I grew up believing that chaotic situations were cause for alarm. They felt disorganized, overwhelming, and were often anxiety-producing. As I got older, I learned to tolerate and even appreciate different levels of chaos and I was less overwhelmed by them.
And then I started going to November Project. I remember the early days when I was a tribe member showing up each week, wondering what crazy shit we’d do, and just smiling and going along for the ride–even when it was a piggy back ride, a wheelbarrow race, or a sprint to the death into the ocean. I recall the day I realized that the workouts I ended up loving the very most were the ones that were a shit show. That’s a technical term they teach us in NP co-leader development camp. It’s like rule #7. “Workouts should be really hard, a good amount fun, and a touch of shit show.”
It’s how I began to realize that this wasn’t just a boot camp, workout out class at the gym, or some traditional training session. When you have to jump over each other, weave yourself around and over/under everyone else trying to burpee/sprint/plank/etc. and there’s just enough chaos that you have to laugh your face off–you’re both working really hard and having fun doing it. And now as a co-leader of the tribe, when we plan workouts like the one we did this morning, I find that we always get to that point in planning where we go, “ok, this could be really good…buuuuut will it be a total shit show?!” And usually we think through it one more time, make one more tweak, and then look at each other, shrug our shoulders, and make that face that says “absolute chaos, but it’ll be amazing!”
Today’s workout at Fort Independence on Castle Island was a partner/foursome workout that involved a relay race with a parter to advance a marker (article of clothing or a plastic cup) to the castle wall and back to the starting line, while racing against a team doing the same thing. One team stayed at the start line and did 10 burpees while the other team raced as far as they could with their marker before the first team finished the burpees. Wherever they were in the path out to the castle wall and back when the second team finished 10 burpees, they dropped the marker. Their teammate completed the next round by running out to the marker and picking it up, trying to get it as close to the start line as possible while the other team did 8 burpees. The two teammates continued alternating running out-and-back to get the marker closer and closer to the start line, while the other team did progressively fewer and fewer burpees each round (shorter distance to run, shorter time to do it).
Yup, even in trying to explain it, it’s a shit show. Chaos all over the place and we probably need Joev (who was sadly not in attendance on a Monday for the first time since JANUARY!!!) to explain the workout with his A, B, C, D data about people going here and there doing this and that. Bottom line was this: people worked their asses off, worked together to try to run faster, do more burpees even better and faster than everyone else, and at the end we did exactly what we set out to do: hard workout, good fun, and just enough chaos.
Not to mention the wheelbarrow race and the hobby horse race that happened in between the rounds of Chaos Relay Burpee Sprint Partner Foursome racing. Hobby horse racing is the newest popular sport in Finland and it’s time we get more trendy with our fitness in Boston. We had kids riding on parents, friends riding on friends, and new tribe members learning exactly what NP is all about.
So, this morning was a good example of NP at its core. The world is a chaotic place. ‘Merica has had it’s ups and downs. And in the midst of celebrating Independence Day in the good ol’ USA, or even in the midst of reflecting on how much of a shit show our country seems to be at times in a million different ways, it’s nice to remember that we can create our own chaos, while having a really good time–not losing sight of the bigger picture. The hard stuff (burpees and sprinting, and all the other non-fitness stuff too) is a lot more fun when embrace the chaos and really stick together.
Happy 4th everyone. Celebrate safely and we’ll see you crazy, chaotic kids on Wednesday.
The tribe is strong.
