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.