Free Fitness Movement. All you need to do is show up!
Camera clicks and high-five claps careened recklessly off the buttes. A workout paid for in sweat; buckets and buckets of sweat. No different from any other Wednesday. Except.
Perla was there. Her shirt was on point.
Concrete steps reached out zealously, thirsty for blood. Still we ran them. Up, down. Going nowhere but here. No different from any other Wednesday. Except.
Every once in a while you need to shake things up to keep people roused. We did just that this perfectly radiant morning, with a PR workout that knocked your socks (or knee brace*) off. Below is a pencil render of the amphitheater to illustrate our new PR workout, the changes of which can be described thusly:
“Fucking lazy Phoenix.” This is verbatim the response I received when I asked for an exercise idea from the Leaders Three of San Diego.
See, Jackie let me know in our weekly meeting that she wouldn’t make it to today’s workout due to a family issue. We ironed out the workout structure – the telephone (see below) – but I told her I’d take care of the specifics because she has more important things to worry about.
But you should know upfront, this is not a love story.
You might know Sean McManus. Triathlete, race director, muscle behind Sole Sports (the face very obviously being Katie Ellis, which by the way happy belated birthday!). Or you might not know Sean McManus, which isn’t your fault; despite being pretty heavily involved in the Phoenix fitness community, he tends to enjoy his bed a little too much on most mornings.
The children of Adam are the limbs of one body
And are from the same essence in their creation
When the conditions of the time hurt one of these parts,
other parts will suffer from discomfort/restlessness, as well.
If you are indifferent about the misery of others,
it is not deserving to call you a human being.
As I was watching the sun gently caress the landscape this morning, the tribe’s soft grunts reverberating off the rust-colored buttes, I had to remind myself that Wednesdays are not my raison d’être. They don’t encapsulate my entire livelihood, and, perhaps most importantly and despite what many of you believe, they don’t pay the bills.
In physics, a wave is an oscillation that transports energy along a medium without transporting matter. Energy is characterized by the amplitude, or the maximum amount of displacement from rest. Now, waves can exhibit some exciting phenomena, much of which is beyond the scope of our discussion; however, the principle of superposition states that two waves that meet while traveling along the same medium result in what’s known as interference. This can be classified as either constructive or destructive, depending on whether they have a similar or opposite displacement at a particular point. Two waves with a positive displacement combine to form a super wave, while those with opposite displacement result in a much smaller amplitude, and may even cancel each other out completely.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
A pair of lax rowing bros make a pact to hold each other accountable to get up before the sun, fight off the biting cold, and run stairs every day for the month of November. A few people show up, then tell their friends. The group grows; kindling meets flint, a wildfire of #freefitness ignites. Winds carry people to new locales, fanning the flames throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
Executive Review
We had a 7+3 workout today, with people teaming up in kindles of four to six for waterfalls when they weren’t climbing stairs. The music was #1 stunna, the people tagging energy high, the tagged undergarments on fleek.
CRTL-ALT-DELETE. Hit snooze, go back to sleep.
Long Play Version
We stumbled out of the blocks this morning. “Jump Around” went so well in my head, but sadly that wasn’t the case in practice. But that’s OK, ‘cause I’m still fly. And I’ll stick to easier lyrics from here on out*. Luckily DJ Drew got our roll on, opening the playlist with “Jump Around.”
2016 was a pretty absurd year. For many of us, it was an unending Sisyphean challenge, which felt like there were several steps backward for every step forward. This tribe is here to remind you that, together, we are building great things, doing even better ones, and making our community a more positive and inviting place. You may not realize it, but others have noticed. So let that warm your heart and bring a smile to your face.