8 Weeks of Pain: The Second and Third Workouts

The first workout at the Chris Frye Gym, even if it was nausea-inducing, wasn’t the worst. It wasn’t the worst because I had no clue as to what I was getting into. I treated it like the first time I had sex – close my eyes and go at it.

But with the second and third workouts there was a nugget of anxiety growing in my stomach. I now had the experience to know exactly how much it’s going to hurt, and I got to stew in it until we went to the gym at 2:00. Sweet.

Workout No. 2 began for Matt and I with the Prowler, the mother scratchin’ Prowler, that 90-pound beast of a sled that we pushed up and down the length of the gym, slowly turning the artificial turf it rides on top of into a fine green powder. This is our warm-up, and it’s a bad sign for things to come. After the Prowler we put on boxing gloves and move into the cage, which lounges in the corner of the gym. Inside the cage we take on the three-headed monster of burpees, shadow boxing and skip knee kicks. Honestly, the specifics of each movement aren’t so important; it’s more about the diversity of the exercises and the amazing level of effort that each requires. It’s literally a breath-taking, heart-pounding, legs-burning challenge each and every time.

During each of the workouts I find myself turning my mind off, almost unable to communicate and immersing myself in the physicality of the exercise I’m doing. At one point during the trifecta of cage exercises, with sweat pouring off my nose, my whole body burning, I reach a calm place, things get quiet and I can hear my breathing and feel my heart beat. No one would know by looking at me, but with Wolfmother blaring over the gym speakers and this 230-pound bald dude screaming at me, while trying to shadow punch the corner bag of a boxing ring I find a touch of peace.

My third workout is more of the same: anxiety, sweat, peace and then I forget something at the gym. Every time I’ve worked out, I’ve left something behind. It’s become a scale for me that measures how much effort it took to complete a workout. After the first workout I’m surprised I didn’t leave in just my boxers and with car keys in hand. The second workout was either less strenuous or maybe I was better prepared because I left behind an iPod, my wedding ring, a pair of shoes and my water bottle. After the last workout I can’t say exactly what I left behind, because I am going to have to go back to figure it out.

When I finally did leave the gym after the third workout I asked Trisha, Chris’ wife and total life manager, if she could take my fat measurements as a baseline for my fitness level. She said sure, I could take one of their devices home to try it in the morning when I was free of any food from the day. She turned it on and showed me how to use it, punch some numbers and hold it at arm’s length. She said it would be high now because of the time of day, but I still looked at my results. It was high but I waited to pass judgment until the following morning. The next morning I got out of bed, came downstairs and picked up the device, punched in my numbers and was completely floored to find that as of November 11, 2009, I was carrying around 50 pounds of fat or about 22% of my total body mass.

Seven weeks to go, time to hit the gym.

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

~ Todd Trimakas