I Think I Can

Every Wednesday, at 5:45pm I head to the gym.  Not an easy chore.  But this is Bernie’s class.  I love Bernie’s class.  You see, Bernie thinks we are all Marines.   I truly think that he was/is a Marine Drill Sargent. OORAH!!!!

The first time I took his class I had not a clue as to what I was getting into.  I noticed  that this class was really crowded.  I have been going to the gym for many years and never saw that many attendees for one exercise class.  Wow, I thought this guy must be really good.

Well that was the understatement of my gym years.

Bernie’s  intro to the class was, “There is no such thing as I can’t, if any one says I can’t that person will have to put a quarter in a can.”  And displays the tin can in clear view. A quarter a “CAN”T”,  is he serious?  And who carries money with them when they are at the gym, certainly not me.

Without skipping a beat, Bernie hands out jump ropes and yells, “START JUMPING”.  OK, we all began to jump, jump, jump, jump.  I am looking at the clock and thinking, when is he going to say stop jumping. What he does say is, “I see people jumping like they are in grammar school, I want to see real jumps.”  Is he kidding?  NO!!

He has a whistle hanging on his shoulders.  I don’t know why, his voice is louder than the music.  Bernie is in your face, if you are not showing him that you are putting your all in class.  He made us carry a 25 lb weight while we all ran around the room.  Has he lost his mind, I can’t do this. Oops, I thought the ‘can’t’ word.   Oh, my goodness, now Bernie tells us to hold the weight over our head and just stand still.  I thought, I will drop the weight right  on my head.  But I didn’t.  Push, he says “Anyone can do 3 sets of 12, this is the challenge.” As hard as he pushed, the more I responded.  Every Wednesday I come home with sweat down my back, my hair starts to get curly, and I do get tired.  But this tired feels different, not like you would feel from lack of sleep.   After the class I have revitilized energy, energy that I did not know I even had.

Bernie’s class is now my favorite gym class.  It has now been about 2 months since I joined his class, going once a week.  I cannot believe how much stronger I am getting.  The question now is, is this ‘torture’ worth it?  Let me put it this way.  The other day, as I was blasting through his class, Bernie came up to me and said,” Did you lose weight”?  I smiled at him and said, “Since I started taking your class I dropped 3 lbs.”  These were the pounds that, you know, never seem to let go.  Bernie smiled back at me and said, “It shows.”  Now Bernie has a second class, and just like a glutton for punishment,  I  take a Bernie class, 2 times a week.

Bernie is right, there is no  “I can’t.”     Thank you, Bernie.

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