September 22, 2008
Lorrie

I love magazines, especially those that have anything to do with sports and health and fitness. In fact, I am a sucker for buying yearly subscriptions from the neighbor kids when they come knocking at the door for school fundraisers. This morning I was perusing through one where on each page, there was an advertisement for some kind of high tech piece of fitness equipment. There was the butt buster, the abdomen burner, etc. As I was reading the advertisements, almost getting sucked into purchasing something, I thought, does one really need such fancy equipment to get a good workout.

I’ll admit, I have a spin cycle, elliptical machine, a treadmill, dumb bells and a weight bench. I also have a TV, stereo, and DVD player to watch the various exercise tapes I own. I have all of this stuff, yet I still go to the gym, and pay a trainer for each month.
The gym I go to isn’t anything special. There isn’t any high tech equipment, other amenities. It’s just an open warehouse with cobwebs on the ceiling and mats on the floor. There isn’t any air conditioning, simply a huge industrial fan. The door where the semi trucks used to dock must stay open for air circulation. The only water in the place is the water you bring with you. I go to this gym twice a week at 5:15am for group training referred to as “The Warrior Workout.” I arrive early to warm up and watch the trainer prepare the stations for the morning’s activities. Each week, there’s a new surprise awaiting us. For example, there might be an obstacle course made up of a rope latter hanging from the ceiling, and then a horizontal pole held up with chains that we swing across, a rope tied to the ceiling that we climb, a huge tractor tire that we jump on, an empty beer keg that we carry across the room, the leather filled sand bags we drag back and forth across the gym, PVC pipe made into a device to perform dips, etc. We go through each station, 5 of them, for five rounds, each lasting one minute. Sometimes the trainer will spontaneously add sit ups, pushups, bicycles, rolls, etc., in between. After we complete the five rounds, we get a one minute break and do another three rounds or something completely different. It’s exhausting!

All of the equipment we use is either homemade, or repurposed for workout use, such as the tire from the piece of construction equipment. There’s nothing glamorous about this place. It reminds me of the place where Sylvester Stallone worked out in the movie Rocky. Since joining the “Warrior Workout,” I haven’t used my high tech equipment at home. It’s just sitting there collecting dust. Now I realize that you don’t need to spend much money for an awesome workout. All you need a little bit of creativity, a good workout plan, and some motivation. I won’t get sucked into those fancy equipment advertisements ever again. I prefer to keep going back to the grit and grime of the warehouse gym and look forward to each new surprise.