This guest blog from NGPT Client Amy Cope was first published in May 2013. Our upcoming Inferno seemed like a great time to pull out this inspirational piece to help you decide, “To Inferno or Not to Inferno?”
To Inferno or Not to Inferno, That is the Question…
To my great surprise right before the last Inferno, my answer to this question became “yes”. My 3P group at the time included Philip Himebaugh, who had just been diagnosed with some frightening medical news but was still determined to compete. Our wonderful 3P group banded together and decided as many of us that were able would also compete with Phil in a show of support and love. This was 6 days before the Inferno. Not a lot of training time for this 46 year old who has already had one full knee replacement and was unable to TRX plank for a full minute. And when I say unable, I mean, “whole body shaking, falling face down on the ground unable to hold it” unable, not just a little wobbly leg syndrome. But we had committed to Phil, so I would attempt to plank to the death if necessary. I was able to hold my plank for a measly 36 seconds on my first day of training. Something really amazing happened that day, though. Several people happened to be around while I was trying and they started chiming in, “you can do it, Amy!” I’ll be honest, a huge factor in not chickening out was that the entire event was to help a beautiful little 4 year old girl with leukemia whose courage knew no bounds. How could I say that I wasn’t even willing to try to plank for 60 stupid seconds when this sweet girl had been so brave and had so many chemo treatments? Over the next several days on Facebook and in person, at least 50 people told me that they knew I had a one minute plank in me—that it was a mental block and not a physical one. Even though I still wasn’t so sure, every day that week I trained at home, at the studio and at the Iron Pit. Planking off the tub, off the couch, off my office chair-I cared about completing nothing else in the competition—I just wanted to complete the plank! Surely that wasn’t too much to ask! The day of the competition quickly came and I felt extremely nervous. I was called fairly early, got myself in those TRX straps and immediately felt like I might lose my protein bar all over the floor. But my 3P posse, Geno Hopkins, Phil Himebaugh and Rebecca Veidlinger surrounded themselves around me. Bill Howard started hollering in my ear and Marcey Tidwell, who was planking next to me, called out encouragement through the whole time. I had the amazing poster that Mindy Metzcar made for me on the floor in front of me reminding me that I could do it; that failing was not an option. I felt like everyone in the room was cheering me on. To my complete amazement and profound relief, I did it! I actually did it! More importantly, I did it with no problem. Every single doubt that I had in myself was unfounded and false. The rest of the day was sort of a blur but was an amazing ride. The competitors with the top 5 rowing scores were to advance to the next round. Anyone want to venture a guess about how many women were in the Advanced Division (over 40)? Yep, FIVE. So I ended up going on to do the push-ups and the kettle bell swings. I wasn’t able to complete the whole round, but I darned well finished all 75 of the push-ups and over 30 kettle bell swings. The surge of power and confidence was electrifying. The whole day was beyond inspirational, culminating in Adam’s amazing deadlifting prowess, all for little Taylor K. I had tears in my eyes the entire time he was lifting as did most of the folks in the room. It was life-changing and many times since then it has made me challenge my own perceived limitations. Try a Hindu push-up? You bet! One-legged body-builders? Heck, yes. Deadlifts of half of my body weight? YES. So my question to you is this. Why wouldn’t you want to try the Inferno? I wonder what doors could swing open for you…
