Thursday Night Blowout

To see someone fighting to lift their body up off the ground one more time, simply through sheer force of will even though the muscles have clearly drained their tanks dry, to see someone hurling 20lbs through the air with every last pound of force they possess in preparation for another round when it seemed no less than a miracle that they caught the ball in the first place, to witness someone looking back over their shoulder at their partner as they hurtled across the floor, knowing that every moments delay meant that much more work to be born by the other...this is to know....Dude, you're going to want to ice that sh*t down!

I'm not sure I've seen a performance that embodied such a sense

of selfless abandon and a whole hearted sense of giving ones self over to a workout as we saw this week. When the system began to breakdown, for began to suffer, "...it's a product of my not stepping into a gym in the last 4 years..." Well, yes, if you're not accustomed to this kind of work, it's going to be hard, but let's not confuse that with a lesser degree of fitness. Fitness doesn't just exist in the gym. Some would even argue that real fitness doesn't exist in the gym at all. It exists in the rest of our lives. The gym is merely prep work.

Running, jumping, climbing, sailing, pulling, just plain moving, all of these are hallmarks of fitness. We are merely conditioned to the demands most regularly placed upon the body. I'd never last an hour with some of the rock climbers I know at my gym. My forearms would probably divorce themselves from the rest of my body in sheer protest after a mere 20 minutes or so. These folks lasted 70 minutes the other night. What's not fit about that?