PDXStrength News

Blog 21 – Week 11… Challenge.

I hope you all had a nice weekend and were able to enjoy some semblance of a 3-day/holiday weekend. And, for those who have lost track of time, days, and are somewhat experiencing an extended holiday for the last 12 weeks, I hope you were able to be productive in your own ways. I, somewhat, fall into the extended weekend category (Kimmy might tell you that it’s a philosophy I live by – a choice more than anything). We are on a kick of painting our walls, and doing our best to stick to a “1-room/weekend” standard. Pink bedroom, orange creamsicle accent wall in the living room. I’m digging it…. But I’m also rambling. 

If you had the opportunity to try “Murph,” we’d be interested in hearing how it went. Let your coaches know about your experience. Many thoughts arise during a workout like that, and it’s somewhat cyclical:

Mile 1 – “I’ve totally got this!”

A quarter of the way through the gymnastics – “I can’t believe I have ‘X’ push-ups left.”

Half-way through – “I’m gonna die.”

Three quarters of the way through – “I only have ‘X’ push-ups left.”

Mile 2 – “I’m gonna die, but I’ve totally got this!”

If you think about it at a macro-level… This is somewhat of what is happening now during the shut-down (Lock down? Isolation? What’s a good word for this? Most of the words that are commonly used suck or have been totally bastardized… to suck. Help me out with a better term… I’m rambling again. #wordcount). We entered a new and unknown situation (Mile 1). There has been a range of emotions throughout the experience with definite peaks and valleys. These points fall sporadically, and often take us by surprise (Non-linear bouts of exhaustion and boosts of inspiration. Mile 1? Push-up 100?). But we continue to move forward with the days until we start seeing new opportunities (The finish is in sight!). It’s this writer’s position that new opportunities are the byproduct of your new perspective and NOT because Governor Brown introduced a phase plan. Sure, that’s part of the equation, but we are different people today than we were 12 weeks ago. If we look back to a few blogs, I’ve touched a little bit about what happens to us when we chose to recreate. Most of the time, if we’re paying attention and listening to ourselves, we are either creating or reinforcing a scenario of learning – failing, changing, and trying again (READ: Grit by Angela Duckworth). And while you might come at me with exercise and a pandemic aren’t the same thing. I’ll say, “That’s absolutely true. But our brains don’t know that.”

Aaaaaannnnnddddd finally on to the challenge for the week. I’m going to continue the “review” challenge, BUT we are going to extend the point system so that you receive an additional point for EVERY local business that you take the time to support. That’s right, folks… AN INFINITE NUMBER OF POINTS AVAILABLE (I wish I could “SEND WITH FIREWORKS” here…). 

So there you have it. Believe in yourself, support local purveyors (especially the ones in our community at PDX Strength!), and have a great week!

D

We hope your Memorial Day weekend was filled with fun! Guess it’s back to the grind and there’s not better way to get back on track with a challenging workout. This full body sweat sesh is brought to you by Coach Christie and Fern. Enjoy!!  We are still keeping our whole staff on payroll. Your PayPal donations go directly to your coaches working hard to give you these workouts. PayPal joceyn@pdxstrength if you’d like to contribute. ?

Blog 19 – Week 10!

Holy cow, Week 10. Blog 19… We chatted a little bit about this during our Happy Hour (or Two and a Half Hour), but I certainly did not think I would be on the tenth week (with subsequent weeks to follow) of blog writing when I started Week 1, Blog 1, and I would imagine many of you can relate to the well-I-guess-this-is-a-new-thing thoughts over the course of the shutdown. Without judgment, I will remind you that this is short-term. Yes, maybe it’s been far longer than we would have liked, but in the grand scheme of things we have time to change the habits we don’t like and keep the ones we do. I, for one, have enjoyed the writing process. It’s been my connection to all of you while the other coaches have crushed it on Zoom and The ‘Gram, amongst other things. Will I keep up the 2x/week pace that I’ve currently set? Probably not, but don’t be surprised if it becomes a more regular thing as we phase back in to reality. I’ve also enjoyed some of our other community touch-points that we’ve created, and hope that we can get in to a routine that includes things like dance breaks/warm-ups and happy hours (5:30 stretch series and beers, anyone?). Will this be an everyday thing or as regular as it is now? Probably not, but you can bet that we’ll ways to keep what we (and you) like, and ditch what we don’t.

And on to the challenge, we are going to move away from the team challenge for this week and give an additional individual point instead. *Cues lasers (pew pew), spotlights (bonggg), fireworks(BOOM BANG), and chorus singing “Individual Points”(AAAhhhaaaHHH)* So for 1 individual point, we are requesting that you take the time to leave a review on any of the social platforms (google, FB, etc.). It may seem like a small thing, but it does help raise our awareness in the community. We like many other small businesses have seen better days (PS you should totally give your other favorite places reviews too). And while we aren’t on a mission to take over all of Portland (or St Johns for that matter), we do want to grow our reach, bring folks in (or back in) to our community, and do our part to support our little corner of the world. 

That’s probably it for me on this blog. Shorter than usual by about 100 words… Maybe I just keep typing to fill space… like I used to do in school… Nope. Nevermind. I’m done. Kind of. Maybe I go back and take out all the contractions… (Totally snuck over 450 words. BOOM!) Ok bye-bye, 

D

It’s Friday campers and we are bringing you a workout to try at home. We hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend! Thanks once again Courtney and Steve!

Thursday’s workout is brought to you by Steve and Courtney. I love the simplicity of this workout. Simple workouts always surprise me with how challenging they can be. Let us know how it goes! ??