It's a Wunderful Life: Motivation in Motion

So Bernard and I recently left our English training jobs to move on to teaching positions at a middle school. We are extremely excited to be starting a new chapter of life here in Shanghai, and we are now in a period of much needed down time. During this 3 week lull of unemployment and very little to do, I assumed I would brush up on my Bachelor seasons and sleep for hours on end and maybe do one errand a day like a lazy, yet content, ass.

Nope. A little backstory:

Bernard’s friend happens to be a Muay Thai boxing instructor (the best of the best in Costa Rica, apparently), so a few months back he suggested that Bernard come down to the gym for a trial class. Not wanting to leave me out, and knowing how much I LOVE challenging things – especially when it comes to a whole body workout – Bernard told me I should come and try as well.

We waltzed into the gym, me in my yoga pants and t-shirt and Bernard in his khakis and polo. A large man, who I assumed was Vin Diesel, strolled past us as if we were puppies at a heavy metal concert. It was a sight to see! Mountainous men curling weights that were eight times my weight were all over the place just flexing and shit. It was intense. This wasn’t my typical university gym where bitches in yoga pants hogged the ellipticals and stretched halfassedly. This was an intense HARDCORE GO BIG OR GTFO kind of place. I mean this place is called Iron Dragon Crossfit for the love of Buddha. I was intrigued yet I peed a little…

We met up with Rod who gave us boxing gloves. I had never worn boxing gloves before! It was cool. They were heavy and I was tiny and weak… but I felt badass, so I ran with it.

The class was an hour long. I felt like I climbed a mountain and slaughtered several bears and ninjas after it. Omgggg…. It was SO intense I nearly died. It felt amazing. Constant punching of bags and kicking and all that boxing stuff, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but I did it anyway because Rod made me and I was afraid of him because he could kill a man with his fist because he’s so badass. Seriously, he does this like a million times a week. I could barely keep my head above water so to speak for a damn hour.

Bernard was owning it. The rage in his eyes when he was doing one-on-one boxing with Rod was so hardcore. He looked like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan combined. I was instantly pregnant.

So my favourite part of the class was the end (haha, no not the ACTUAL end) when we did stretches. We did planks and pushups and knee lifts and situps and high kicks and ab crunches and all kinds of stuff that made my stomach scream out with pleasure as if it was having a painful, yet real, orgasm. I loooooved the stretching. My body was hurting from all the hurt I gave to a punching bag and Rod’s face (he told me to punch him in the face. I’ve never punched anyone and he laughed when I used all my force. He said it was like getting slapped by a baby. Ass.) Anyway, my body was hurting so stretching it out felt amazing.

Bernard and I wobbled home on our phantom limbs. We were both feeling fantastic yet exhausted. We came home had a light meal and slept through the night for the first time since arriving in China.

Months and months past and finally we ended work. Bernard decided that for the month of August, seeing as we were off work and had some time on our hands, he would get a membership at Rod’s gym and do Muay Thai three times a week. Hardcore.

Week one is down and he feels great. During his time boxing, I’ll admit I want to just watch my shows and sing showtunes at the top of my lungs, but I’ve taken to doing a nice hour long yoga practice. No one around to distract me and knowing I have a full hour of uninterrupted relaxed breathing and stretching? How can I NOT yoga it up?!

So Bernard does his Muay Thai and I do my yoga and together we’re feeling pretty awesome about our bodies and becoming more fit. Since I’ve been out of the hospital, we’ve even done a bit of research about eating for IBS and have been purchasing food to reflect my soon-to-be-constant-no-ifs-ands-or-buts lifestyle. We’re really good motivators for each other! It’s been nice. And seeing Bernard every day all day instead of having just ONE day a week together has been really wonderful.

Bernard had the weekend off from Muay Thai classes so we’ve been relaxing, a little too much. I was booting up another episode of Gossip Girl when Bernard turned to me and said “Can I show you some boxing moves?” and it turned into an hour long mini-review workout! We did high kicks, planked it up, situps, punched the air for like 5 minutes straight (easier said than done, but oh so awesome) and then we finished off with me teaching him some complimentary yoga poses.

I felt amazing. Bernard did 15 of something and I said I’d do 10, but I did 15. Bernard did 50 of something and I said “yeah right, I’ll try 10” and did 50. Amazing. I felt so great about myself. I was full of energy and my brain was feeling mighty awake! I immediately wanted to write a blog and run around the block!

We cooked dinner together and talked about how we should make Bernard’s off days a small sample workout routine together. It’s so much more motivating if Bernard shows me what he learned in class and teaches me how to do it. Also, it’s an excellent warm up for him so he keeps his strength up for the next Muay Thai session.

It’s kind of incredible how great today has been. Although I got up really late, I cleaned the whole house* (Naturally, cleaning the house is a lot more fun with good old fashioned cleaning music. NOTHING is more appropriate than this: BADASS CLEANING MUSIC I managed to get through 47 minutes before I lost my mind a bit and needed a break from all the extreme NST NST NST of this song…) , we did some grocery shopping, had a workout, cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and did some future planning.

In short, push yourself! I pushed myself with the help of my amazingly buff husband and I feel 8 million times better than I did hours before. It woke up my muscles and my brain, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to sleep well tonight!

Also, stay tuned for the Asian Hulk