Dead Lifts

What is a dead lift?

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You stand with your feet apart, knees slightly bent. The weights in each of your hands pull slightly at your arms as you hinge your hips forward, bending until the weights are almost touching the floor. Your back is straight as you raise yourself back up, drawing up the weight of the dumbbells. 

You hinge your hips forward again, still keeping your spine straight and after the fourth dead lift, you start to feel a tingling start in your upper legs, spreading to your calves and your lower back. The tingling intensifies as you raise your torso up and lower back down into your fifth dead lift. The dumbbells are pulling your body forward and you utilise the strong muscles in your back to fight their downward pull and lift your body up.

Your upper legs are feeling tight as you lower yourself for the sixth time, bending forward and keeping your spine straight, feeling your back tense to fight the pull of the weights. You breath, lift your body and lower yourself again. The weights are getting heavier and by the tenth rep, they feel like they've doubled in weight.

A hot ache starts to spread through your arms, especially around your shoulders. The stiffness in your legs and back intensifies and you're surprised to feel the exertion in your hip muscles since you're so rarely aware of them. You keep your back straight and lower your body for your eleventh rep, slowly drawing air into your lungs and exhaling as you lift yourself again.

The dumbbells feel like they've tripled in weight now. They're pulling hard on your tired arms and the muscles in your back are hot from fighting their downward pull. You feel the burning from your legs to your shoulders and down your arms as you bend forward, breath, and raise yourself again.

Just three more, you tell yourself, and ignore the pain as you do your thirteenth dead lift. Just two more. Your back and legs are burning, they feel too stiff and tight to move, let alone lift the dumbbells that feel like they've turned into thousand pound weights. You breath, and bend forward until your nearly touching the floor, then raise yourself back up, Just one more. The last one is agony. You just want to drip the weights, but you push yourself to keep your back straight, slowly lowering yourself and drawing yourself back up.

Jogging

The visualisation 

Sunshine beams down on you as you stretch to reach your toes. You rise and swing your arms back and forth, loosening your shoulders. You tap your foot against the dirt path to ensure that your shoes are tied snugly and you break out into a light jog.

Your muscles come alive as you take off and your breath becomes heavier as you feel your heart rate increase. Hot puffs of air leave your mouth as you breath in new air that spreads through your body and feeds your hard working muscles. Your feet hit the earth hard as you increase your speed and the sensation is like flying. You suck in air and try to regulate your breathing as your heart pounds in your chest. You can feel your pulse throbbing under your skin and it combines with the rhythm of your feet on the path.

You feel a stitch in your side and you slow your pace to ease the pain. You take this chance to catch your breath and let your heart slow a bit. Sweat drips from your forehead and you feel a wet patch on your back as well. Now that you've given yourself a chance to slow down, you can really feel the tightness in your thighs. You stop, do a quick stretch, then break into another fast jog.

Your breath feels hot as it enters your lungs. As a matter of fact, your whole body feels hot. You quicken your pace, enjoying the feeling of using your muscles, and you feel your heart pounding again as your feet propel you forward.

The heat gradually becomes a burn, starting in your thighs and spreading through your body as you begin to feel the effects of your exercise. You breath hard and ignore the burn. You're only halfway through and your muscles are already asking you to quit.

You breath in again. You have to focus hard to keep your breathing normal as your body begs for more air to fuel your tired muscles. You inhale. You exhale. Your heartbeat in your ears sounds as loud as your pounding feet. Your awareness is drawn away from the scenery and is focused entirely on your body. You inhale. You exhale. You feel the burn in your muscles and you keep running.

You pass the marker that says you're three quarters through your run. You allow yourself to slow down for a few minutes and your muscles are grateful. You inhale, You exhale. You throw yourself into a run for the last quarter of your jog.

Pull Ups

What is a pull up?

The Visualisation

You reach up to the metal bar above you. At first it seems impossible to lift your entire body with just your arms, but you feel your stomach clench and the muscles in your back harden and you manage to lift yourself until your chin is level with the bar. You breathe, amazed that you have done what you thought would be impossible and you let yourself drop to the floor again.

You tighten your hands around the bar and lift up again. It's harder than it was in the first time and you feel all of your muscles more acutely. You let yourself drop and pull up again. Your arms are beginning to feel like cooked spaghetti and the rest of your muscles are suffering a similar fatigue. You drop and pull up again, experiencing a strange feeling of both strength and weakness as you work your muscles until they're fatigued.

You're more aware of the muscles in your back than you've ever been as you lift yourself up again and a throbbing burn spreads up your arms, to your shoulders and down your back. Your hands are growing slippery on the metal bar and you breath, pushing yourself to do just one more.

You grip the bar and lift with your arms, feeling the muscles harden all over your body as you lift yourself again so that your chin is level with the bar. You hold yourself there and count down from ten. Your muscles flex to maintain your position. You can feel them in your arms, your back and your stomach, using their strength to hold you up in the air. As your countdown reaches zero, you let yourself drop to the floor. 

Plank

What is a plank?

The Visualisation

You lay on your stomach and push up onto your elbows. Your back is straight and your toes are pressing into the floor. The clock timer is set for two minutes. You're relying on your bicep muscles to support you, but as the seconds tick down on the clock, you start to feel your abs flex as you make sure to keep your back straight. The clock counts down to 1:43.

