to determined action.  I heard, “13, 14, 15, you got this, keep going, 16, 17,” and “Wow, look at you.  You’re a beast!”  Compliments, encouragement, support... this was exactly why I started a women’s wellness studio – to give women a place to wear what was comfy and functional versus what was cute and to feel comfortable crying, laughing, and encouraging.  It felt vital to provide a place for women to understand that the journey to true comfort in one’s own skin is a communal endeavor.   This is not a group of former elite athletes.  These women are your everyday moms, friends, sisters, daughters, coworkers, showing up each week to kick their own butts while allowing me to correct their form, lead from the front and to bear witness to their challenges and triumphs. 

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"My hope has always been for any woman who walks in my studio doors to feel comfortable shedding the weight of the baggage she carries around."

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Midway through the workout, I began seeing and hearing some loud high-fives as each pairing finished a section.  Their sole job for the next 30 minutes was keeping track, grinding through the reps of each movement and encouraging their partners.  They were laser focused on staying absolutely present with one another.  The only phone in sight was mine so I could turn up the music, a curated 90’s playlist that I could hear being sung along with periodically as I walked through the groups. What struck me was their attention to the quality of their form.  I corrected some but not much as their time with me over the months had turned their form into a conditioned response. 

One pairing finished so fast, as I assumed they would, that I gave them an extra movement I had planned for this exact purpose.  They looked at each other, said, “you want to?”  No surprise, they both answered without hesitation, “sure, let’s do it,” high-fived each other and like two Marines charging the enemy, attacked the last movement like they had been trained for just this moment.  And in a way, they had.  These two women, like all of my other group fitness participants, show up week in and week out, often multiple days a week ready to put their heads down to grind.  Over the past 11 months, we've worked on hip hinging, active shoulders, proper squat, lunge and pushup form, and balance. My hope has always been for any woman who walks in my studio doors to feel comfortable shedding the weight of the baggage she carries around.  As a woman, her obligations are many.  But once she steps onto her mat, surrounded by weights, medicine balls, sandbags and bands being used for the day, she can stop to take a deep breath (maybe for the first time all day) and to turn her gaze forward because she knows I’ve got it from there.  All that is left to do is to sweat, laugh, lift heavy stuff, and feel powerful instead of powerless. 

When it was all over, the aftermath was clear.  Women were spread all over the mats, sweaty, debriefing with each other over their accomplishments, still high-fiving, laughing, and sitting in disbelief at what had initially seemed nearly insurmountable, was in fact, not.  They conquered it not only individually, but more importantly, they beat it together, one rep at a time.  During the post-workout mobility session, I asked each woman to come up with 3 words that described how they felt about what they just did.  Words like, proud, powerful, strong, stoked, and incredible floated in the air like butterflies newly emerged from their cocoons.  When asked what words I would use, I felt choked up with pride like a gardener who has been tending her garden all spring only to wake up one morning to see that the blooms of her beloved flowers opened up overnight without her.  These women were my wildflowers of varying colors, shapes, and varieties, each with their own unique fragrance.  And I was beyond inspired by the bouquet that they created when seen together, painted my world into a kaleidoscope of colors.

After 22 years of teaching hundreds and hundreds of different types of fitness classes, I still come home buzzing after classes like Monday night’s class, when I watch women discover who they are and of what they are truly capable.  Now when I set a heavy kettlebell (appropriately heavy, I’m not a monster) in front of one of my clients and tell her, “You can do this, because you can!” She is no longer looking at me with mild horror.  Now she believes she can lift that heavy kettlebell. 

I have spent my career helping people believe that they can even when they believe they cannot, they in fact, can. Its ok though if you’re reading this and are thinking, “I’m definitely not there yet.”  Its ok, I have enough belief for the both of us.  I will simply say the same thing to you that’s I’ve said to hundreds of others, “You can do it.  Why? Because you can.”

“Your crown has been bought and paid for.  Pick it up and wear it.”  -Maya Angelou