Program Minimum

Last Saturday after one of my Group Training Classes I had a student comment, "How do you do it?" What she meant was, how do I train with such intensity, consistently every week. My answer? My answer was, "This is my 'program minimum'....I know what I used to look like, and I know what I look like now....and, I kinda want to keep what I have now. And to do that, this is 'program minimum'".

I have such a routine....I love routine. I love my schedule and it sucks when something forces me to change anything about it. I can do the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again. My first real experience with repetition was when I practiced Tae Kwon Do. My favorite training day was Wednesdays when we practiced "forms", Kata.....until you got it perfect, never missing a step and performing all of the skills in order....and if you were lucky enough to do it perfectly, then your next goal was to do it twice, perfectly! Mark always describes the same phenomenon as a gymnast.....how many times in a row can you perform a routine perfectly?

Mark is a former Elite Gymnast....do you know what that means? Seriously.....no joke.... Being an Olympic Level Gymnast is about so much more that knowing how to flip around on some apparatus, or swing on a bar, or do a handstand. Being an Olympic Level athlete of any kind means training 8 hours a day, every day.....program minimum.....

Wake up 7:00am , be in classes 'til 12:00pm, lunch. Be in the gym by 1:00pm and start off training each event for 1 hour. Which meant 6 events, 6 hours, always going in order. Warm up, stretching for 45 min. (just try stretching for 45 minutes...nothing else! No one but a serious athlete does this), and bouncing trampoline. Floor "Ex". Side horse. Rings. Parallel Bars. Vault. High Bar. Strength and Conditioning work.....crosses, planches, straight arm and straight leg presses to handstand, for reps.....on rings or parralell bars....or floor, or side horse....as well as hanging leg raises, front levers for time....and lots of other stuff.....try a few of those exercises and let me know how it goes for you.....every day of the week......for years.....

Back to my silly little life.....

Sunday....One measly little Bikram yoga class.

Monday....some real training kind of stuff starts happening..... 6:00am Spinning. 7:00am Get-ups @ Equinox, drive to SJ to teach beginning KB Swing @ Balance Yoga Center, 8:45am and then attend 9:30am Bikram yoga.

Tuesday.....6:00-7:00am Group KB training class @ Girya. Max Vo2 @ Equinox 7:15-8:00am. 9:30am Bikram Yoga (BYC)

Wednesday..... early morning food prep, short 20 minute walk around neighborhood, and then off to BYC for 7:15am Bikram. 9:00-9:30 teach BeginningKB Swing. 9:30 2nd Bikram yoga class.

Thursday.....7:00am, KB Swing, 7:30am-8:15 Advanced KB (dbls, presses, squats, etc), 8:30am Beginning Swing. 9:00-9:30 Level 2 KB skills on my own. 9:30-10:30 Spinning, (really, only until about 10:15am). Shower. PT clients at Girya, and more Level 2 training with Mark until 1:00pm.

Friday.....thank God it's Friday! 5:30am & 7:15am Bikram yoga. Beginning Swing 9:00-9:30.

Saturday.....7:00am, Level 2 skills. 7:30am Learn to Swing. 8:00-9:00 Max. 9:00-9:45 Intermediate Swing. 9:45-10:15 Beginning Swing or PT......I'm thinking about starting a Walking Club at 11:00am....until the staff of Lululemon, Palo Alto, decide to take me up on my offer to teach KB's at the Store Saturday afternoons......

Sunday....repeat.....

Really....I should include 45 minutes of stretching everyday, lol....seriously, I'm not kidding! I need to take something away and replace it with stretching....Mark suggests taking away Spinning!

Did I ever have a real job? Good Lord I better pass my freakin' pull-up test in 5 weeks.....I'm sure my BFF Fawn has this in the freakin' bag......argh!

My favorite things in this order.....(besides my Sweetie, and doing anything and everything with the love of my life, including these things....)....training, eating/cooking/wine, napping.....

Life is rough, isn't it? Good God. I may be the luckiest person in the world. All I have to do is, show up and train, love and appreciate my Sweetie, cook all of my own foods, look in the mirror and love what I see.

Program minimum.....look in the mirror and love what I see....really that's all I need.