You're becoming more and more aware of all the muscles in your core working together to keep your body stiff and straight. You lean into your arms to relieve some of the strain on your center and a hot burning sensation starts to build in your biceps. The clock counts down to 1:20

The burning spreads through your entire body as all of your muscles work to keep you in the plank position. Your gluteal muscles are rock hard and your thighs are beginning to feel the work out. The clock counts down to 0:57

Your stomach starts to sag a bit and you correct it, drawing on the muscles in your lower back to assist your tiring stomach muscles. You desperately want to drop to the floor, but you keep your eyes on the clock, watch the seconds tick down and try not to think of the burning tightness all over your body. Every single one of your muscles is tensed and flexed as you watch the clock count down to 0:28.

You puff in air and exhale loudly. Every second ticking past is both relief and agony. Your biceps are inflamed as are your stomach muscles. You feel your thighs start to shake as the clock hits 0:19.

Your stomach starts to sag a bit, but you pull it back up. Just 13 seconds left. You're determined to maintain a perfect position for the remainder of the count.

0:10, your grit your teeth as the pain in your stomach muscles feels unbearable.

0:09, you lean into your toes to shift the balance off your stomach to your thighs, but they're just as exerted and it barely offers any relief from the pain of the work out.

0:08, you breath and try to balance the weight again. The muscles in your biceps feel hard as rock and hot as fire.

0:07, you close your eyes and try to bear the burn. Just seven seconds, six, five, four...

0:03, you open your eyes again, every second is just agony now.

0:02

0:01

Your body screams with relief as you let it drop from the position. All of your muscles are hard and throbbing.

Sit-Ups

What is a sit-up?

The visualisation

You lay on the floor and cross your hands over your chest. You take a deep breath and pull your body up using your stomach muscles. The muscles tighten as they lift your torso up until your chin nearly touches your knees. You let out another puff of breath as you lower yourself back to the floor and raise yourself up again. A burning sensation spreads through your stomach muscles as you lift yourself, three, four, five, six times.

The burning stiffness in your core becomes a satisfiying reward as you pull your torso up a seventh time. A small film of sweat is building on your forehead as each sit up is more difficult than the last. Eight, nine, ten, eleven...

You grunt again as you try to find some momentum to bring yourself up for the twelfth time. Your breathing hard and the burning in your abdomen is almost unbearable. You drop to the floor and pull yourself up again. You grimace as you go into the thirteenth sit-up, and somehow push yourself into the fourteenth and then the fifteenth before collapsing on the floor.

Your awareness is soley on the tightness of your abdomen muscles as you spend a moment on the floor, preparing yourself for the next set.

Push Ups

What is a push up?

The visualisation

You enter a plank position with your palms on the floor, shoulder width apart. Your back is straight and your toes are pressing into the floor. You drop into your first push up. You're surprised by how heavy your body is as you use your bicep strength to lift it back into the plank position. You drop again and push up with your arms.

Two,

three,

 four

five...

You're starting to feel it in your stomach muscles.  They feel tight and hot as you push up for a sixth time and when you go into your seventh push up, you start to feel your middle sag a bit. You fight against your muscles to keep your back straight and drop into your eighth push up. You're amazed that you can keep pushing yourself, despite the burning in your arms. You pause for a minute as you come back up, unsure if you'll be able to lift yourself up again if you go back down. Your body feels like it's gotten fifty pounds heavier since you started.

You go for it. It's much harder now to keep your body from dropping right into the floor. Your biceps are so hot, they feel like they have rug burn. You push up again, groaning at the pain in your abs as you try to keep your back straight. One more, just one more, you tell yourself as your body screams for rest.

You drop again. Your arms feel like jelly, but your will won't let them give up. You press your palms into the floor and raise yourself in one last perfect push up.

Squats

What is a squat?

The Visualization

You stand with your legs shoulder width apart and slowly lower yourself into a sitting position, holding yourself up with the strength of your thighs, your abs and your lower back muscles. You raise yourself up and lower yourself again, feeling your muscles support your weight as you do.

You do this easily ten times, raising your body to a standing position and lowering it down again into a sitting position. Raising and lowering, raising and lowering, raising and lowering. six times, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven….

Finally the repetition has started to build a stiffness in the muscles supporting you and your calves are feeling hot. You ignore the burn and continue raising your body to a standing position and lowering it down again into a sitting position. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen...

It's your abs that start to kill you before anything else. You’re acutely aware of the stiff burning muscles in your core as you lower yourself onto your thighs that are beginning to shake with the exertion of lifting the weight of your upper body. You’re not ready to give up and you breathe heavily to distract your focus from your aching muscles. You raise your body and lower it into a sitting position and this time you think you won’t be able to push yourself up, but you draw your strength from the powerful muscles in your back. Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two….

You lower yourself again and your thighs tremble. You breath. You raise your body again, feeling the ache in your thighs and abs as they lift your torso up again, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six…

Your whole body is killing you. You feel like you have a fifty pound sack of potatoes on your shoulders. The only thing keeping you going is knowing that you only have four more squats to go. You clench your teeth in agony as you count them out, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, THIRTY.

You drop to the floor. Your muscles are burning, especially your thighs, abs and calves. You grab your water bottle and gulp down. You can already tell your muscles are going to be sore tomorrow.