8 Weeks of Pain: The Beginning

Strength, speed, power, suffering, salvation. That’s the motto on which Chris Frye founded his Charlotte gym. And Matt Kokenes and I have decided to take on a three-day-a week, eight-week challenge, with Frye leading us down the path to whole-body righteousness.

It’s Friday, November 6, a day before my 37th birthday. With a good deal of apprehension we track down Frye’s gym in a converted warehouse off of West Tremont, just beyond the South End Design Center. It’s our first workout and we have no idea what to expect, just that it’s probably going to hurt.

I’ve been working out regularly for over 10 years now, lifting weights, gaining strength, but never really with a true mission. I played Division I college tennis almost 20 years ago and consider myself to be in pretty good shape. Matt and I decided to take on this challenge not only because we are gluttons for punishment, but also because we love new experiences that stretch our perception of the world around us. Up until now our experiences have been focused on our mental abilities; this would be our first to test the physical.

Chris is not what you might expect. The fact that he’s in great physical shape is a given, but the typical meathead stereotype is absent. He quickly moves from talking about squats and pushups to primal eating and the proper balance of amino acids and carbohydrates in our daily diet.

We get dressed, in the gym’s surprisingly nice locker rooms, and get ready for our workout.

The pain begins to build slowly. To warm up we jump rope 500 times; as we do I’m watching Matt to see how he’s doing. I’m already feeling winded but I hope I don’t look as bad as I feel. After the jump rope comes some dynamic stretching, and I’m thinking this isn’t so tough. It’s been about 10 minutes into our hourlong workout and I’m OK.

Then the workout begins. Hanging off gymnastic rings attached to the ceiling, we flatten our bodies and do 10 pushups, quickly move to dips, pull-ups and then the killer, the Prowler. The Prowler is a 90-pound sled that we push the length of the gym and back. I feel like an ox plowing a field in the 1800s, except my field is off of West Tremont and it’s coated in green indoor/outdoor carpet. It kicks my ass.

We spend the rest of our hour working through this routine, pushup, dip, pull-up, plow, again, pushup, dip, pull-up, plow. Thankfully I didn’t know how many sets we were going to do, because I would have quit up front. About halfway through I start to wonder just how fast can a human heart beat, because I think I’ve reached it. I start to wonder what my lunch from The Roasting Company is going to taste like the second time around, and I pray that eventually this will end.

The workout does end, my heart doesn’t explode, and thankfully I only ate The Roasting Company once that Friday. But we are completely spent, definitely beyond my comfort level. I know this because we have to wait a bit at the gym before our drive back to the office, our arms too shaky to stay in our lane down South Boulevard. The next day I realize I not only left my iPod at the gym, I also left my shoes. Day One complete.

The Workout:
500 jump ropes
Dynamic stretching
Then the pain begins:
5 sets of:
10 hanging ring pushups
10 dips
10 pull-ups
One round trip with the Prowler, a sled loaded with 90 pounds and pushed from behind by yours truly.

See more at Chris’s Gym www.chris-frye.com

~ Todd Trimakas