Step It Up Fitness
Has anyone noticed how many sequels there have been this summer, Spiderman, Pirates of the Carribean, the Bournes series, etc. Well, in honor of all those sequels, I decided to have one myself. I signed up for Step It Up Fitness and along the way I learned how to be become a human lint brush (but you’ll have to wait to the end to hear about that).
I can sense the stunned silence out there in the world as you read this. Why in the world would I want to subject myself to the pain and anquish of bootcamp at 5:45 in the morning. And as I’m writing this, I would have to agree with your stunned silence. The first time I signed up, I definitely didn’t know what I was thinking. When I signed my wife up for last month, I knew what I was thinking, but don’t tell her that (if you do, I’ll deny ever having written this).
So I suppose I have to take some responsibility and admit that I liked the results. I felt better after the camp last time around and wanted to see if I could feel even better this time. Kind of like trying to figure out if the second icy cold beer on a hot day will make you feel better.
As you may have remembered, I didn’t finish the last camp on a high note. Managed to tweak my hamstring on the next to last day, which made Post-Evaluation Day a little difficult. I did manage to improve all of my tests, but I definitely wanted to come back and see if I could take it to a new level.
We started off on Evaluation Day as we do every day with a nice leisurely stroll around Smyrna Market Village (yeah right). In fact, IMHO the warmup was too long for my standards since we still had our timed run coming up. We came back, did our dynamic stretches and then headed over for our timed run. Somehow our path was now 0.7 miles instead of a supposed 0.8 miles last time around and the actual path was longer than the one we ran last time. Go figure.
Anyway, sans hamstring injury I was very happy with my run. I improved my original time by 2 minutes. Not sure if that shows the power of the Step It Up Fitness program or the power of taking a month off. I completed all of my other drills, some have improved, most have dropped a bit. But all in all, I was happy with my results.
Now that we have completed our evaluation, it was time for setting our goals. And in true Step It Up fashion, not only will I be receiving a cool keychain with my goals on it, but I’ve decided to step up the pressure and it will now be blasted into the Internet. I’ve decided on the following three.
- Improve all of my tests by 10%
- Have a positive attitude
- Win a million dollars
Not sure how I’ll be able to accomplish the last two, particularly the middle one, but I’ll give this Law of Attraction a try.
Before I forget, I should mention that this camp is back to the standard four days a week for four weeks, with two days of homework each week and one day off. That day off comes tomorrow and I can’t wait!!!
Our second day in camp this week involved a lot of pushups and just to punish the alums, we got to do extra. So much for alum privileges. I think we did about 500 pushups, give or take a couple. On a daily basis, we get a mixture of jogging, sprinting, upper and lower body conditioning, a lot of heavy breathing and plenty of ab work.
On Wednesday, we were off, but had homework. Apparently our fearless leader Harold decided to really piss me off by doubling the run times for alumni in the homework. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that I don’t like to run.
Thursday and Friday we were back in action at 5:45. We’ve gotten to enjoy lots of sprinting, slides and backpedaling drills, dips, toe-taps, mountain climbers, squat jumps, etc. We even had time on Friday to head over to Mt. Everest to do some sprints. Unfortunately, our leader Harold didn’t make it on Friday. Luckily, it was excused so we didn’t have extra pushups, but unfortunate for Harold as he apparently was trying to instruct some bees on proper pushup form and they revolted on him. A few bee stings later and he probably looked like Will Smith in Hitch.
Today was another day of homework. 40 minute run and three - 60 second bows & toes. “What the …..” was my reaction when I saw that. It’s now over and I can look forward to my day off tomorrow. Then the fun begins again next week.
I guess if you’ve made it this far, I need to explain how you too can become a human lint brush. We had a pretty intensive day this week with lots of pushups, crunches, and anything else they could think of to keep us on the grass. The grass had been recently mowed and it appears the preference is to mulch instead of bag. What that means is there are all these little bits of grass everywhere.
Combine the itsy bits of grass with the morning dew (and/or sprinklers) and sweat and you end up covered from head to toe in grass. I looked like some strange ecological project. I guess it’s just a way for the landscapers to have fun with us.
So if you’d like to be part of the Human Lintbrush Initiative, otherwise known as Step It Up Fitness, come on out on Tuesday at 5:45. It’s Bring a Friend Day and it’s a great opportunity to see that I’m not crazy, they really do make us do this stuff. Camps are held at Whitfield, Smyrna First Baptist and The Walker School.
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