Motivation for Exercise #1:
Running with Bricks



There are many people out there who have an exercise routine but do not have the results they desire from it. They get to the gym once, twice or even three times a week and yet they’re still overweight, they don’t feel as good as they want to, and (the all important) “they still don’t look that good naked." There are many ways to heighten this workout and you could do a ton of research and ask all of your “healthy" friends, but why go through all of that. The secret to getting the results you want from a workout is to run with bricks.

When you’ve had a workout regimen going for a while, you feel like you deserve results. Hell, you should be looking better within a couple of weeks for all the time you’re putting in. You want to look more toned and sexier and for some reason that stupid fat won’t come off of your body. You spend three to five hours a week in there! How dare that fat not pay attention to all of your hard work! If a few months go by with little to no body change, a busy person, especially a busy person with a variable schedule like a creative writer, actor, or director, will stop making an effort.

First of all, let me say that not all of the benefits of exercise involve your outward appearance. The rise in endorphins can make you feel better for a little while and can contribute to your writing clarity for the next few hours. Being in better cardiovascular shape typically means that you will live longer, which for most creative people is a positive thing :). But the consequence most people want to experience is that day you look in the mirror and see how “hot" you have become.

Do you really want that body? You’re going to have to do something crazy for it. Are you ready? You are going to run with bricks.

You might say to yourself, “has Bryan gone loopy?" or “I’ve never seen anyone run with bricks; that sounds downright idiotic." Well, what you’re doing right now sure isn’t working. Right? So why not try something a little bit on the wild side.

Go to a local hardware store or a construction site. Get a pair of similar weighted bricks and then start running!

You’ll notice that this kind of exercise really tires your arms out. Running on its on is not so bad, but when you add this constantly annoying five to ten pounds extra on each side, it really, really sucks. Most people think that running with bricks is not fun at all.

I agree. Running with bricks is awful. I still have calluses on my hands from my experiences with it nearly eight years ago.

It was my senior year of high school and I was on the varsity wrestling team. The three previous years, we were pretty much the doormats of the league. In walked Coach Jones. He’d been the assistant for a couple of years and he always emphasized hardcore training methods. He was promoted for my senior year and one day he pulled up in a big pick up truck full of red bricks. He instructed us to take two and bring them into the locker room. They were to be our running partners for the next several months.

We ran around the sports fields at the beginning of every practice. The first few days we got some goofy looks and a lot of laughs as we strained to carry around our new found friends. I could feel my shoulders being worked to the brink of exhaustion and I was extremely happy to put them down at the end of our twenty minute sojourns.

A funny thing happened though. Our team still wasn’t that great. But we doubled our wins that season, we got into a respectable end of the year tournament, and we advanced several of our wrestlers past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in years. We changed a few things, but really the major addition to our regimen was running with bricks.

It toughened us up. And while it definitely sucked at the time, when we looked back on it, we realized how much adding just one crazy thing to your routine can make a major difference.

If your workout is not doing what you want it to do, try adding something really intense and crazy to it. If you aren’t losing the fat you want to, speed everything up and find a way to work in some wind sprints. Sprinting down your street might look insane, but if you keep it up for a month or so, that fat isn’t gonna know what hit it. If you aren’t getting much out of a treadmill, find a difficult hike in your area and maneuver your way through it. Your leg muscles will be confused and they’ll be shocked out of their complacency.

To get the results you want, sometimes you need to add something that majorly sucks to your routine. Something that will have the cute Field Hockey girls laughing at you in the hallways. Something wacky and ridiculous or just plain exhausting. Keep it up. It will make a difference. Soon enough, the major end goal of all working out, your enhanced nudity, will be surprisingly achieved :).




Done with Motivation for Exercise #1?
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