Ok, I really love HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts, they are fast and furious just the way I like it. I also love running and I wanted to combine the two to make up a great routine as I was getting tired of the typical high knees interval.  So I thought I could go to the gym and use the treadmill and jump on and off to do the routine I wrote up. No problem you say??? Well, there is a problem when you are as self conscious as I am that someone may look at me funny and think “what the hell is she doing?” I know most of you are probably saying who cares what people think but I also know there are loads of people just like me. We “think” too much…way too much. I am a rule follower by nature so I think, “well the cardio room is for running /cycling/elliptical/rowing and the weight room is for strength training and the multi-purpose room is for exercising, right?” Now this is me making up this “rule”, not the gym. I have this crazy idea that I can’t mix it up a little or I will look foolish. I will tell you that I have wanted to mix it up for some time now but even the thought made my stomach queezy! (seriously, you’d never know I was 46 with thoughts like this still happening!) anyhow, all day I was thinking I should break out of my comfort zone and just go do it and see what happens. Ok, this is how my thoughts went:

1) I’ll just do an interval W/O at home then go to the gym and run. No, because once I finished at home I’d talk myself out of going to the gym.

2) I will go to the gym and just do an Deekron Interval run (podcast)

3) or I could just put aside my fears and do my HIIT routine and not care what anyone else thinks!

So before I could change my mind I quickly changed and drove down to the gym. This happens to be a Canadian Forces gym and what is the CF famous for? FOLLOWING RULES!

The ride down takes me all of 5 mins and in that 5 mins I talked myself back and forth between “I will do this” and “OMG, I just can’t” a thousand times. Even parking the car I was thinking about what if everyone looks at me with disgust and laughs! As I am writing this I do realize how silly this sounds but this was very, very real to me. I go in, swipe my members card and started toward the Cardio room and almost had a panic attack! I don’t have a Gymboss Interval timer…and you cannot have your cell phones out in the gym for privacy reasons(camera)!!! Another road block as I use the timer on my phone to time my 50/10 intervals. I ran back to the lady at the desk and explained that I wanted to use my timer only and she ok’d it. Phew! See I could have just said forget it and ran instead.  Next was setting out my book on the floor behind me and my timer then jumping on the treadmill for a warm up. In the 4 minute warm up my stomach was doing flip flops because even though there were only 5 other people in the cardio room, they would see me “breaking the rules” I started my routine with a 1 minute run then without another thought I jumped off and started doing push ups. When I jumped back up to return to the treadmill I was afraid to look around…ummm, NO ONE WAS LOOKING! Are you kidding me? I had spent hours today agonizing about how foolish I was going to look, how embarrassed I was going to be, how awkward I was going to feel! Only to realize that no ones cares what I am doing, they are there for their own personal reasons, minding their own business, reading a magazine on the treadmill, plugged into their MP3 players and just enjoying the good feelings that come along with working out. Once I came to this realization I got so into my W/O that I added 4 more intervals to the routine. I started to sweat, grunt (yes grunt…what? it happens) and push my way through one of my best W/O’s in a very long time! I felt a freedom come over me like I have never felt, freedom from my own mind, my own self sabatoging thoughts and fears. I feel like I made a break through tonight and that is not an over statement. I faced a fear of being embarrassed head on and I won! I am so glad I tried…

This was my routine-I left the treadmill running and hopped on and off...is this bad for the treadmill? See, afraid to break a rule

Oh and by the way, someone did end up saying something to me after I jumped up from my push ups(I do reg PU’s)…she said “that was impressive!”  :)

I hope you will step out of your comfort zone and not let your thoughts negatively dictate your actions.  I have learned a valuable lesson tonight, and I now have the confidence to return for another great W/O without fear and anxiety. Good for me!

in fitness and health

Denise