The setting:
Ten miles deep in a Georgia pineforest. Not a soul around but you. 100 degree heat on a hot summer day with the humidity spiking.
The place:
An old military training bunker made of old concrete blocks. The roof is made of rotting wood & water is dripping thru it onto the dirty dusty concrete floor. No lights. just the sunshining thru the holes in the roof and the concrete walls. No mirrors. The only reflection you see is in the puddle of dripping water on the floor.
The equipment:
No machines. No cables. No electronic cardio contraptions. Nuthing but old rusty iron plates and bars, & a bunch of concrete blocks lying around. No padded benches and hi-tech lifting stations to use.
The plan:
Build a few lifting stations out of the concrete blocks and old rusty bars you got lying around. You manage to put together a squat, dip, & pull up station by stacking a bunch of concrete blocks atop one another. Enough to rest a bar atop the concrete blocks. Your bench is made of 6 concrete blocks lying lengthwise in two rows of three blocks lying end to end. The bench posts are made of 2 stacks of concrete blocks with a bar resting atop.
The inspiration:
There is nothing on the wall but the three pictures you brought with you. You managed to secure them on the wall by using some old axel grease from an old broken down jeep outside the bunker.
The first picture is of your first love; the one that tore your heart out & left you hanging there with your dick in the wind. The second is of the kid that you grew up with and used to beat the shit out of you. The third is of your father; the one who inspired you to become the person that could be. There is no radio or stero to get you into the mood. But, you start to hear the sound of your favorite workout song in your head. You have heard it so may times that every beat is fixed into your memory. Now your fired up. Your ready. Nothing is going to stop the beast inside you from exploding.
The routine:
You find the first bar you can and begin affixing iron plates to it. Your so fired up thinking about all that have done you wrong. Your addrenaline is firing. Your heartbeat is pounding.
You reach down and grab the bar; not even knowing how much weight is on it, and begin to raise the bar until it is high over your head. You perform a couple of these movements. You perform these lifts a couple of times and decide to try another lift.
You now place the bar on your bench posts and add some more plates. Now your more fired up. You have a bigger challange but you manage to press the weight up a couple of times. After performing this lift a couple of times, you decide to try another one.
You manage to get the bar atop your towering concrete blocks. You add some more plates to this bar because your on fire now. Your determined that nothing can stop you from lifting this. You get under the bar & set it on your shoulders. As you lift the bar off of the concrete, you feel the weight of the world is now on your shoulders. You begin to move this weight by dropping down to the ground and with a driving force that you have never felt before you stand up with this bar screaming at the top of your lungs because the animal in you has taken over. After a few of these movements, you’re convinced that you can move anything.
You drop the weight off of the back of your shoulders. The weight begins to crash into the concrete floor and crushing it. Leaving two giant indentations in the concrete floor. You roll this weight out of the holes and begin to add the rest of the plates you can find.
You now have the ultimate challange. If you can move every weight in this bunker, than nothing in the world can stop you. Every thought of everything that ever meant anything to your life is running thru your head. You can hear your fathers voice routing for you. You visualize the face of the one you loved. Your hearts on fire now. You’ve lost it. You punch two holes into the concrete walls to pysch yourself up. Your hands are left bleeding with concrete chips sticking thru your skin. You feel no pain. All you want to do is be able to move this monster of pain at your feet. You decide to go for it.
You grasp the bar. One final thought goes through your mind. You begin to vision yourself doing the impossible. You all the sudden have an incredible jolt of power and pride. You begin to start moving this bar at it starts to pull apart every muscle in your body. Your struggeling, but your not gonna let go until you’ve finished completing the vision inside your head. You’ve given it everything you’ve got. You’re not there yet. You continue on. You’re all heart now. You have no strength left to give. You’re on the verge of collapse. All the sudden, you’re there. You’ve made it up. You’ve reached the pinnacle. You’re not a man, you’re now a machine. A man could never do that. You don’t stop there. You’re convinced your super human. There is no more weight to lift, you’ve conquered it all. Now you wanna find out if your a machine or not. You wanna press on and see how far you can go.
You throw a bar atop the concrete fixture. You wanna see if your really a machine. You grasp the bar holding yourself up atop the highest position you can. You begin to lower yourself & press yourself up time and time again until your muscles feel like they’re going to explode. You begin to slow down as you tire. But you press on and keep pressing until you can’t press no more. You hold there until your body gives out. Not letting go of the bar, as your body gives in but your mind won’t. You hold on to the bar and begin to drop below the bar.
Still holding on, you begin to pull yourself up as many times as you can. You’re upperbody is on fire. You’re losing your hold. Its slipping but you refuse to stop moving. You’re a machine. Finally you lose contact with the bar. You drop to your feet. You begin to drop to the floor standing on your feet. You wanna keep this machine moving so you now are lifting yourself up driving with everything you got left. You’re still moving constantly until all the sudden you cannot lift yourself up no more. You sink down trying to keep yourself from falling on the floor. You begin to loose your ballance and end up falling foward. But your hands catch you before you hit the floor. Your holding yourself up now. Refusing to let go. Refusing to stop moving. You stretch yourself out and begin moving your body. You’re pushing up with everything you got. You know if you stop pushing you will hit the floor. You want to keep going. You have nothing left. You’re arms are trembeling, your legs are num, you’re body is shaking. You reach your final push with everything you have left. You can barely see from the sweat in your eyes.
You’ve managed to start to see a reflection of your body in the puddle of water thats under you. You see that you are made of muscle and skin and bone. You’re not a machine. You are after all a man. You drop to the floor in exaustion. You now realize you just had the best workout of your life. The vision you had in your mind took you there.
-Mr. Push Ups
