Just Doing It, Part 2

Photo by Jeff Vinnick

Something happens to you the minute you accept FBGs into your heart. The day I started sporting FBG gear I felt like I had to live up to the name. If I’d start whining about working out, that FBG T-shirt would remind me that I couldn’t fake the funk. I am a fit bottomed chick and fit bottomed chicks do what they have to do.

This same logic built up my fitness swagger on the last day of the Nike Women’s Training Summit. If you’re representing a fitness blog, you better bring it when it’s time to work out.

All the women who were invited to the Summit put on their lovely Nike-supplied cross-training gear, and we got to work. Two Nike trainers were our punishers for the day. They took us through some fun dynamic stretches that are great if you’re involved with sports such as soccer or basketball—jogging in place, a little skipping, a little scoot-scoot-stretch-out-your-hip action.

After we were good and warmed up, we grabbed some mats and weights and got busy. The punishers demanded burpees, wood chops, one-legged hops at all speeds, fire hydrant leg lifts, dog kicks to the back, planks, push-ups. You think of it, we did it. (For videos of what moves the athletes do, click here! You’ll be amazed.)

Here’s the crazy part, though. There were diesel-ripped women with yoga arms of steel, full-figured women and scrawny women (that would be me!). Heck, there were women of all shapes and sizes at various stages of fitness levels, and we were all sweating it out. I saw other skinny-armed ladies like myself knocking out ridiculous push-ups while others wobbled and struggled (that would be me again!). Strength is random and comes in impressively different shapes and sizes.

Motivation to be like the Olympians permeated the room. With the punishers telling us to push five more out like the women athletes had mentioned they were told to do the day before, you kind of have to give it your all. Great blaring music, as well as the enthusiastically awesome trainers, helped us push our bodies to rock-star endurance levels. And it felt good. My muscles were singing for the entire hour (and were still humming days after).

My lesson in all the training: Never feel intimidated by the bods you see at the gym. While my shoulders make push-ups a nightmare for me, I have the core of a sit-up goddess. You just have to get in there, push through the fatigue and have fun. Rock your strengths and work on your weaknesses.

Just for fits and giggles, store this in your noggin for the hard days you think you can’t: The women athletes spend six to eight hours a day doing isometric exercises, Pilates, yoga, weights, sprints, circuit training, plyometrics, hikes and drills designed to help the muscles they use most. They do this and they STILL get winded while showing us small smidgeons of the workouts that benefit them most in their sport.