Six weeks seems like almost nothing. As life tends to do here in New York, the time flew by, but it also slowed down.
The Onnit 6 Challenge brought greater focus to my body, movement patterns, and my daily routines.
The hour of intense focus to keep the body in form with strength, flexibility, and stability expanded to all parts of my days. I chose to make time for it, getting up earlier so I could still meditate, journal, and be ready for my day.
Sometimes I was sore or fatigued, but I knew why—and I knew that tomorrow's workout would push that away and bring fresh space to my body. I put more attention and effort into making and eating high-quality foods to fuel recovery and performance and to ward off succumbing to the little voice of resistance whispering on the hard days.
In 2019 I worked through the Bodyweight, Kettle Bell, and Steel Mace programs. Of all three, the Bodyweight program was the most challenging—I wanted to take another shot at it and see how a year of focus on building strength and mobility through Onnit, erging, and Foundation Training had changed my physical and mental approach to the movements.
The Onnit 6 programs offer a sweet spot of flexible challenges that push the body just to the threshold of fatigue and provide coaching and space to stay in the game. One aspect that makes Bodyweight such a challenge (besides me having too much of it) is that there is no fun equipment as an intermediary between me and the work. Pulling out a heavy chunk of steel gets the blood pumping and the mind engaged, but with the Bodyweight program, it is just me, my achy joints, and a mat (albeit the most awesome yoga mat ever). I needed and wanted that challenge, to hold myself accountable to get up, get moving, and get on it every day, no matter what.
The second half of Week 5 presented the biggest hurdle. My body was run down from a cold, travel, stress, and the growing monotony of the warm-up and cool-down phases (I love John’s coaching, but some of those stretches hurt!). I had to force myself not to just jump into the workout to get it over with. Thankfully my partner, Lauren, started working from home Week 6, and she joined me for the workouts each day. Seeing the workouts as fresh to her helped me get over myself and commit to a strong final week, giving each workout everything I had.
Although I was resistant to engaging with social media, I unexpectedly enjoyed having friends and colleagues come up to me and mention that my rigor with the program and posts were inspiring them to workout too. My vicarious sharing was creating positive effects. I appreciated scanning through the fun posts of the other people working through the challenge, and I am grateful for Onnit and their courage to influence positive change in people's lives.
After six weeks I feel stronger, more mobile, and free to move without fear of pain. I am preparing food that nourishes my body for performance and recovery to stay ahead of the fatigue. I look forward to maintaining the discipline that I’ve developed through these six weeks—it doesn’t stop here.
I continue to move, to bring together all the tools I have gained, to become the best version of myself that I can.
Onward
