Part two in a four-week series. Read part one here.
When I left you last, I was wrapping up the first day in my Power 30. For those who missed it, a Power 30 is a workout schedule from the LifeTree-published Dai Manuel’s Whole Life Fitness Manifesto. For four weeks, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and take on the program myself–15 minutes of moving with purpose, 5 minutes of meditation, and 10 minutes of personal development a day–to prove that it’s all we say it is.
That first day was easy enough, but I will admit that throughout the past week I encountered some health demons that tried to undermine my Whole Life mindset–not awesome. And I’m not just talking about the day I had a soft drink.
But every time these negatives come up, and I try to take the easy road out (say, the road that leads to Superstore to get a tub of butterscotch ripple ice cream instead of finishing my workout) I’m cut off at the pass by the Manifesto.
Now that I’m knee-deep in the program, one particular piece of Dai-advice (AdDaice? Anyone? No? Suit yourself) has set me straight every time I think the going is getting too tough to handle:
“Don’t forget to smile!”
I’ve noticed a near-invariable pattern in my workouts. I start with a load of energy (from my prescribed warm-up, of course) and charge into the first half of the workout like a bat out of hell. But then, at that halfway mark, I usually find myself contorting my face into all manner of strained shapes–I know when I’ve hit this point because I can no longer recognize myself in the mirror. The exercises become an incredible challenge that take all of my inner strength to accomplish and I feel like giving in. That’s when I remember page 124 of the book, a little box off to the side of the page reminding me that the most important part of the workout (well, after good form) is to smile. Really, smiling is part of good form–but Jillian Michaels ain’t gonna tell you that.
And when I do smile, I remember the workout is supposed to help me, not kill me. I also remember my why, the reason I’m going through this in the first place. The face goes from grotesque contortions to happiness and peace, and I can finish the rest of the workout in physical exertion but mental relaxation.
Meeting the Facebook Community
That’s not the only time I’ve tried to make the workouts hard for myself unnecessarily. Exercising is an activity that is supposed to feel hard, so when it doesn’t seem as hard or as complex as it should be, I get nervous and try to sabotage my own success. But, like Roger Rabbit in the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Dai always manages to save the baby just in time (me being the baby, of course). In fact, Dai’s checkmate–resulting in my giving up hope of ever being frustrated with my Power 30–came on Day 9 when I met the caterpillar stretches.
Compared to the simple, elegant push-up, caterpillar stretches are so gargantuan in scope that they require two pages and 11 poses in the book:
Caterpillar stretches: a metamorphosis
I’m not the most flexible guy, and as a result, I spent most of Day 9’s WOD just trying to figure out what the hell I was doing here. I did get the move after a few tries, but I started to wonder if they were named for the movements you do or the speed at which I was doing them. My workout had slowed to a crawl.
So I turned to the Whole Life Fitness Manifesto Facebook community for help.
This is a private community that anyone who buys the book gets to become a part of, meaning it’s full of people who are ready, willing, and able to help themselves–and, by extension, help you.
When I was having doubts about the caterpillar stretch, I posted my troubles, and within three or four minutes I had answers:
So it turns out I’m not the only one who does ’em slow! Nothing to worry about. I just had to go at the pace my body wanted me to go and I would come out the other side golden.
With the help of Dai’s book and Facebook community, caterpillar stretches have become a powerful indicator as to how much I–and you–can improve in a short period of time. My first stretch was pretty abysmal: between a lack of balance and flexibility, I was falling all over the place. But after only ten repetitions, and because the Facebook community convinced me to take my time, I was able to enjoy the stretch and feel its benefits, and was six inches closer to touching my toes. Short of a personal trainer, there’s not too much out there that can beat that kind of timely workout assistance.
So with an entire community supporting me and a full week of Whole Life Fitness behind me, I’m ready to take on week 2. And if I do that at caterpillar speed, it’s completely okay. Because as long as I stick with the program, I’m confident I’ll come out of this 4-week Power 30 cocoon as beautiful as a butterfly.
A butterfly with sick abs, that is.
Ready to spread your wings? Pick up your own copy of Dai’s Whole Life Fitness Manifesto here.
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