Eat Your Broccoli!

I finished my last Burpee--three sets of ten, in the books--and wearily pushed back up from a squat to standing. The image in the mirror in front of me wasn't pretty. Sweat dripped down my neck, my face was flushed, and my hair frizzing out all over the place. Impatiently, I swiped a hand over the fly-aways, trying to make them stay down.

A few feet away, my friend and former trainer Matt was doing his own workout, engrossed in his own routine and whatever music was pumping through his headphones. As I turned away from my worn-out reflection, our eyes met, and he grinned at me in greeting.

I grinned back. "I hate these!"

He laughed in response. "I know...me, too!"

"But I've gotten better at them!" I bragged, recalling the times I struggled through Burpees in my appointments with him, over a year ago.

"Yes, you have!"

"Doesn't mean I like 'em, though," I said with a wry smile. Matt chuckled. "No, but you've just got to make them your own, and get stronger."

I nodded, as a thought flew into my head. "You know, I tell my piano students all the time, 'Look, I know scales and stuff are boring, but they're the broccoli.'" Matt's grin got a little bigger, and I continued. "Everyone wants chocolate cake, but you have to have your broccoli, too, right? It's good for you!"

A burst of laughter escaped Matt. "Burpees are broccoli!"

"Exactly!"

It's easy enough to dismiss exercises we don't like doing, but the point of working out is to challenge our bodies. Obviously, if an exercise is too hard on us, causing real pain, it's time to step back and reassess whether or not your body is ready. I remember a few times Matt would give me a new exercise to try, only to watch my back bow painfully and tell me to stop immediately. It's also important to know that exercises shouldn't be Easy Street, either. If a regular squat has gotten to the point where you can do 50 of them and barely feel a twinge, it's time to shock your body a little bit by adding dumbbells or some sort of extra challenge.

Burpees are not painful for me; they're simply challenging, and exhausting. I don't enjoy them; they make my muscles quiver and sometimes challenge my coordination. But I do them, because they're good for me. They make me stronger. If I'm going to keep--and grow--the great fitness levels I've achieved, I have to eat my broccoli. Literally and figuratively.

P.S. I actually love broccoli--steamed, with a bit of lemon juice. So good! I just use it as an example because it's the first veggie that leaped into my mind when I first used the "eat your veggies" concept in a piano lesson. If I wanted to use a veggie I can't stand, I'd pick Brussels sprouts. *shudder*