Mind over matter

For the past two weeks, my teammate Abe and I have been working out for six of the seven days out of the week. Two days which we work out on our own and four days which we do with the baseball team.

I remember one of the first couple of weeks of school, when I was hardly putting time to be the best I can with my body because I thought I can get away with the work I put on the baseball field, Abe was playing a video game without his shirt laying on a futon. I took a picture of him and posted it via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Couple minutes later, he found out and told me to take it off the social media because he said it was embarrassing because his stomach was sticking out and he was fat!

Now, since we aren't practicing on the field any more (it's too cold to practice outside in the Midwest during late Fall and Winter), and like a mentioned in a earlier post, I wanted to start to eat healthy and work out to be the fittest. Some things that motivated me again was 1) While taking an American Food class here at Mount Mercy, for an assignment, we had to record whatever we had ate in a span of five or so days. After writing the food I had consumed, I thought to myself, "Wow, I really need to watch what I eat." 2) Like one coach told me, "Somebody, somewhere is always getting better when you are just sitting down doing whatever." 3) I can't let the Nation (Functional Fitness on the Bluffs) 4) Abe and another teammate Martin (we call him Mini) said they wanted to get fit. And 5) I want to be the best I can be at all times.

What set me back from working out was I pulled my lower back muscle while doing a work out and to be honest, I was afraid to lift any weights again. But after a couple of months of sitting back and not training, like learning how to ride a bike, I got up and started to train again.

Before I started to train with Abe, I was thinking, "I don't want to just lift weights in front of a mirror. I want to do something different than anyone else does at school. So I informally introduced Abe to cross training. 
Our first WOD consisted of:
AMRAP 8:
10 kettle bell swings
10 Sumo Dealift High Pulls
10 Burpees
Suicides
Our warm ups were a 16 minute run on a trend mill, 1000 meter row and decline crunches.

Abe finished with 3 rounds and I finished with 3 rounds and 6 SDHP.

Post WOD Abe

Today, our workout consisted of a 16/17 minutes run on a trend mill, a partner workout: each partner does 5 rounds of 200 meter rows and do as many decline crunches you can while your partner is row for 200 meters, and planks. Then a 5 minute bike cool down.
Results consisted of:
Abe / Jun (crunches by rounds):
18  /  20
15  /  21
12  /  22
13  /  20
14  /  20

I posted on Facebook one time that I wanted to make a difference in the world. Even though it is something microscopic to the world, I feel like training with Abe and pushing him to work hard for me is making a difference one way or another or making an impact on him.

One thing I noticed while working out is the struggle getting through these work outs. Its a grind getting through it. It helps having a coach, friend, teammate or someone that's going to push over that limit you personally have. But ultimately, it is you who has to push yourself; telling yourself "I can do it" instead of "I can't do it," "I quit," or "I give up." Another wise man told me once that whatever you do on the field, reflects what you do in the real world.

So there you go. You always want to work hard at what you are doing. See how far you can push your limits. Don't think about the results or outcome, work for what is now.

Shout out to FFOTB, the Nation!

Congratulations to Abraham Carrasco on being picked as a NAIA Preseason All-American.