Hardcore Alley

There I was last night, sitting in my room getting ready to do what I do. I had just finished watching Knocked Up for the third time and was ready to hit the gym. Went on one last round to make sure all of the homework was completed and baths were taken before I hit the door. And then it happened, my wife decided that we needed to talk. But what could be so important that it couldn’t wait for Back and Bis to be completed. One thing was for sure, we weren’t going to talk about how she could do a better job cleaning up the house or how maybe she needs to stop trying to control every minute of my day. No, we are going to talk about what the F^&K I’m doing wrong. The topic is not the point, the point is why do we have to talk now, on my gym time?  Why can’t we keep those 2 hours a day sacred. 

I mean think about, the entire day you are preparing for your training session, you are eating for it, getting Psyched up for it, getting mentally prepared for battle. And then all of a sudden ambushed, all I’m saying is that when you are looking forward to something the entire day and get the rug yanked from under you to talk about some Bull Shit, don’t expect me not to be a little assholish. Maybe I am going overboard, but that tends to happen when you think you’re going to hit heavy back so you take two hot rox, but because you didn’t go to the gym to use that energy you’re up all night watching Frasier and tired and irritable the next morning.

I may need to establish some gym commandments.

1. Let no woman (or Husband) or child disturb during that appointed gym time
2. Let no cell phone ringeth or request be made

  
-CJ

Sorry this is not about anything relating to fitness, but KNOCKED UP is the funniest movie you will ever see.

You know your hobby has morphed into something totally different from when you started when your every thought and action centers around that activity. Each meal and supplement taken each day works toward the fulfillment of your goals. I mean, you still have a regular life, you go to work, you play with the kids, do the wife, husband or girlfriend thing (or whatever it is you do). You attend all of the kids games and help with the homework. But underneath it all, there is always this other thing, I mean we do our best to blend in with them, but is just something that regular people wouldn’t understand. What makes sense to us, is totally weird to them. Right now in my office, I have the big excercise ball for abs, the rubber cable bands for my rotator cuff excercises, and 10 pound and 35 pound dumbells to get those mid and rear delts up where they need to be. The regular people in my department don’t get that. They don’t get that I have the fridge stock with Muscle Milk to get in those 5 to 6 meals. They also don’t understand that I need to have this strong smelling rub on my shoulders with a heating pad because I hit shoulders hard the night before.

What I am saying is that regular people don’t understand this thing of ours, they have their thoughts on other things…what’s on television tonight, am I being productive at work, is my SUV big enough, does my neighbor make more money than me. They are pre-occupied with B.S. They don’t understand how good it feels to challenge yourself and come out the vistor. To set a goal and not stop until you fulfill it. Have they ever heard 45 pound plates rattle? Do they know how good it feels when blood rushes into your biceps and engourge them with so much blood you can hardly bare to flex them? 

A guy told me last week that he didn’t want to work out because he didn’t want to get to big for his clothes. I said "I didn’t know there was even such a thing". Have you ever noticed that your dedication to this thing makes the regulars self conscious, like they feel they have to make excuses and justify when they eat garbage. There was a party at my office, and we had this huge chocolate cake. Anyway, when they were passing around slices, I passed. (I had just seen the abs of body auditor and black superman and have become determined to get my stomach together) They immediately began to defend their decision to eat the cake. And even tried to force me to eat it. They said things lke, "One piece won’t hurt", you know the talk. But the fact is that it will affect me, immediately. That’s one step further from my goal, it means I have once again stumbled…well I am tired of stumbling. I don’t ever plan on stepping a foot on stage, or making money from this thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to me and deserving of all my effort.  So there it is, this thing of ours that sets us apart from regular people, or mere mortals as I like to call them.

CJ

I saw this lady this morning in the gym working hard. She was really getting it, pushing it to the limit. She was severely out of shape, but she was doing it. I looked at her and was saying to myself, GET IT GIRL". I was thinking, it’s easy to encourage people on BB.com, why not do it face to face. I wanted to walk over there and give her some encouraging words, then I thought she might take it the wrong way, so I backed down. But luckily later on in the session, she ended up sitting right next door to me on the bench. She was doing some hard ass one leg press with one leg on a bench, and then I said it, "Youre really getting after it this morning huh". She responded with the usual, "TRYING TO". Then I told her how I could see that she had been working hard, and how she had made some great improvements since she began. I think this made her day, I mean who doesn’t like to hear positive feedback.  Anyway, let’s take this BB.com attitude wherever we go, always looking for the positive in people, it can’t hurt and i doesn’t cost anything.

 CJ