After the super awesome sponsorship was offered by Competitive Fitness, I took it upon myself to take Jason up on it and see what I could do. Two days later, I’m going to share my first impressions and experiences here.
On Tuesday morning I showed up in my gym gear and ready to start my Workout Baseline test. I warmed up with a jog on the treadmills then some stretching while Jason came over and chatted a bit. Another new member, Matt, was there for his baseline at the same time so when we were both ready Jason walked us through the test. First up, a 500 meter row on the rowing machine. Jason ran us through a couple of practice runs to get a feel for the form and technique we should be using. Next 40 squats, again with the practice run through. The middle event was 30 sit-ups, followed by 20 pushups, then 10 pull ups. After a quick walk through the events, and allowing us to test our form and our skills at them, we went back to the rowing machines to start the test.
Like everything at Competitive Fitness the Workout Baseline is scored. Every day’s workout is either a timed event or is constrained within time for a score (that’s the Competitive part of their name I’d guess). Jason had a stopwatch in hand and had us all set to run through the 500,40,30,20,10 routine as quickly as we could. Before we started he reminded us that there’s a difference between Pain (something wrong) and Burn (something right) even though both are going hurt.
After confirming we were ready, Jason started us off. I blasted through the 500M row in nearly the same time as the much more in shape (and younger) Matt next to me. The squats introduced a new sensation to my muscles - I think its called work. My cardio endurance started to rear its non-existant head at the point and I slowed significantly. Moving to the situps I hit the “ab wall” at about halfway through and slowed even more. By the time I was on to the push-ups I was feeling significantly bad, light headed and somewhat naseus. Jason had me get up and walk it off, reminding me that the body reacts in bad ways to excess lactic acid. Finishing my pushups I did my pullups as quickly as I could and wrapped up. Some more walking (and a little heaving) later I hit the showers with a much slower time than the 6 1/2 minutes Matt finished his baseline in.
A “normal” person would have taken a day to recover or two then gone back if they went back at all but I was back this morning, sore quads (the muscles in your thighs you didn’t remember you had) and all. Today I was just to go through the same daily workout as every other member. This time Nick was my trainer and he came over to explain the events while I warmed up. Again a timed event, my enemies today were 50 wall balls (medicine ball squat throws), 50 standing tuck jumps, and 25 deadlifts. No naseua today, but quite a few breaks as my screaming quads slowed me down a good bit. 17 minutes and 40 seconds later I was done with my workout and as sweaty and tired as I’ve ever been.
I feel much better today after my workout than yesterday and if anything more energized to go back and find out what tomorrow’s workout will be. Jason and his gym are really cool and the encouragement through even the worst of my body’s resistence is awfully nice. You should definitely be ready to sweat and work and push yourself when you go - you’re only going to get what you put in - but know that they’re going to help you feel successful about your day.
So what are you waiting for? Get down there and start working.
