Workout wife is all the motivation I need
I am the client that gyms dream about
– the one who pays his monthly dues but only shows up once a
month. I don’t cause wear and tear on machines and I certainly
don’t break them, because I’m not on them enough.
This week I decided to get back in the gym with a little
instruction and a lot of motivation. The instruction came in the
form of a certified trainer who has been working with my sons and
their friends to get them in shape for the upcoming basketball
season. He offered to help my wife and I get back into the workout
groove by tailoring a workout plan for us.
Workout wife is all the motivation I need
I am the client that gyms dream about – the one who pays his monthly dues but only shows up once a month. I don’t cause wear and tear on machines and I certainly don’t break them, because I’m not on them enough.
This week I decided to get back in the gym with a little instruction and a lot of motivation. The instruction came in the form of a certified trainer who has been working with my sons and their friends to get them in shape for the upcoming basketball season. He offered to help my wife and I get back into the workout groove by tailoring a workout plan for us.
The motivation is my wife, who is sharing the circuit with me and “encouraging” me to push beyond the limits I set for myself. By encouraging, I really mean embarrassing me by handling Day 1 of the strenuous workout with less whining and wincing than I displayed.
I love athletics and coaching and playing and watching sports. I love the hard work that goes into athletic endeavors and the results that come from them. Like many 41-year-old men, however, I’m not the best at practicing what I preach.
I encourage my children to eat right and get plenty of sleep, then I stay up until midnight watching TV while eating a bowl of sugary cereal. I tell my sons to stretch before hitting the playing field, then I show up two minutes before a coed softball game and pray that I don’t get injured trying to beat out an infield single.
I’m hoping that this couples’ workout will be the motivation I need to snap out of my exercise laziness. I want to get my injured knee stronger and have more energy and lose some of the weight that I’ve put on over the past year. More motivating than any of that, though, is I don’t want my wife showing me up at the gym.
During our first session on Monday, she approached each new station like a caged animal, ready to pounce. I approached the stations like cowering prey, worried that the big, scary machines might attack me.
So that I wasn’t totally embarrassed, the trainer (thankfully) added weight to the machines each time my wife was done with her sets, keeping some of my ego intact. With sit-ups, however, there were no weights to move, except our own.
She plowed through her set, rising and falling with steady resolve, as I struggled to lift my torso off the mat without shaking like a leaf. My insides felt like they were twisting into a knot, but that did not stop me. My motivation, sitting right next to me on the mat, made sure of that – just by being there.
Leg presses, shoulder presses, lat pull downs; I did them all, amazed after each set that I hadn’t keeled over. I needed this workout badly, even though I knew I was going to pay for it physically for days.
Day 2 of Adam’s Return to the Gym happened Wednesday night, after deadline, so I still had the strength to write this column. I imagine, however, that the soreness I felt just sitting in front of the computer will be amplified by the time these words appear in print.
That pain will be nothing, I might add, compared to the emotional discomfort I would feel if I gave up while my wife kicked my butt in the gym. I am man enough to say that my motivation is a 41-year-old woman; the mother of my children; the living workout machine that doesn’t force me to join her, but doesn’t let me forget that it’s for my own good.
The soreness that stretches from my neck to my toes is good pain; I have to tell myself that. I cannot – I will not – give up until my physical strength comfortably surpasses that of Mrs. Motivation. Until then, I will do my best to stay one weight plate ahead of her on the machines.
That’s all the motivation I need.
Adam Breen writes a blog at
