Sqaut...I mean Walk The Talk!

Although it has been over 20 years, I can still hear my Martial Arts Instructor's voice saying to me, "you've got to Walk the Talk John. There are far too many Black Belts out there who get their belt and then either quit or simply hide behind it. They feel that since they've achieved a certain rank that they are therefore immune to having to work hard again. Don't be THAT guy John- don't sit around and make excuses. Always work in the same fashion you did to earn your rank!" Sound advice I have to say! And it has served me well over the years.

Yet, I don’t know why, but at least once per week a member gets crabby that they’re the one training and sweating and “all” I do is coach. (By the way, THAT’S what they pay me for!) They get miffed that they have to do the squats, the push-ups, the crunches, the heavy bag drills and I just “stand there” making sure they do it properly. To many of you, you understand how crazy this is (I sure do) but to others, they think I should be coaching like a Tae Bo Instructor (where they do every move with every class- and this ain't freakin' Tae Bo!) and that I really don’t do anything at all! Well, we now have video to prove I do!

After a few warm-up sets, I did one set at 135 for 25 reps, one set at 225 for 15 reps and one set at 315 for 8 reps before the quad-drop set shown here. After that, I did 100 Jump Squats, 3 sets of leg extensions, 3 sets of leg curls and 6 sets of calf raises. I wanted to do more; jump switch lunges and bag work, but it was 10:30pm...way past little Johnny's bedtime!


I have to say that I was ready to quit on that last set as my lower back was really getting tight, but I heard Mary’s voice say “just a few more”, and I thought ‘that’s right, it’s only a few more! Why stop?’ So I kept going. Besides, I was being taped and I need to continually set the example on how to stay focused and finish strong, and above all, proof that I really do train! LOL!!