I just HAVE to send shout-outs here to my
partner-in-crime, Jung, who helped me represent the Over 30 crew at the
competition that spontaneously broke out at training tonight. Mr. Jung is one of my older members and by “older”
I mean that he’s not still wet behind the ears and sporting baby teeth – he’s
not in the 23-28 age group that consumes about 75% of our Hulk family. He’s a stocky muscular man who usually comes
to Hulk’s in the early afternoon to do weight training. Tonight he came late in the evening, when the
place was buzzing with our usual late night crowd. I had just worked out with one of my younger
members and had ended that workout with 7 pull-ups on the cable cross
machine. No sooner had I completed my
last pull-up but in comes Mr. Jung and one of the guys commented to his friend about an "old man" here.
“Game’s on”, I told myself. Mr. Jung is by no means old; I think he's 39.
“How about a little challenge?” I asked
them. “Let’s see how many pull-ups you
can do” and with that these youthful guys suddenly got a bit cocky and accepted
my challenge. I responded by throwing in
my own cockiness into the challenge and telling them that we could do it in
teams – Jung and I against them. There
were six of them, one 19 year old and then 5 between the ages 23-26.
“I’ll even give you a handicap” I added, “You
get to add five to your team’s count”.
The challenge was definitely on and they
were sure they’d win – 6 against 2, young against old, AND five extra
points. One by one they took their turn,
stood up to grab the pull-up bar and tried to lift themselves up and one by one
they definitely struggled. Two forfeited
before their turn came up.
… and then it was my turn.
I asked if I could use the 7 I had just
completed no more than 10 minutes ago but they said no. My hands were still red and sore from my
completed 7 so I knew it’d be hard but I also knew I had represent. The pressure was certainly on not just on me
as a woman but me as being older than them and me being their coach and club
manager. Maxed out at nine.
… and then it was Jung’s turn.
He left the young guys feeling rather
embarrassed and humbled when he maxed out an impressive 17. His 17 with my 9 meant we had 26
pull-ups. 17:8.
Jung, first place with 17.
Me, second place with 9.
Third place went to someone on the other team with 4.
I was pretty impressed and amused that my
count alone had killed the competition’s team, very cool. And yes, I definitely did let them know
too. “I guess you’ll be renewing your
membership until you can do pull-ups like me, a old gal!”.
I wanted to continue with another
bodyweight challenge but then the young guys’ team scattered. I think they were just too full from eating
all that humble pie if you ask me. It’s
all good, it was very fun but I know it definitely was a reality check for some
of them. I’m always trying to get them
to do weight training after their boxing training but they insisted that boxing
alone made them strong. They didn’t want
to listen to me.
Tonight after their boxing, they ALL did
weight training… and I did 8 more pull-ups.
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