Determined To Succeed

You all know I started taking martial arts classes about two months ago as a new way to workout given by the awesome sensei Doug Shaffer. It is awesome! I do things like shadowboxing, kicks, bag punches, leg and floor exercises and stretches and I do my best to try to repeat those exercises in a gym when I am not in my classes…

…but I never told you about how it FEELS to do it alone – without an instructor and to do these things in front of others.

When I am in my sensei’s training area, even though there is a huge clear window at the front which allows people to stare all they want (and sometimes they do) and the door is always open so they can come in I do not feel self-conscious about doing my shadowboxing, Turkish get-ups (my least favorite thing but only because by the time I do it my arms are really tired) and line kicks because my sensei is there with me. He is obviously guiding me. A casual passerby can look or drop in and say “O.K. the big guy’s the student and the other guy is telling him how to move…”

When I am alone in my gym it’s a different story. The gym I go to is of decent size but has machines and equipment throughout, enough to make line kicks hard because they are in the way and the space is way smaller. It’s also a challenge to find a good big space on the floor to do the get-ups and other floor stuff but I manage. Those things I can handle. The biggest problem I face is the problem we all face when we go to the gym…other people watching.

When people see you on an elliptical or using a treadmill or using free weights they can see something else physical, kind of like when people see an instructor in the room. It processes in the brain. Even if someone is on the floor doing crunches or push-ups you are familiar with those exercises so it doesn’t seem so, well, foreign. But when you are trying to walk the length of a gym back and forth kicking the air in front of you, or are trying to defeat Ivan Drago from “ROCKY IV” in your head as you punch air you can start to feel eyes on you. And even if they are not they FEEL like they are, because it’s not “normal,” like “what’s he doing?”

That’s when I focus and picture my sensei right next to me telling me “Give me two minutes of kicking legs and boxing arms…GO!” I put aside what I perceive as being looked at and focus on what I am doing. When I stand in the corner looking in the mirror practicing my punches or, better yet, my upward knee kicks, I imagine my sensei there telling me to “give him ten on each side, then go back to shadowboxing.”

Today when I hit the gym it’s going to be all about the abs, doing this rocking back and forth thing (kind of like a turtle on its back) which works out your abs like a sonofabitch. And I know that, to the untrained eye, I will look like a turtle. But I will look like a turtle doing his best not to get back on his feet but one trying to firm up his “flabs of steel.”

If you go to the gym and worry about how others look at you, don’t. That is a silly, silly waste of time and energy. Most people  go to a gym to do exactly what you are doing – get fit and exercise. I am sure there are some people who go to show off and/or to judge and those people can suck it. If you go to a gym or other public place to workout you have already taken that step. Don’t let perception drag you down.

Just imagine your own personal sensei (whatever/whoever that is) right by your side giving you the encouragement you need to keep going.