When Opportunity Knocks, I Mean Sprints

Chris, a fellow FitFluential Ambassador and gifted videographer, was in town last week. He invited me to a gym where he was filming. Though it wasn’t far away, I’d never heard of it before.
He told me many NFL and NBA stars train there and dropped names like Devin Hester and Luol Dang. Being a fair-weather fan who typically climbs aboard the fan wagon around playoff time, this wasn’t a huge draw for me. But remember what I said yesterday about the Caveman and his NFL obsession? I knew I had to to this. For him. I know. I’m generous that way. So I ventured out on a field trip.

I followed the signs and soon I was there. Ok kidding. You knew that right?

The place had a scaled down football field in the center of it, teeming with sinewy football types, sprinting, strength training, basically all phases of workout. Turns out they were prepping for the NFL combine: top prospects for the 2012 NFL draft.

Me? I sprinted too–for the door to get outta dodge.
Negative self-talk gremlins screamed in my head: You have no business here! Why did you come? They’ll laugh you right out of here. What were you thinking?

Before I could make my escape, I met Kyle, my trainer for the day.

He showed me the ‘wall of fame’ and told me that no less than five athletes who played in the Superbowl a couple of weeks ago train here. I fought hard to not inch toward the door.

I toured treatment rooms where the players go for their angry hamstrings, massage and such and was ~~intimidated~~ impressed by a menacing collection of strength training equipment.

Walking piriformis stretch to lunge

My personal workout began with a dynamic warm up sans shoes. We actually worked the bottoms of my feet: something I never do.
Then there were sprints…
…and lunges…
…and high knees…
…with pushups in between…
…then more sprints…
…oh and squats…plenty of those.

I pulled the sled…

…then dragged it some more.

There were heavy ropes so badass but ouchie…
…and a TRX-like contraption I was too tired to recall the name of.

The party was far from over. Next up was the pushup ladder. Up and down those squares I went, thanking my lucky stars for upper body strength and praying my guns wouldn’t fail me now. Were the NFL combine guys staring? Laughing? Does my butt look fat? My negative self-talk gremlins were too tired to care.

At last it was time for core/balance work.

Before it was over, I spent quality time with stretchy bands, medicine balls and even a mini trampoline.

Maybe I missed it but I heard no snickering from the NFL peanut gallery. They were pretty wrapped up in punishing workouts of their own.

Chris and I.

It was a fantastic workout, very different from anything I’d done before. I soaked up tons of information, especially about the importance of strengthening smaller muscle groups (like around the knees, ankles, hips, shoulders) to help prevent injury. This was completely out of my comfort zone. Had I let my inner critic prevail, I would not have dared to go on this adventure at all. And I would would have regretted it.

Thank you Chris for inviting me!

Do you have an inner critic? What does it say?

What takes you outside your comfort zone?