Hard work pays off

Today's boot camp workout was a tough one.  Modified pull ups, push ups and heavy kettlebell swings then ending with one of the more demanding kettlebell movements, one I call Full Body Assault.  This movement (video posted earlier) calls upon just about every aspect of physical ability. Core strength, upper and lower body strength, balance, hip mobility, posterior chain strength and muscular endurance all come in to play in accomplishing this movement, and it will definitely highlight your weak points.  The participants of the boot camp are a highly varied lot, with the days attendees ranging from high school students to women in their mid-fifties.  For the Full Body Assault I paired people together, and Vicki , working mother of four and Dianne, a bank executive in her late fifties ended up sharing the pair of 26lb kettlebells.  As I watched  them take on this very difficult movement it dawned on me that there are so many people who will never realize their full potential because of preconceived or misguided notions about what they "should" be doing.  There's a common misconception that age and gender are separators when it comes to exercise. there's no way that a 45 year old man  and a 27 year old woman should do the same type of workout, right?  By and large if both individuals are healthy and have similar goals, then the major difference should be in the scale of the workout, not the type.  Human bodies respond favorably to resistance training, interval training and the appropriate amount of rest, no matter who they may be.  As I was coaching Dianne through her first set, there was a point where she looked at me with great doubt in her eyes and voiced her concern that she couldn't handle the weights she'd been given.  I quietly told her that I believed she could do it and she pressed on.  Over the next few minutes both she and Vicki took turns tackling the kettlebells, encouraging each other and digging deep to tap into the strength they had spent the last several months building.  In the end they finished, with celebratory hugs and high fives, knowing that they had just accomplished something that would have been beyond them a few short months ago.  How did they get to this point?  Endless hours on the treadmill? Set after set of high repetition/lightweight lifting?  No, they got to this point by challenging themselves to improve their physical abilities.  They pushed through the boundaries of their comfort zones and found something out about themselves on the other side.