Day 15

Chest and Back & Ab Ripper X - Week 3 begins! The Chest and Back workout is split into two rounds. Each contains the same 12 moves just in different orders. The "Tip of the Day" is "Round One: Pace Yourself, Round Two: 'Bring It'". The first two times that I did this workout, I did just that - made sure I didn't burn out in the first round. This time I decided to push myself harder. I worked really hard in the first round. By the second round I was really tired but still did okay the first half. At move number 7 I burned out. I still kept going but my number of reps dropped significantly.

I almost turned off the DVD then remembered that I still had Ab Ripper X. Since I was wiped out from the first workout, I did not try to exceed what I did last time in the ab workout. It was only my arms that were exhausted but I was mentally drained after pushing myself so hard in the first workout.

After the workout I thought back to my days of college swimming. Every year we went on a training trip over winter break. That was 7 or 8 days of hell - double workouts every day, both of which were the hardest of the season. We would always make it through because we were mentally prepared for the challenges. I reflected that rather than just going through the motions and doing the best I can in the moment, I would be better off if I was mentally prepared for pain before even putting the DVD in.