HOW Do You Know?

by Neil Anderson

Globo dude:  "You know she was doing that wrong don't you?"

me:  "How do you know?"

Globo dude: "I have been lifting now for..."

me (interrupting):  "Not, how do YOU know?...HOW do you know?"

Globo dude:  "I attended the university of..."

me (interrupting again):  "Not, how do you KNOW?...HOW do you know?"

Globo dude (frustrated); HOW do I know what?

me: HOW do you know what she is doing?

Globo dude: "she's doing pull-ups...d... (almost says "dumb-ass")"

me (stopping the profanity):  "And why do you think she is doing pull-ups?"

Globo dude (face contorts as he tries to think of ONE other reason in the world a person would do a pull-up other than to build VERY LARGE muscles): "To build muscle?"

me:  "so you don't KNOW?"

Globo dude: "huhm?"

me:  "I thought you were her fire chief or something"

Globo dude (emphatically): HUHM?

me: "I was teaching her a more efficient and effective way of doing pull-ups, using a kip.  The requirements only read that she must do a certain amount pull-ups, each rep from the straight elbow position to chin over the bar position to qualify for the city job she is trying for.  It didn't specify that kipping pull-ups would be disqualified.  So, when I asked HOW you knew she was doing it wrong, I was asking if you had knowledge that superseded her manual?

Globo dude:  "What's a kipping pull-up?"

me: "The question you should have lead with."

My Training Partner

by Lizz Bennett (originally posted 8-11-09)

I have a constant companion.  He is about 6’, 250lbs, and I imagine very ugly.  But that’s on a really bad day.  Everywhere I go, everything I do, he isn’t just next to me, he isn’t walking beside me; I carry him right on my back.  On a really bad day, his legs are wrapped in a vicious vice grip around my waist and his arms are around my neck in a choke hold.  I am weighed down, slow, and barely function with little resolve to follow through on anything.  On those days I think to myself, “why bother?  What’s the point?  I am just not able to do it all.”  On those days I look around at everyone else and see them doing so well, going so fast, and accomplishing so much-on their own.  On those days I suffocate under the weight of my burden. 

Meet my companion, you can’t see him, but he is there.  His name is Self-Doubt.  Even on a good day, when I can barely feel his weight, when I don’t feel so constricted, I still catch him whispering in my ear, “Are you sure you can do this?  You are just a Mom, just a girl, just a (fill in the blank).” It is a constant competition just to ignore him.  It is battle every day to achieve my daily workout without turning my head, listening to him, and giving up. Ten years of endurance racing and every time there is a point at which I think, “Why am I doing this?”

 Maybe you have met some of his cousins, Pride and Laziness, both of them equally large, and domineering.  Here’s the thing, regardless of how I might have been acquainted with him, (childhood trauma, low self-esteem, unsupportive high school coach), I am so completely over carrying him on my back.  I have enough to haul around every day without a 250lb. monster clinging to my life-support systems and dragging me down.  After years of this relationship I will not shed a single tear in his absence. 

Here is what I imagine happening.  Every time I ignore him and get up and give 100% in my training, I picture him shrinking a little bit.  Every time I give myself credit for doing my best, instead of focusing on my short comings, he gets lighter.  Every time I ignore the feeling that I should just take it easy because after all I am just, (fill in the blank), he loosens his grip around my waist and his arms around my neck are barely there.  I imagine actually running a race and enjoying it!  Racing with me and nothing holding me back, feeling 250lbs lighter!  I imagine finishing a workout and being totally proud of what I have done and not comparing myself to anyone else!  What would that feel like?  I will tell you, complete freedom! 

So good bye big SD! Find someone else to ride, because I am not going to carry you anymore!

The Yak Attack

by Neil Anderson

One of the best things about GPP is, to workout here means leaving your ego at the door.  We do ROUGH stuff.  It is not for the chicken-hearted.  Neither is it for the weak willed.  Every inch we gain, every inch we lose and every inch forward we move toward our goal is tedious and deliberate.  And we'll take that inch.  After all, an inch is mountains more progress than others make.

That's how we roll.  

If we can take more than that inch we will, but its a sketchy proposition.  We've learned there is a price to pay for getting greedy.  Greediness at GPP can be messy.  It can stink.  It can hurt and we've seen it's putrid awfulness put off the most hearty of souls.  

And since it is so omnipresent around here.  And since it looms over us with such disdain and utter contempt, we have decided to formally acknowledge our worthy adversary with a name. Let him forever be known as...

THE YAK!

Although we all hate the Yak, it is useless to fear him, because meeting him is inevitable.  By working out here, by pushing to discover our limits, by striving to go to the edge and see what we are made of - the two of us are likely to meet.  Not face to face over tea and crumpets.  More like, his horns - our arse. 

When that happens, man you gotta just take it.  Prison style.  Because after you get cocky and wave that big green cape of greed in front of his face, there is NOTHING you can do about what comes next.  When it does, here is some advice: smile. Just grin through it.  Ever see that cartoon of a mouse about to be eaten by an eagle?  Grinning helps, trust me.  

Many, many have asked why it is that we don't have those primping and posing mirror monkey types down here at GPP.  We think there are a lot of reasons. 1) They can't take their shirts off. 2) Thirty something y/o mommas of 4 keep beating them at workouts. 3) They are afraid of the YAK.  

We also think they must hate how they look in green. (double meaning alert)

It's too bad, because they are missing out.  

Not that I am advocating taking a horn to the backside.  If this can be avoided, it must.  But we both know it cannot.  Not if we are to see where our limits lie.  Not if we are to learn, deep down, who we really are.  

To avoid the Yak is to miss out on several important elements of self mastery.  A few of these are: Freedom, Acceptance & Community.  

Freedom from the fears that have been holding us back.  Acceptance of the consequences of those fears.  Missing out on a beautiful community of like minded individuals charging forward together, equally committed to virtuous goals and values.

This is the magic of GPP.  On any given day, EVERY one of us are merely ONE workout away from a Yak attack.  While the uninitiated rookie might worry about what others think of him or her if they get sick or have to quit a workout early to burst into the parking lot and construct a puke pile, he or she would feel much more relieved to know, as all vets know, that instead of judging them weak or insufficient - we are only feeling lucky.

Lucky because we know next time it might be one of us.  And we welcome them (and their outstanding effort of intensity) to our committed little community!