#perpetualmotionpt

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We have a new gym mascot! Everyone, please meet Frank. You’ll be seeing a lot more of this barrel-chested, bat-eared, snorty little love bug. He loves snuggles, naps, and the possibility of treats (only the possibility - actual treats give him some amazing gas). He won’t be joining you in workouts, he’ll be snoring away in his kennel or monitoring your form on burpees. 

Thanks Babbie for the wonderful picture of you, Chanel, and Frank. So happy to add to our family!

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What progress actually looks like: It has happened to every one of us. Things are going well, we are feeling strong and confident and optimistic, and something derails us. It could be a bad cold, a vacation that throws the schedule and eating off track, a family crisis, a broken leg. Whatever it is, it’s SO frustrating, right? I hear this from you guys all the time: “I was doing great, then “x” happened and I feel like I just can’t get back on track”. I want to reassure you that not only are you not alone, but it’s a pretty crowded room you are in. Welcome! As some of you know, I was not always so healthy. I ran and played soccer VERY casually in high school, but started smoking and prioritized socializing over my health for a long time. I began working out and getting into running again about eight years ago, give or take. But I still smoked, and my diet was primarily processed foods and not a lot of fresh produce. It has taken me so many ups and downs to get where I am today. It took many attempts to finally successfully quit smoking, and I can tell you that every attempt that failed made me feel like, well, a failure. In those moments, I was so hard on myself, and I truly thought “this is impossible and I can never change”. The journey to fitness has been the same up and down path. I would work out for a bit, then fall off the wagon, then be hard on myself, then avoid going to work out again because I knew it was going to suck. But over time, the periods in between falling off and getting back on got shorter and shorter. You see, there is this wonderful thing called muscle memory. When your body learns how to do something, it creates neurological pathways that know what to do when you do it again, even if you have had some time off. Injury, illness, even a lazy beach vacation are no match for your body, once it has had a little practice doing something. This is also why we heavily stress good form in the gym! Listen to our cues, and do your best to do it right, so that your body does not create bad movement patterns that can lead to injury. The first workout back after a time off is always the hardest. So even though you are possibly dreading it, get it over with. You’ll have some soreness, but you will get back on track faster than you think. My other really important piece of advice, even though it’s so hard sometimes, is just focus on the long term results you want, not what is going on short term. If you let yourself just completely fall off from the goals you have set right now, where will you be in a year? And in a year, will it matter that you had to take a week or two off? No. This leads me to my last point, one I have made before: be nice to yourself. Be kind. Be forgiving. Not one of us is perfect, and not one of us is immune to the various pitfalls in life. Allow yourself recovery, and then dust yourself off and get back to it. In the long run, this will just be a blip. -Elyse, Perpetual Motion Performance Training [phone] [email protected] www.perpetualmotionpt.com

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Starting next Thursday the 19th, we will not have a 6:30 PM class in the studio; instead, we are starting a trail running group led by Elyse that will meet at Shell Ridge in Walnut Creek at 6:45. The group will be GREAT for beginners; it will be a run/walk format and low mileage. Bodyweight exercises will be incorporated so that you can get a full-body workout. Email [email protected] for more information, or sign up at www.perpetualmotionpt.com.

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Thursday is Strength, Power and Conditioning. This is a great class for getting stronger, working your core, and improving endurance. Today’s crew worked really hard, laughed a lot, motivated each other, and left feeling strong and proud. Nice work guys!

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Time for the finisher!! This Saturday is the final location for our stairs series, the famous Dipsea Steps in Mill Valley. (Don’t tell anyone, but it’s my favorite). Three sets of steps wind their way through jealousy-inducing homes in the forest. We promise a fantastic workout, and will head out for a meal and drink together afterward. 925-289-9741 or [email protected] for more info!

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A blog post from Elyse, one of the owners of PM

Last month marked 4 years of not smoking for me. I didn't even notice until a few days after the anniversary, and when I did, it surprised me that it hadn't been longer. It feels like a decade. Smokers are made to feel terrible because people talk about how it stinks, or what a dumb habit it is, or whatever other thing along those lines, but the truth is that cigarettes, like ANY other addiction (booze, drugs, FOOD), is usually a symptom of some bigger issues going on. We humans tend to like our crutches. For me, I picked up cigarettes when I was in high school; I was insecure, it looked cool, it made me feel like less of an innocent goody-two-shoes. That's the simple reason most kids pick it up: it feels adult and sexy and gives you something to do with those silly awkward hands dangling at your sides. It morphed into my safety blanket, the thing that saved me from stress (not until truly quitting did I realize that it actually was creating the stress - my need/desire for the cigarette was actually making whatever situation I was in more aggravating). About five years ago, I attempted to do a push up. I laid on the ground, put my hands under me, and collapsed into giggles because the idea of doing it was insane. I did not have that strength. If you had told me "you are going to lead fitness classes in a few years" you would have gotten a very sarcastic comment, look, and possible gesture. The point of all this is not to be braggy. Now, owning and working at the gym, I encounter people every day who feel like where they are RIGHT THEN is where they will ALWAYS be (feeling awkward, feeling weak, feeling clumsy), and where I am RIGHT NOW in front of them is how I have ALWAYS been (strong, doing military-style pushups with a fair amount of ease). The people I spend time with now are often surprised to hear that not that long ago I was not in good shape. But all I am is a series of little changes that had to be done over and over to become habits - this has not been a streamlined movie montage of pushups and salads, this is ups and downs and sadness and proudness and insecurity. I see how far people come now; people walk in to our gym SO self-concious and worried that we are going to kick them out for not doing it right or something. And those people, if they stick it out more than just two or three times, improve rapidly. Showing up is doing it right. Screwing up and trying again is doing it right. Showing up the first time is always the hardest time. Always. We are all scared of not knowing what we are doing. I'm not just talking about the gym here, I'm talking about walking into class for the first time, calling the person you want to call, signing up for a new thing and then following through. There is no correct way to do it. There is no good thing to eat and bad thing to eat. If you don't know how to do a push-up today, that does not mean you don't know how to do it for FOREVER, it just means you haven't learned to do it yet. If not a push-up, whatever your personal thing is - something you have seen someone else do and feel that little twinge of "I would like to do that". We are all works in process. Bravery is action in the face of fear.