Week 1

My strongest impression from the first week is that having a coach or trainer makes a huge difference. I haven’t had a coach since high school, which means that in virtually everything I have done I have set my own pace and determined my own limits. At times, whether in practicing law or in training for running events, I have worked with and to some degree been paced or motivated by others. But even in those instances I largely determined the degree of effort and, particularly with my running, determined the type and frequency of my workouts.

The 90-Day program departs from this pattern in several important respects. First, our trainers have a set program that focuses on resistance and cardio training on alternate days. In addition, cardio and resistance exercises vary from session to session so that workouts rotate between muscle sets to increase stress on the body and minimize its ability to adapt, thus breaking down and consequently increasing muscle development over more routine programs. This variety departs significantly from my previous training programs.

Second, the goal of the workouts is to push us to what the trainers call Level 10, which is where muscles their limits. There is scarcely a day goes by where I would not have quit at least four or five times if the trainers weren’t pushing us to do more, reminding us constantly of the benefits of exertion.

Third, as part of a group, I find myself both motivated and inspired by the efforts of others. There are two men and eleven women in our group. The other man, Ryan, is young and quite fit. The fitness and athleticism of the women varies considerably. A few have participated in marathons, Ragnars and other running events. Some of the best athletes among the women appear to have become overweight as they age. A couple, including the oldest woman in the group, would probably be classified as obese. Regardless of the women’s fitnesses levels, they all show up before 5:30 AM, are cheerful and supportive, and seem to push to their capacities. When I feel as though I want to stop, especially when doing ab exercises, I see women pushing through the pain and I keep going.

I have a shelf full of books and magazines about diet and exercise. The information I have accumulated is largely repetitive but that the same time overwhelming. The benefits of cross training and rotating exercise between muscle groups are well documented. Similarly, virtue of eating what Michael Pollen calls real “food” in frequent small meals is promoted widely in nutrition literature. Yet to put all this to practice requires significant motivation, planning and study. For me, all of this has over the years proven overwhelming, as evidenced by the slow creep upward of my weight and the steady deterioration of my skeleton, part the result of my tibial plateau fracture and part the result of heredity, advancing age, loss of fitness and weight gain.

This program has provided motivation and eliminated the need for me to plan and sort out all the data. I no longer have to think. I just have to do it.

On about my second or third day Dan showed up at 5:30 AM and told me he wanted to work out with me. I was excited to see him, as were the trainers, who grew to love him when he went through the program. Dan’s impressive results triggered my interest in following him. He encouraged me to do it, and even explained to Tauni why the financial investment made sense. At the end of the workout I told Dan that this was one of the best things I had ever done. The pain and effort must release a flood of endorphins because I end each workout feeling joyous and stress free. Even on the day I had to appear to argue a very difficult motion, I proceeded with unusual equanimity.

Dan had told me before I started that each workout session involved intense pain, and that has mostly proven to be true. Some days are easier than others, but there are times during every workout where I hurt and reach my limit. The paradox of pain is that it is necessary to protect us from injury while at the same time significant fitness cannot be attained without it. The mind must distinguish between the pain that signals injury and the pain that signals growth. We must avoid foolish or needless suffering but suffer we must if we are to approach our potential. My late law partner, Bob “Mad Dog” Henderson, veteran of several Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance runs, used to extol the virtues of pain. I recall him saying: “You work with pain; pain works with you.” Translated, I think Bob meant that we must condition our minds to endure the good pain associated with effective training and in return pain works with us to improve our bodies. No doubt emotional pain is also necessary to improve our souls, though it can also destroy us. Even in that realm, there is good and bad pain, and we must learn to work with it so it can work with us and perfect us.

Saturday was our final workout of week 1. Our schedule showed “community free workout” so I assumed we would simply show up and spend a relatively leisurely hour exercising on our own. Instead, we worked our way through various stations doing a variety of high intensity cardio exercises, including jump roping, which I once could do but now cannot, at least not well. I rode my bike to the gym (8 miles) and planned to ride home. On this day, however, there was an interval of 1 1/2 between our community workout and a Marci Lock presentation on our relationship to food. I decided to spend that time trying to run, which I haven't done much for a number of years.

To minimize impact on my bad knee, at least in theory, I ran on the grass at a park neighboring the gym. Inspired by Marci to engage in high intensity exercise, and recalling that my favorite interval in high school was 330 yards, I paced off a distance of about 300 yards and ran several intervals at 6 minute mile pace. This is the fastest I have run in years. I felt good, if not coordinated yet, until a few hours later when my knees started to ache, not just my bad right knee but my left as well. To top it off the rotator cuff of my right shoulder had become extremely sore and my lower back began to seize up upon bending over.

All of this reminds me both of the distinction between good and bad pain, but at the moment more importantly that doing too much can result in injury that will undo the benefit of a lot of exercise. For my shoulder, I visited Nylin Johnson, a good friend and physical therapist housed in the same building as the gym. He had one of his therapists provide massage and electrical stimulation and then taped my shoulders to pull my out of my naturally hunched position. One of the members of our group, Melodi Christensen, whose chiropractor husband treated me before I started the program, noticed my back seizing up and immediately called her husband following our workout on Monday or Tuesday of week 2. His office called and had me come right over. After an adjustment my back was somewhat improved, but it is still ginger. With the aid of a back brace and avoidances of weighted squats and dead lifts the back is rapidly improving.

And so I concluded week 1 feeling energized but chastened with the recognition that I need to take care to make sure that all the work results in my body being built up rather than torn down.