html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> From the archives: This is how it starts, introverts.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

This is how it starts, introverts.

I seem to be settling into my gym. I was quiet at first, mostly because I was watching. In the early stages of anything, I want to hear about technique and see who is doing real work and who says clichés that don’t actually fit the problem. I’m not real interested in talking about me, because I know about me, so that is boring. I watch the trainers holding pads for their clients to kick and punch, and I still haven’t told them I spent years doing that.

Three months into it, though, it seems like we’re getting to the friendly stage. It is nice. Of course, I need my trainer, Allyson, with a scary dependency that worries even me. I play it cool though; she probably can’t tell that I would lift anything she ever told me to if she would only praise me again. But the other trainers now have personalities too. Dave with the glasses and huge hops is the other dancer in between sets, so I look over to him when the music is thumpy. I don’t have to say anything to Camilo; he just looks at my bar and offers knuckles. Ajay makes sure to say hi and bye.

I chatted with the owner for the first time last night. He finished his workout and came over singing “I am the strongest. Nobody is as strong as me. You know it. The strongest.” Well. He’s perfectly friendly, but I’ve always hated the dynamic where everyone competes for the head instructor’s attention, so I’ve sortof avoided him. If I get good at this, he’ll come find me. But he was singing a silly braggy song, and trash is the language I speak in my dreams. So I sang silliness back to him, and said hi to Ajay and chatted with Dave until Allyson was ready for me and I really liked my gym.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That all sounds good. Just don't get started with that competing bullshit. You don't want to compete. Bad.

12:32 PM  
Blogger Megan said...

I've started thinking about competing. Competing could be really empowering for me.

1:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You will feel even more empowered turning down that urge to compete, and finding other wonderful ways to spend your days and put your new super-strength to a better purpose.*

*See Wednesday, November 7, 2007 post and attached comments.

3:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wait, is that Ajay as in A.J. or as in a brown dude who is a trainer?

p.s. don't do it. It's just sublimation AND it makes you miserable. Work out for yourself.

5:42 PM  
Blogger Noel said...

she probably can’t tell that I would lift anything she ever told me to if she would only praise me again

Likewise, I'd jump off/onto anything my gymnastics instructor told me to. This realisation came to me when, one week I was stuffing around with a friend in the gym and chickened out of doing a flip into the foam pit, and the very next week we did flips into the pit and I was first in line. This came as something of a surprise to me. I'm not doing it for praise, as she doesn't do that (actually we talk trash a bit), so I guess it is because I trust her not to tell me to do stupid things.

1:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I need my trainer, Allyson, with a scary dependency that worries even me."

Aha! I knew crossfit was a cult! My local crossfit is run by a zealot from the religious right, so I have an excuse for not going. Actually, the real reason is that between my injuries and my lack of training, there's no way I could do those workouts. I stand in awe. Even a friend who has been lifting for 20 years (another former martial artist) is finding it hard.

8:29 AM  
Blogger Noel said...

Ennis: I was kinda surprised to see Megan go the Crossfit route. The workouts are great, but I thought the politics would jar too hard.

8:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I doubt that Crossfits in the Bay Area are as rightwing as they are in the middle of the country.

12:14 PM  
Blogger Megan said...

I am not doing Crossfit yet. They're just the closest thing I've found so far to what I do in Sac, which is way less macho.

12:14 PM  

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