Have I found my calling?
Wow-again, long time, no type! So much going on, & as much as I want to, it’s just hard to find the time to sit down at the computer & type out my stories. I wish I could just slam it out quickly, but I am too Obsessive-Compulsive for that. Oh, no-I have to think very carefully about what I want to say, write, rewrite, edit, cut, paste, delete, rearrange, etc until it’s ‘right’. I know, I know-OCD! 
I have been working several jobs to try to make up for the lack of real estate activity. There is still real estate going on, but the closings are few & far between. There is still a lot of stuff to do, so it’s time-consuming, but with little income attached to the activities. The construction company has been the same way. Working on bids, making changes to plans, waiting for clients to get funding in order, but some of those projects are starting to drop now, so that’s great!
And as you all know, I have launched whole-heartedly into my personal training business. I am LOVING that! I started teaching Boot Camp classes at the gym near my house in Chapin, called Back In Shape. It’s owned by a chiropractor, Dr. Ed Bull, so get it? BACK in Shape? Cute, huh? I actually sold him the property the gym is now on several years ago, so he is a great client of mine as well, & a fellow boating enthusiast. It’s a really good, ‘hardcore’ gym with some wonderful ‘classic’ weight machines. I LOVE them-the pullover & rotary lat machines are most excellent. A lot of the non-hardcore workout people call the machines “old”, but the new ones in my opinion are nowhere near as good as some of the old standards. Some new ones are better-like the Hammer Strength series, but I still love the old school machines.
I have to be honest with you—I have always been very intimidated by group classes, & never thought I could teach one. Most of my fear has to do with my COMPLETE & UTTER lack of any musical talent or rhythm. I am a HUGE music lover. I really get into music, especially motivational lyrics. I have tried in the past to play instruments, dance, sing, etc. Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. The only thing I can play is the radio, & now the iPod. In fact, if someone is misbehaving I will threaten to start singing, & they will straighten up & fly right in a hurry to avoid such a horrific punishment!
But Boot Camp & Body Sculpting classes do NOT have to keep steps to music, or stay on a beat. The music is just playing in the background while I am timing the length of the exercises or counting reps. Hey, even I can do that!!! So for example, I will have my ‘troops’ do a certain exercise as many times as they can in 30 seconds or a minute, & I just set the iPod dock to ’shuffle’ on my “Guts, Glitter, & Glory Bombshell” playlist, & the beats just keep on rockin’! And my music is all over the road—one song may be an 80’s hair band (lots of those!), then to the 70’s for Grease or Saturday Night Fever, then to today for some Shinedown or Black Eyed Peas, then back to the classic heavy metal rock & roll. I don’t have one style or genre-my criteria is that it has to ROCK & the lyrics have to inspire me.
I think I have found my calling! I have fallen in LOVE with the Boot Camp classes! It’s so much fun, energizing, & it’s got to be the hardest workout you will ever love. And I am getting SOOOOOO much motivation, pride & gratification from the amazing progress my ladies are making! (So far, no guys have had the guts to step in!) I have everything from a 17 year old to a 75 year old, & they are all making leaps & bounds in strength & endurance. When I started teaching the class a couple of months ago, none of them could do anything but struggle through pushups from their knees, & that was a real challenge for them. Now in the last few classes, several ladies have been busting out full military-style pushups! That’s tremendous progress in a short time! I am so proud of them!
I am a big believer in only positive motivation in my classes. I don’t yell, berate, or intimidate. I definitely operate from a “You Can Do It!” mentality. And it’s not about what you can’t do, it’s about what you CAN do. If you can only do 7 pushups instead of 10, we CELEBRATE that you got 7 good pushups, & then set a goal of working up to 10! Celebrate & be proud of what you CAN do, & then set goals to push yourself into achieving what you want to do!
I just was hired by a second gym, New Life Fitness World in Irmo, SC, to teach Boot Camp classes there also. I am thrilled with that opportunity! Irmo is a much bigger market, & the space & facilities are nice & large also. I am expecting to grow a very good following there for the classes.
And, I am also starting a new Body Sculpting series of classes at Back in Shape, & possibly New Life as well. Body Sculpting will differ from Boot Camp in that there won’t be as much cardio-centric workouts, like plyos & dynamic leg drills. It will be more focused on using dumbbells & barbells for traditional weight exercises, in a fast-paced circuit style which will give plenty of cardio, believe me. If you don’t think you can get a cardio workout doing biceps & triceps, come train with me! I will make you a believer within minutes! Haha!
I have been surprised at how much I love teaching the classes. I have become incredibly fond of my ‘troops’, as I like to call them, & very emotionally invested in their success. One of the most gratifying things for me is to see women succeed at exercises that they were formerly intimidated by, or just never thought they could ever do. So many women were taught from birth that they just are not capable of doing the things that boys do. That’s not as true now, with Title 9 & so many activities available for young girls. Heck, my niece was the only girl on her basketball team, & she kicked butt! That certainly wasn’t the case when I was young! At school, the teachers always tried to keep me down & put me in my place, saying this wasn’t for girls, or that wasn’t ‘ladylike’.
Thank God I had a father who just always saw me as his child-not as a weak little girl—& let me do whatever I wanted regardless of whether it was ‘feminine’ or not. He taught me to throw a beautiful spiral pass with a football. He taught me to play basketball & how to use the glass for some really cool shots that served me well on my way to MVP on my high school basketball team. He taught me to hit & throw a softball & how to stretch out to my full capability to catch anything thrown near me at MY position-first base. And I did—I was a Hoover vacuum cleaner at first base. If the throw was within my stretching or jumping range, the batter was dead meat. And I had a .622 batting average my senior year!
My father is the reason I am the way I am today. I am not ladylike, that is for sure! I drove my mother crazy growing up. She wanted me to be in things like baton twirling, but I just wanted to play ball like a boy. She thought she gave birth to a girl & ended up with a real tomboy. But I have always believed that I can do anything I want to do, whether women usually do it or not. Believe me, I never got out of any farm work when I was growing up because I was a girl!!! I have no brothers, & if I had, things may have been different because they would have most likely been the ones who got to do the cool stuff like drive tractors, build fences, haul watermelons to market, help on the sawmill yard, burn brush piles, take care of the cows, bale hay, etc. But since I was the oldest, my little sister was too young to get out & do the work, & I was the only free farm labor available, it was always, “Come on, Christy, we have work to do!” Which was fine with me! I loved it.
So many of the ladies my age didn’t have that advantage. They don’t think they can do things like pushups & pull-ups. And to see them try things they were formerly intimidated by, & to see it dawn on them suddenly that “Yes, I can! I can DO this! I am strong, capable & tough.” That just means the world to me! That, my friends, is making a real difference in someone’s life. When someone realizes that they have capabilities & strength far beyond what they ever dreamed they had in something as simple as a Boot Camp class, that lesson is going to spill over in to their everyday lives. They will be stronger & more confident in everything they do.
Be Defiant! Defy the fear & intimidation of doing exercises that may on the surface seem impossible, too tough, or not appropriate for your gender. When you do the thing you fear, the fear disappears!
Christy
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