Push Very Hard

I go to the gym in the mornings before work. Now this gym is really top-notch. Because I work at Orion, I only need to pay a $45/month subscription compared to the $130 or so/month that other patrons must pay. Of course, my work has only a limited amount of special subscriptions it can give out to its staff. I think I had to wait about four months to get it. So I've been making a point to go to the gym religiously ever since.

This gym has plenty of friendly trained staff on hand to supervise your workout and even push you to work harder so that you can see results. However, I think this morning had to be one of the hardest I have been put through. One of the staff there, Al, is a nice guy but a mean taskmaster. While he has pushed me before in the past, I cannot remember him or any other person for that matter pushing me as hard as what I went through this morning.

On the circuits, Al supervised my lateral raises, bicep curls, seated dips and ab crunches. He was pushing me to do at least 4 more reps than I usually do. Especially on the seated dips exercise, I was set to push 160 pounds. After 12 or so reps, he gleefully set it up to 240 pounds and told me to slowly do 3 more while in a fatigued state. Just when I finished with that extra weight, he told me to do pushups, which was weird because I never had been asked to do so on the circuit.

The remaining strength that I had was used to get down on to the floor. I did about three, then collasped in a heap. He wanted more. I breathed for a few seconds, and pushed again. I managed only two. He still wanted more. This time, and with plenty of assistance from Al I got in another five, albeit incompetantly. Finally when he saw that I had enough, he wrote on my exercise card Push Very Hard. He explained that next time, I will be put through the same kind of extreme, gruelling, unsympathetic, uncompromising workout regime.

I know he isn't singling me out for punishment. He wants results, he knows I want results, and he is determined that I attain those results. I don't pay $45/month for an easy ride, you know.

No complaints

Weekend was awesome really. Had a big sleep in on Saturday morning. I didn't really have any plans for the day. To make it seem like I was doing something productive I sat in front of the piano for an unknown amount of time trying to get to grips with two Chopin Etudes. Sunday, I helped a friend for an hour with her job interview for Woolworths. Just a part time position to occupy her during the school holidays, nothing major, but apparently they required her to attend an interview. So as with all job interviews, we covered all our bases by making up all sorts of probable questions they could ask her. That went smoothly. Finally Sunday evening, I watched a film, Pamela's Prayer, regarding teens, dating, and abstinence coming from a Christian viewpoint. It was well acted and had noble intentions. My only gripe was that their portrayal of abstinence was too unrealistic and didn't pertain to the real world of today, even though the movie was made in 1998. Still, I'd recommend the film to any parent, Christian or not, simply to help open the doors for some life altering discussions.

Sometimes for those that always have tons of energy to burn over the week, a weekend where you just don't do anything significant can be great. That weekend was just one of those weekends. Fantabulous!

To play a two minute piece

One of the things that I really enjoy doing if I get the time is to play the piano. I enjoy playing a variety of music, but this year I've experienced something of a classical renaissance. I think it's because classical music is highly under-appreciated amongst young people so I preferred playing popular music. Yet throughout my time as a pianist I've always been fed a diet of classical music.

Anyway one of my goal pieces is to learn Chopin's arpeggio etude. It is a devilishly difficult piece, very fast at around 176 beats per minute. Even my heart rate can't get that high when I run! Some interesting points: if you want to play fast, you must practice slower. When practicing pieces, the great Rachmaninov spent 15 seconds for every note!! So if he practiced this etude with all 1233 notes (don't worry, I didn't count them all), it would have taken him over five hours to go over it once.

Argh, what one must go through to play a two minute piece!

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