Yesterday I was feeling nostalgic, and reminiscing about the very first time I put an oly bar on my back. My sister had challenged me to a lifting contest (which she later bailed on...) and one of the rules was you had to use the oly bar. The power rack was in use...so I asked JC to put one of the bars off a bench onto my back so I could see what it felt like.
I shared this memory with JC just one day after doing an almost parallel, 240 lb squat. His response was "what a mountain you are climbing". He's right. And the "view" gets more breathtaking the higher I climb. This journey to health IS a mountain I'm climbing. It's steep, and challenging. I have no clue what I will find when I reach the summit. It would have been so easy to quit climbing, so many times. When my dad died AND I started a new job in the same week, I could have quit. When JC left...when Buff quit. When I ended up with horrible elbow tendinitis 2 months after I started working with Superman. But I didn't. Somehow, I know the view from the top is going to be amazing...and I REALLY want to see it.
As I am "climbing", the view is getting better. It's the little things. Having an off day and having someone walk up to me and tell me that seeing ME push through a workout has inspired them to keep pushing. Realizing that I look 40 lbs lighter than I really am. Throwing around 50lb bags of chicken feed and remembering when I could barely lift them. Realizing that it has been months since I used my asthma inhaler...the one I used to have to use before every workout. That I've gotten through a winter without a major respiratory illness. And then there is the gym stuff-- hitting PRs on the weights, being quirky and having to do my stuff on the unstable side of the BOSU (for some reason I fall if I stand on the round side), actually accomplishing tasks that make me wonder if Superman has lost his mind (I love him, but the man enjoys trying to break me).
If you're going to climb a mountain, you need safety equipment. JC and Superman are mine. I don't see JC often, but he's just a text away if I need a little wisdom, or encouragement. I would have never had the courage to become a Trainer if it he hadn't suggested it. Other people had, but not people who had seen me in action in the gym. Superman is my safety in the gym, literally. When I'm going for a squat PR, there is the potential for me to get "stuck in the hole". I need to have 100% confidence in my spotter, and I do. The other day when I did my 240lb squat, I got stuck in the hole. Twice. Each time, Superman waited for my cue, then gently stood me up and helped me rack the bar. The 3rd time, he gave me a verbal cue when I hit the right depth, then verbal encouragement until the bar was racked.
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