"Always Find a Way to Win"
(originally published at workingclassfitness.blogspot.com)

If you’ve read some of my posts below, you know that I’ve been getting my workouts (and kick-ass workouts at that!) in at lunchtime. Well the company I work for decided that the little gym I go to was no longer necessary, and the equipment would be better served being sent to another site. (In case you didn’t know, I work for a govt. contractor in Iraq.)

It was pretty messed up, actually. Sunday, I had gotten a GREAT workout in (15 intense minutes on the Concept 2 Rower followed by 5 even more intense minutes on an elliptical trainer – all MFD style). Everything seemed normal. Monday at lunchtime, I was walking back to my hooch to change for my workout. There was a big connex (the steel containers they use for shipping – imagine the containers you see being transported on cargo ships – that’s a connex) in front of the gym. As I walked by, I comically thought to myself, “Man, that would be messed up if I got to the gym, and they’d taken everything out of there – hahaha.” I got changed and hit the gym. The place was EMPTY.

NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

To say I was pissed off would be an understatement. It’s hot out here, you work all the friggin’ time (average of 84+ hours/week), you can’t see your friends and family, the food sucks, I could go on – one of the things that keeps me going is working out.

It’s not like there isn’t another gym on the camp, because there is. It’s not *that* far away, but it’s a good 10-12 min. walk from my hooch. That basically cuts out any chance of a lunchtime workout (I can’t afford to be gone for 1-1.5 hours at lunch – I’ll explain why later).

If I go at the end of the day when I get off work, the place is insanely busy (it’s just not big enough). And when you do workouts filled with stuff like snatches, burpees, dumbbell swings, and the like, well, there just isn’t room. Not to mention you end up getting a bunch of questions on “what muscle does that work?” (Once I had a gym attendant ask me to quit doing dumbbell snatches because others saw me doing them and were attempting them when I wasn’t around, and he didn’t want anybody getting hurt – because he didn’t know how to do them and couldn’t show them proper form!!)

I could go in the afternoon (my boss would probably let me have the time), but as the earliest I get off now is 7:30-8:00pm (I get into the office at 7:00am), if I take 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon for a workout, that puts me in the office until 9:00pm or later. That makes for a mighty long day. And since I’m going to be in this office every day for the next two months (been here for three already) before I go home for a couple weeks on R&R at Christmas, I need to keep a close eye on the “burnout” factor. Staying in the office until 9:00pm or later every night is gonna take that burnout factor and shoot it through the roof. The same goes for getting up a couple extra hours early to workout in the morning.

Running still wasn’t a real good long-term option, because our uniform posture keeps changing – that means that one day we might be able to come and go as we please. The next we might be able to during the day, but have to wear our flak vests and helmets at night. The next we might have to wear them whenever we’re outside – regardless of the time of day. Ugh.

The thing that really had me pissed off was that I had been making such good progress as of late – I’d been getting some real kick-ass workouts in. And now my momentum would be messed up…

So what to do?

Well, the first thing I did was to decide that I wasn’t going to let this little setback beat me. Nothing ever has before, and I sure as hell am not going to let this.

The first day was all bodyweight exercises is circuits – burpees, dive bombers pushups, situps, different kinds of jumps, etc. The next day, I had a brilliant idea. I’ve got a trunk I used for bringing my things out here (used it as a suitcase). I put a couple cases of water in it, totaling around 60 lbs. or so. It’s pretty big, but I can use it for cleans, deadlifts, rows, presses, etc. My next workout was more circuits – burpees, jumps over the trunk, cleans with the trunk, suitcase deadlifts with the trunk, etc. Then, I got with a guy out here that works for the MWR. I won’t get into it all, but let’s just say that when all was said and done, I had a pair of 50 lbs. dumbbells, and one 60-pounder to take back to my hooch to use. ;-)

Now, I can do bodyweight exercises, I have the trunk, and some dumbbells. With just that stuff, I can create workouts that would make many men cry – and do it all in my hooch, no less. My last two workouts were dumbbell snatches: 15 sets x 6 reps each side, and another circuit workout: dumbbell clean & press x 10 reps (each side), burpees x 10, walk 30 yards (my hooch is roughly 5 yards long – just walk from one end to the other and back). Get as many rounds in as possible in 20 minutes.

What I’m trying to get at is this – sometimes life throws you a curve ball. When it does, you can either let it keep you down, or you can take your lumps, and come back stronger. It’s kind of like the line from “Rocky Balboa”:

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that!

Now go find a way to win…

Train Hard, Rest Hard, Play Hard.