Final Reflection

     For almost everyone, the last few weeks of the school year can be hard or even challenging. For me, it was rigorous and extremely painful. Over the past six weeks, my brother and I have had the opportunity to find and discover to key to fitness; through the power of testing. We had tested different methods of cardio exercises, weight training, and even ways to increase fat loss. However, doing all of this meant that my brother and I, along with our mentor, had to go to the gym daily in order to achieve "maximum awesomeness". Not only had we discovered the key to the best workout, but have learned quite a lot from these past weeks. The lessons we learned included discipline, hard work, commitment, and proper gym behavior (which meant that Joel and I could no longer pull the pins from the weight machines when people were power lifting). In the end, we were able to find, learn, and share what is the greatest workout available; that is supported by hard scientific evidence. After this week, my brother and I will continue to improve our bodies in the way that we want; by continually going to the gym. For me at least, I will continue to be targeting from now on out whenever I go to the gym (for those who don't know the gym definition of targeting, it means to work the specific muscles groups. Examples of this include arms, chest, upper body, legs, biceps and shoulders, etc). I hope to continue to build that passion for gym going and continue to see the benefits that could be reaped in the end. In late future, I would also like to help and train other people in the way that my mentor, and even past gym mentors, have helped me to grow up in the way of the weight.

My Workout Story

     After years of waiting, anticipating, and watching, the day had finally come when I got the chance to begin to feel and become like all of the cool kids I had seen in my younger years. It was an amazing time that had finally arrived when I got to do the thing that every boy did that defined him as “cool”, and that was lifting weights. My brothers had been huge role models for me in my younger years, and I always tried to be just like them. However, being the youngest of the boys in my family meant I was always the last to participate in any experience. Whether it was seeing a movie, or participating in some sport, I was always too young. It felt like being on the sidelines of a soccer game, just waiting to go out and play. But that day was gone, and my day had come and I knew that it was time to become a man.

     Being that I was around the age of 11, meant that the only way as to getting to the gym was to run there; which was something I was not good at. The run itself was about a three quarter mile run which to a normal person is not a big of a deal, but to me, it was a death run. My brothers had told me what shoes to wear, what music to listen to, so that I was ready for what was to lie ahead of me. When the time came for the running portion of the workout, I stood outside my house seeing my brothers being pumped full of adrenaline ready for the amazing workout that was to come. I tried to mimic their obsessive jumping up and down movements and hard breathing; although at the time I had no idea as to what they were doing. The word was given, and we ran as hard and as fast as we could until we couldn’t run no longer; which for me was at the end of our street. It was then that I was told to never stop running so that the girls would see me and be impressed with my “super soldier skills”. It wasn’t till later that I came to discover that, all the girls I thought were watching me were still in school.

     After about 15-20 minutes, I had finally arrived at the pearly gym gates, and I was ready to give my body to the workout gods. I was instructed as to how much weight I should lift, which was equivalent to five pounds, and what exercises I should do. I had finished my workout and ran back to home. I remember counting the days as to how long I had been going to the gym on my way back home.  Thinking, that one day I would have guns like The Prince. 5 years later, I had changed something terrible. Rather than viewing the gym as a place to become a man, I had viewed it as a place of purgatory. Where I had gone, not always by my own will, to lift weights and put in my time. This was the new routine that had gone one for several years. It wasn’t till about 8 months ago, when my brother had enlightened me with how little work he had seen from me, and told me that if I wanted to see results, I had to put in the work. It took some time for his words to really sink into me, and I had realized how much time that had been wasted that could have been traded for muscle, and overall better physical health. I had realized that it was to the change my act, and not sissy out.

     As of last December, I had begun a new path that would lead me to my goal that I had been wanting for years; but never had the strength to achieve. When this blog assignment came, I saw this as a chance to share my experience and what I have learned and discovered over the years, and what it truly means to workout. I have completely changed from a person who sluggishly workouts at most two to three days a week, to a person who works aggressively, and ambitiously to achieve the goals that I have placed before myself.