I just completed a morning yoga sculpt class at the gym, where the instructor leads us through yoga poses with light weights.
I arrived, threw my mat down, grabbed my weights and towels, and noticed there were small candles surrounding the room. Intrigued, I thought the instructor might surprise us with some relaxing, flowy yoga moves today, making it a more “chill” kind of class.
She didn’t waste any time. We got started immediately, and I soon realized this class wasn’t going to be relaxing. At. All.
She led us through continuous yoga flow exercises, “gently” ordering us to grab our weights and start with jumping jacks, then jumping squats, and then on to various other challenging exercises.
I’m not usually much of a sweater, but I was sweating about 15 minutes into the class. At one point, she had “Biggest Loser” music playing, and I remember having conflicting thoughts: "Keep your arms up," "Maybe I should stop now."... “No you can do this”., as we were in Goddess pose with our arms straight out holding weights while doing some funky exercise she 'gently' ordered us to do.
About 40 minutes rolled by, and my tank top was drenched. It was now time for “relaxation,” which to her meant core work. She had us start with 50 punching, bicycle-like moves on the floor with weights, followed by boat pose, and then similar torturous exercises. Just when we all thought the madness would come to an end, she announced we were going to do 50 more.
We ended with some great stretching and shavasana.
At the end of class, many of us lay there seemingly dead for a few minutes on our mats before bouncing up with incredible energy and laughter, extremely relieved that we made it through alive, in one piece, and a lot happier.
As we exited the room and I was walking down the stairs, I overheard a muscular, ultra-fit classmate say to another, “When she said 50 more, I said NO WAY!”
I interrupted the conversation as I trailed behind him. I asked, “So did you do them?” He said, “Well, I did the first 50 but not the next.” I smiled and asked, “Do you know WHY you didn’t do them?” He smiled and waited for my answer… “You just told me why you didn’t.” I paused before saying, “You told yourself that you couldn’t.” I continued, “You know what I told myself? I told myself I COULD, and I told myself I could do 300 more. Next time, you and I will tell ourselves we can do more. Our brain is listening.”
For the record, if this guy challenged me to a pull-up bar competition, he would definitely win! Conditioning the mind and body for specific activities is an important factor—among others—that determines whether we push through or stop. However, I think it's interesting to note the importance of being aware of our thoughts. I haven’t always been mindful of my thoughts, and I still don’t remember to be aware all the time, but these days I do my best to do so because I know it’s a habit that will help me progress in everything I do.
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