Today I participated in the #f45playoffs at @f45_training_dumbarton. I started working out there in early March, just doing cardio 2 times a week. In mid-April I shifted my programming to do each morning at F45, 6-7 days a week, with a mix of cardio & strength training. I am also doing some heavier lifts 3x a week as well. It's an arduous schedule, which I can't keep up forever, but for now it is fun.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFTAyagY0nQ&w=854&h=480]

Today was Playoffs. It's a test of strength and conditioning that acts as a "benchmark" for performance. It's a teen minute, rather intense workout intended to tax the body and see how well you do.

After completing the test, I scored a 255 out of 1,000. I spent most of the subsequent morning beating myself up for not doing better. After all, I've been "fitnessing" for a good three years now, so I should be doing better, right?

As I dwelled on it, I saw my "Phoenix Award" sitting on the bookshelf and smiled. It reminded me of where I came from. An award from my previous gym in Connecticut, and particular my amazing coach there, it recognized that I nearly burned to the ground and rose from ashes. It's a reminder that, truth be told, if I hadn't changed three years ago I probably wouldn't be writing this right now. I was morbidly obese, tired, depressed, and just didn't want to keep going.

In the years I was at Anytime Fitness in Connecticut, I changed my whole life. Activity, eating, and thinking all evolved to be more fitness driven. While I was there, I did some "functional" cardio work. I did heavy lifting. It was a good combination that I found enjoyable so that is exactly what I did. I made tremendous progress, and become stronger than I ever had been.

When I moved to Richmond, I sort of found myself lost. No longer with my CT coach, I found myself looking for the next big fitness thing. Did some hypertrophy focused stuff. Did some strength focused stuff with strict form and less “powerlifting” focus. I never really felt it gel.

What I found in F45, I discovered and realized, was what made my time ramping up fitness in CT so enjoyable. It was this mix of functional work, added with my off-site heavier lifting. It was the combination of efforts to get stronger while making myself a better ATHLETE. I go back to that word, athlete, because we referred to myself as Ben the Athlete in CT because I always worked to train as one. It was never enough for me to just be “regular gym guy” but I wanted to be trained and treated like an aspiring athlete.

So two months into full time, and three months total after nearly a year and a half away from functional training, I found that my conditioning wasn’t quite what I feel it should be, and by that I mean it sucks. I found my strength, while I am very strong in short bursts, doesn’t have lasting endurance. This is where I am working to expand that and push myself truly to that “athlete” mentality I moved away from a year and half ago.

It’s amazing how sometimes we come full circle to find what we truly want. Sure, I scored 255/1000 on the test today. I also haven’t done this stuff very long recently. More over, there is a lot of stuff in the F45 regimen that simply wasn’t in my old functional programming. Rowers, box jumps, bench hops, lateral jumps and tuck jumps, etc. These are all things that are fairly new to my programming.

I have a fear of heights, and this stuff has helped me, in just a couple of months, to start to overcome that. I’ve gone for a mortified fear of plyoboxes to jumping on the 12” box with no fear. I hopped over the hurdles on the shuttle run hurdles even though I thought in my mind I wouldn’t clear them, tangle my feet up, and fall flat on my rear.

I’m at 255/1000. It’s the baseline. It’s a start. Now it’s time to continue the effort I began three years ago… build Ben the Athlete. It’s going to be hard work, it’s going to be a lot of effort, but I am committed to this and to making myself perform better, get faster, get stronger, and be an all around better athlete. My coach in CT nicknamed me the Phoenix for a reason… no matter what happens, no matter how much something hurts, no matter how close I get to burning up, I always rise up to the challenge. It’s time be untamed and get at it and build the next level Ben 3.0. Beta testing begins today, and the release is going to be damn epic!