So today I'm on the road....which is a good and bad thing. It sucks because I'm away from PSKC, but it's good because I get to come train at Crossfit Legion and get some kickass workouts in with great people. Well...not so much today because ole Jack Frost literally farted 2 inches of snow in Knoxville and shut the whole city down my home away from home included....
Instead of sitting in my hotel room flipping channels between (insert shitty reality TV shows) ...I decided I'd make the best of it and go to a "gym" nonetheless. The gym across the street is the typical corporate chain gym you'll find in any city. The only problem is I haven't been to a conventional gym in well over a year...it's like freeing a gorilla from the zoo than letting him go back for a day. Needless to say I wasn't motivated or happy by what I saw and what is passing as "fitness" for the majority of gym goers..
Now granted I'm exagerrating ..but it was like a bad Zombie horror movie in there. All these people with expressionless faces chained to machines going through the motions. Everyone was plugged into some sort of device, it was like they turned their IPOD on and turned everything else off....not making eye contact with any other person...faces locked into the TV screen or magazine..plodding away with amazing monotomy on a cardio machine. Or you had the crew with "muscle T''s" getting their swole on in front of the mirror...ensuring the "pump" was maintained....really only exercising their ego. Pavel (the founder of kettlebell training in America) describes these muscles as "all show and no go".
Not to mention the music...holy s$#t ...the mediocre music was only rivaled by the mediocre effort being displayed. I really wanted to pay attention to what was going to come across the speakers...I kid you not, the first song was by Ashlee Simpson then followed up by a Justin Bieber tune....after a vomitted in my mouth a little I mentally tuned out... angered by what I saw. I wasn't only angry I was also sad...
There were so many people in what appeared to me as just wandering around looking for some sort of answer... a guide to help them through the sea of machines and weights.. In the back of their mind they had to know there's got to be a better way....this can't be it.
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| Would people at your local gym take this as a badge of honor? |
To me the biggest thing that was missing from this place was smile and laughter...yes our workouts are hard and yes you may not like doing them, but you're always happy and feel better when they're done. Everyday at PSKC you guys are smiling and laughing...it may not be until the end of the workout...but it happens. That's what made me the saddest...no friendships...no common bonds...no hard work...no sense of accomplishment. How can you look forward to working out if you don't feel anything from it?
It made me feel extremely blessed for my little place and more importantly the people in it.
It also made me realize that there is no way I can ever go back to training a big corporate conventional gym. Once an animal has been freed from the zoo...ain't no way he's going back. God willing I'll have PSKC to the day I die...if not the kettlebells and barbells and will go in my garage.
So thank you guys...you've brought me much happiness this year and I'm very greatful for it. Sometimes you need to see how the other side lives to truly appreciate what you've got!
PS...you guys worked a lot of the kettlebell snatch today. Below are some vids to help with caring for your hands...so you don't end up like Primetime in the photo above. When done correctly you shouldn't be ripping callouses off your hands..
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