WHAT WERE YOU SO AFRAID OF, NADIA?

The Whole Life Challenge begins with a preliminary workout that is repeated at the end of the challenge. The logic is simple: if you consistently exercise every day for 8 weeks as required by the WLC, and change your diet to maximize energy and minimize sluggishness, you should see some measurable improvement in the workout at the end of the challenge. 

There is a "prescribed" WLC prelim workout:

In 11 minutes:

800m Run (1/2 mile)

50 Sit ups

75 Squats

100 Push ups

As many Burpees in remaining time as possible

...and several suggested alternates if the prescribed workout seems to be utter madness. 

Which it is. Seriously, WTF.

The virtual gym that Rick and I joined for the challenge chose an alternate workout (bless them), which was hard enough:

As many reps as possible in 12 minutes of:

5 Burpees

10 Sit ups

15 Squats

So... burpees. My cousin Eric, who is along for the WLC ride, said "I watched a video of a burpee and am shocked to see that it is not a sweet slushy drink that I imagined drinking repeatedly as part of the workout..." Well, me too. Having never tried one before, and having only ever seen it done by Rick during his first Whole Life Challenge, I wanted to be sure I got it right, so I also watched a few videos. This one cracked me up because of the Joan Jett song. Gotta laugh a little through all this, right? Despite the song choice, a good example of burpees (ignore the hanging on rings at the end, we didn't have to do that).

I do not look like that doing burpees. My first blog post noted the absence of coordination that will be my lifelong frenemy, and this sequence of movements definitely requires some coordination. Still, looking like an idiot doing burpees wasn't much of a concern as I could do the prelim workout at home, behind a closed door, and laugh/cry at my goofiness in private while preserving a little dignity (notice I didn't - and won't - post a video of myself doing the workout). 

I was, however, worried about the part of a burpee involving jumping back into a push-up position. It's a movement I've avoided in yoga for awhile (jumping back to chaturanga), always choosing to step back instead of jump. I made this choice based on the old Nadia fear of being a weakling. I told myself - without even trying the movement - that my arms, shoulders and core weren't strong enough, wouldn't hold me up as I jumped and I would land on my face. A few short years ago that was actually completely true. 

But I already decided I'm up for the challenge, no turning back - so I placed a pillow where my face could possibly hit the floor and tried burpees. And of course I managed them just fine. Awkwardly and unprettily, but I managed them because I'm not the weakling I used to be despite the lies anxiety likes to fill my head with. The next day I tried the jump back to chaturanga in my yoga class. Nailed it (and even managed a little grace and fluidity in the movement! Have I mentioned how kick-ass yoga is?), and now I'm feeling a kind of wonderful pain in all the expected under-utilized muscles. 

So... hooray! Small victory! Props to the Whole Life Challenge for forcing me to improve and advance my yoga practice.

One of Gustave Dore's illustrations of Dante's Inferno.
All these tortured souls have just finished sit-ups. Clearly.

The rest of the prelim was easy enough to execute, but can we all agree that sit-ups are complete arse? I mentioned to Rick that I think Dante wrote about sit-ups as a feature in one of the circles of hell. A reread of Inferno is sure to reveal that I'm right about this. If memory serves, sit-ups are referenced somewhere between the Fifth Circle (Anger), the Sixth Circle (Heresy) and the Seventh Circle (Violence). My head definitely goes to all three places during each and every sit-up.

Next up: FOOD! This challenge is, after all, mostly focused on diet change. Still wondering how to survive 8 weeks when I can't have any of the ingredients that make up a vanilla ice cream bourbon shake.