It’s gonna hurt, get over it.
I have the privilege of being a Les Mills instructor, right? Les Mills is the name of the company owning the Body Pump w
eightlifting format (among other amazing formats), and earning this title, learning the understanding and epitomizing the technique, integrity, precision, essence and real culture of Les Mills well…..hurts.
.
Once we have registered for our initial training, we then spend two days going through what I dare not share here, only to say that one has to experience it to fully understand the integrity demanded. Honestly to me, it’s like a secret, and to share it would be going against my values held about Les Mills trainings. I truly believe we are a cut above, and I’ve been through a lot of different kinds of trainings over the years. Post initial training we are further commissioned to practice, practice, practice; perfect our form, learn and memorize the music and choreography, and through immense amounts of repetition, on or before the 60th day post-initial training, we are to shoot a video of ourselves teaching the class format, (put a video camera in the back of the room and let it roll), and turn it in to the Les Mills assessors and receive our critique and certification or “go back and practice for 30 more days and re-do and turn in your video,” for another attempt at certification.
Initial trainings, plain and simple….hurt. You truly are challenged way past what you think you can do and are projected into another universe of desire, mental toughness and a breaking down and rebuilding like I haven’t experienced, and it physically hurts. It’s grueling. Not to mention the emotional war of the good angel/bad angel sitting on your shoulders telling you to, “You can quit, no trainers are looking your way for a split second. You can stop and resume,” to the end of day 1 training where you don’t know what to expect the second day of training but you know that’s going to hurt as well. Adding more weight to my bar, adding another turn of resistance on my bike, standing tall and fighting the numb hip against the handled tubing to finish every single repetition. The reward? I came out exhilaratingly aware of the greatness I possess, simply by my own choice. I couldn’t believe I did it and yes, each time I made it through an initial training, I hobbled to my car, got in, buckled up, started my car….and cried. Emotional release, a new founded belief in myself; a joy that reached the heavens that made the angels sing. Yes, they came and sat with me in my car each time and sang with me all the way home. My last certification I took a picture of my paperwork that said “certified, no video necessary,” (that my tears had gotten wet), and MMS’d it to my bff, bawling the whole time. OMG I hurt for a week straight. I was limping for the 3 days following. Aleve was in my purse, water never left my side and I slept 10 hours every night for 6 days. And now I can share it with the members of my classes.
I cannot convey how high I hold in my being the essence of Les Mills programs, and my first certification was 10 years ago beginning with Body Pump. Later I got certified in two additional programs called RPM (indoor cycle), and CXWORX (the amazing 30-minute core program).Today, the time and energy I put into learning new releases (every quarter we get new music & choreography to learn and memorize, and each new one we call a “release,” and our next release of Body Pump is coming January 14), is at least 30 hours per release, listening to the music until I hear it in my sleep, rehearsing what I’m going to say at the appropriate moment, and when to turn up the energy or notch it down depending on the strength of the music. I LOVE Les Mills and how it has made me a better instructor, a better coach, and a better person.
Why would I put myself through such things?
Because I can.
There.
That’s it.
Really.
I had the opportunity to once again, chisel my personal performance by participating in a CXWORX class this weekend. It was funny that I was explaining an initial training to another one of the participants and it came out like nothing from me to the other, “It’s gonna hurt, get over it,” and it was once again pointed out, how subtle I am. *Sigh* Every single rep. I was huffing, puffing and sweat dripped off my chin and nose by the fourth minute in. I didn’t have to work this way. But once you are part of the Tribe, there is no alternative but to reach higher, for my own integrity.
It is with this same level of expectation that I teach my classes at the gym. I was trained by the best since 1984 and I honor every single minute of it. I know how boring it can get taking classes- -I used to take them before I was an instructor and wondered “Doesn’t the group instructor manager know what this instructor is like? Don’t they ever go take the classes of their own people? WHY is it that this instructor isn’t lifting a damn weight, they jump off their bike to do some stupid dance, but screaming at ME to work harder and push the limit, while they have almost every class on the schedule and acting like fools? I mean what kind of bullsh1t is this?” 
So, I got certified and started teaching classes the way “I” believed a class should feel like, knowing that if I kept my own self engaged, the class also might be.
Apparently it took.
It is in this same integrity that we train with at 5:30am. We find a reason to fight. We fight for what we believe in. We even find the reason for you to fight, until that “fight” turns into belief, powered by desire for excellence. THAT is how we do it from the get-go.
I have newly released my Training Specials for 2012 here.
It’s gonna hurt, get over it.
But it won’t hurt for long, because when your mind becomes part of your body realizing the power of when they work together as one unit, the fear of pain, the fear of not being able to keep up, the fear of failure, the fear of success and every idea of fear vanishes. Your real essence comes forth. Who you truly are is realized.
.
.
It’s gonna hurt, get over it.
Really.
Annette
P.S. The deadline for my training special is December 30. Don’t sabotage yourself this time, see it here
Great and powerful article Annette. I loved it.