MY TRAINING: by Jasmine Nichols
HOW THE WORKOUTS WERE INTRODUCED
The workouts were first introduced about 3 weeks ago by my coach Young Lee.
He first brought up the idea of staying fit and active a couple of days after quarantine went into effect. He thought that just because we weren’t getting a workout on the track, we shouldn’t just turn into complete couch potatoes.
So he shared the idea of doing some workouts from home.
The thing is he lives about 5 hours from me, so we wouldn’t be able to do the workouts in person. So we decided to do the workouts over zoom.
The way it works is, either he or I would choose a yoga video and a HIIT workout (Hight-Intensity Interval Workout), and we put it into a calendar that both of us could view and change at any time.
Once we picked the 2 video’s we both set up our laptops in a position to where we could both view each other doing the workout.
Then we would begin the videos that would leave my body in pain for days.
BEGINNING THE WORKOUT
I think the first 5 workouts were the most pain driven things I ever felt.
When we first started doing the workouts I wasn’t too pleased with them, but Young kept telling me that it’ll get better, once I get used to them.
But until I got used to the workouts, I dreaded them. They made me hurt in places I didn’t even know existed.
While I was doing the First workout, I seriously regretted agreeing to do the workouts. But I didn’t want to quit (mainly because I didn’t want my parents to be disappointed).
At first, after each of the workouts, I didn’t feel very accomplished. I just felt like my Blubber coated muscles would fall off.
But Young and my dad continued to tell me that eventually, I would begin to like the workouts.
When I heard them say that, I wondered why anyone would like putting their body in absolute agony. The only thing I kinda enjoyed about the workouts (If enjoy is the right word) was the music that played in the background of the video.
I want you to keep in mind that we were doing these HIIT workouts every day for about 2 and a half weeks. So every day I would have to work out with the pain and soreness from the previous day.
You may be wondering why I said 2 and a half weeks instead of 3 weeks, as stated in the first sentence of this blog. We will get to that.
Below is a video by Natacha Océane, one of my favorite of the many workout instructors that we found and tried.
CURRENT DAY WORKOUTS
Flashing forward to the present day it has gotten A LOT easier to do the workouts. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not in pain anymore. It just means I’m not in pure agony constantly.
My thoughts on the workouts now are that they are not unbearable. What I mean by that is I don’t feel as reluctant to do the workouts as I used to be.
Of course, the workouts aren’t my absolute favorite thing in the world, but they aren’t the thing I dread most in the world either.
If I had to rank how I feel about workouts on a scale of 1-10 when I first started I would give it a 3. Now if I had to rank them, I say about a 6.5. It’s not the highest, but it certainly is not the lowest.
I’ve been doing the workouts every day at noon for the past 2 and a half weeks (as you now already know). But recently I have cut the workouts back to every other day.
You might be thinking “why? it sounded like you were not hating them as much.” or “You said you didn’t want to quit.”
And I don’t.
The reason I have cut back my workouts is because I have just gotten really busy with school, and homework (with the end of the year coming pretty fast).
And if I don’t get good grades I won’t be able to ride motorcycles until my grades come up. And if I have bad grades ending the year, I may not be able to ride for the whole summer.
So I’m trying to put school before everything else.
TO SUM IT ALL UP
The workouts were an idea that Young came up with that I decided to go along with. They started out absolutely painful, but they slowly got better. It made me feel better, and it probably made me stronger (to be honest I don’t know exactly how much stronger I am), and it made a notable difference in my appearance (based on what people have told me). But overall the workouts are getting better, and (from what I have been told) one day I will actually really enjoy them.
