...not that kind of high! ain't nobody got time fo' dat! i'm talking about the high you experience after an ass-kicking workout and is the very thing that keeps me coming back for more.
people often wonder and ask about my dedication to fitness; they ask how i manage to get my ass up every morning at 445am to workout; they ask how i manage to steer clear of all sweets/junk/fatty foods for more than a year.
the answer, my friends: i'm addicted to healthy living and the exercise rush.
i never understood "the runner's high" until now.... knowing that you pushed yourself beyond what you thought was possible and realizing that you did it and survived is the most addictive feeling. i seriously can't begin to describe how awesome i feel after a hard, murderous workout and knowing that i killed it makes me feel like one badass motherfucker. knowing that i survived a workout that i couldn't have done 12 months ago is the most poweful feeling and knowing how strong i am makes me crave for more; makes me want to push myself that much harder because i know i can do it. that feeling alone is totally worth dragging my ass out of bed every morning at 445am.
you all know that i'm in serious tough mudder training mode right now and my current (indoor) program consists of a p90x2/insanity asylum/les mills ultimate warrior tribrid program to skyrocket my cardio endurance (asylum), further strengthen my body/improve my pull-ups (p90x2) and i threw in less mills because when you're training like a warrior, how can you not feel badass?
today i experienced the biggest post-exercise rush while driving home after my first kettlebell class. i had never worked with kettlebells before and i didn't want to start on my own simply because you can really hurt youself if your form is wrong. i had every intention of incorporating kettlebell training into my mudder routine because not only are kettlebell exercises fantastic at improving strength and cardio endurance, but it's great for building grip strength and hip drive; two very important requirements when doing tough mudder.
the local MMA gym that's around the corner from my house has kettlebell classes every saturday afternoon so i went to try it out. i was the only newbie in the class and i was a little nervous because i didn't know what to expect; i sort of thought that we'd be standing around swinging kettlebells but goddamn was i wrong. i swear, this was kettlebell class on steroids because it was interval training with kettlebells, plyometrics, crazy ab work and within the 60 minutes, i'm pretty sure we only had three 1-minute breaks. all i have to say is thank god i've been doing beachbody programs for the past year because although i was a newbie to this class, i held my own. in a lot of ways, it was like insanity with kettlebells.
the warm-up was tough (repeated plyo drills, bear crawls, burpees, sprints, death) and i remember looking over at the guy beside me who was red-faced, looked like he swallowed his heart and we both whispered "holy fuck" at the same time. we became instant friends. it was then followed by multiple circuits of kettlebell lifts/swings with squats, jumps and lunges and for good fun, the instructor made us do 30 plyo lunges, 30 burpees, 25 pushups and something else i can't remember because at that point, my mind was white with pain. the core/ab work was intense and here's something interesting: there were 10 people in the class and for each ab exericse, each of us had to count to 10 outloud while doing the exericse and the rest of the class followed your pace. not only does this put pressure on you to keep going (when you only want to lay down and die) but it certainly motivates you to push past the pain and keep going because the rest of the class is following you. it was brilliant yet vile because your core is on fire, your heart is in your throat and you're struggling to spit the numbers out yet you push yourself beyond what you thought you were capable of.
in other words, this class was fucking awesome and i plan to do it every wednesday and saturday.
