You’re startled awake by your alarm. 5:03 am. Why is still dark out? The Uplift ringtone was an obvious choice last night, but at the moment it feels more like Dispirit. The lights come on, and the harshly-lit world slowly comes into focus.
Sliding into an action green tech tee, compression shorts, and scuffed kicks, you at least look the part of someone ready to attack the day. But your shirt weighs you down like chain mail, and your feet scream out against their oppressive surroundings. At least the shorts make your ass look worthy of a rap song.
The desert hasn’t even woken up yet. There’s an eerie silence in the air, which is unusually heavy with the burden of moisture. Steel-colored clouds sneer at you from above, mocking you. It doesn’t rain in Phoenix, you remind yourself.
Following a short run, which manages to awaken a few endorphins and in turn paint a half-smile across your face, you arrive at your destination. Twenty-three stairs, nestled between sandstone buttes. Seventy others surround you like a bazaar, most of whom are bouncing a bit too high, grinning a bit too wide, hugging a bit too much. You notice that the sun has yet to crest the horizon. How are people this animated at (you click on the light of your watch)… 5:58 am?
And then the bounce begins. The silence is pierced with shouts of “Good morning!” and “Fuck yeah!” as the tribe bounces in unison, ready to attack the workout like hunters after big game. Endorphins rush to finish the second half of your now-giant grin as the workout begins. Stairs fly by as you push your quickly-fatiguing legs to complete this set faster than the last. Your body screams, but it can’t overcome the high that the workout, the group, the camaraderie brings. The hardest part is keeping a straight face during the group photo.
Why do we do this? Why get up before most of the world, especially given that much of the year finds thermometers struggling to contain their mercury even before sunrise? It’s so much easier to stay in bed and sleep a little longer, to put off the workout until tonight, or maybe tomorrow. There are too many distractions, too many bills, too many things to worry about; the workout can wait until those are settled.
But it can’t.
I don’t mean that it won’t be waiting; the tribe is always ready for action. No, the reason we espouse #noexcuses and #justshowup and #(insert catch phrase here) is that WE are what give us strength to persevere. Even on a gloomy, damp day like today, the tribe was strong. We shrugged off a few rain droplets. We had Kelly and Maria dancing the Macarena. We had Lola show up a few minutes late, then proceed to dominate the stairs en route to a Crushin’ It award. I’m pretty sure we had no blood or battered shins.
People pay an astonishing amount for therapy. But there’s something even greater in our back yard: the opportunity to join dozens of like-minded individuals and DO AMAZING. The great thing about this Movement is that it is completely FREE*. The tribe is healthy. The tribe is strong. The tribe is my inspiration.
Fine. Fresh. Fierce.
Trev
*Yes, there’s an opportunity cost associated with the hour-plus spent bouncing/running/stairsing. But where else could you find a group so full of energy?
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