What is it like to travel, and make fitness part of your life? I have had to struggle with this one. I remember having an internship in Mexico for a summer and not having a place to workout. There was a house a few blocks away with some machines mostly for women, and that was the only gym around. I traveled around the country and hardly ever saw a gym where we went, so you try and find a way and stay active and I was so exhausted from speaking and thinking in multiple languages, and doing my work and being away from home, the last thing I wanted to do was sit ups or push ups.
I went to the Amazon Rainforest in my 30s to learn Quichua and do fieldwork. I stayed there for the summer and in preparation for the trip, I thought about working out. I wanted to stay active and decided to take some bands for doing exercises. When we got to Quito, we took a bus to the destination and we were surrounded by jungle and small buildings to sleep in. I remember going to an empty room a few days after arriving and tying my bands to a pole, and starting to do some exercises. It was then that a Quichua man walked in, looked at me, and giggled because of what I was doing. He found it amusing, me inside playing with bands. There were a few other fitness-oriented people there, and I saw some of them running through the jungle in the morning. I opted eventually to do chores, some labor, and walk everywhere. What I realized in my travels is that my growing up with a gym, weights, sports, and fitness was not something known around the world. There are so many people who do not even have it on their radar. They don’t even know what a gym is like.
I love working out and training. Paul and I share it in common. We were two completely different types of athletes, but we both love training. At first, when Groundwork Promotions started, we did not get to train much. He eventually started going to places and now he’s committed to his triathlon training. I am still working towards my own athletic path, at this stage in my life. I was a track athlete in college and I did olympic lifting, power lifting, bodybuilding, and cross training. I squatted over 400 lbs, deadlifted over 350, and benched over 225 lbs and I was a powerhouse. I even qualified for the football player’s liftoff competition that they had every year. But I was 21 years old and I’m in my 50s now and have not lifted heavy in years. So I have only known heavy lifting most of my life, with a brief stint of combat training in 2012. The truth is, I do not know myself as an athlete anymore, especially at this stage in my life and I’m going to confess that I’m stuck. With all the things happening to me and that have happened to me in recent years, I have no idea how to know myself right now. But I want to Self-Create and find out who I am. I want to know myself as an athlete again.
We have represented so many types of athletes, instructors, and gym owners in the past several years. I watch carefully, listen and pay attention, listening to my own body and figuring out what kind of athlete I want to be right now. I know this must be the process people go through when working with us. They may not know themselves yet as a business owner or professional, and they may be at a certain stage in their lives, given the goals they have. So who are they now, what do they want now, what can they do now given what they want to accomplish?
I sympathize with these questions. I am in the same situation. I am asking myself, who am I right now, and what can I do right now, to make fitness part of my brand, and have it drive my professional life. I love it that much.
_____________
Photo of 10th Planet Oceanside
