Overcoming doubt = EMPOWERMENT

I teach a class each week at the Y, and at the end of  class we've been doing forearm plank (see picture). We started doing this consistently with the start of the new year.   Let me add that these women are amazing, the average age is 65, and right now they are doing forearm plank for 1:20 seconds (we increase 5 seconds a week). Watching them struggle through plank it occurs to me that I get to experience a glimmer of what the GOTR coaches experience through the entire season of GOTR.

When I first told the ladies that we'd be doing forearm plank with a goal of 3 minutes, their eyes nearly popped out of their head.  Many of them doubted ever being able to do that for one full minute, much less 3.  When coaches tell the girls that they'll be doing a 5K at the end of the season, you can imagine a very similar reaction, especially when the girls realize a 5K is 3 miles, and they can barely manage 1 mile.

And yet, at the end of the GOTR season as with the end of our "plank season"  goals will be reached.  Girls and women will come to realize they are strong, and what seemed impossible only a short time ago CAN be obtained.  That feeling of empowerment is what draws me to both being a fitness instructor and council director for GOTR of Jackson County.  As women, we often feel defeated before we've even begun, but with the help and encouragement of coaches/instructors/mentors, we can reach those goals (not necessarily with ease, but if it was easy, would we really feel empowered?).