A Little Motivation
This is James. He’s part of a crew that does Parkour with my friend Brian Appiah Obeng. Brian is a Parkour fiend and photographer who throws himself into whatever challenge life throws at him 100%. He is currently doing a project called ’365 Degrees’ where he posts one of his pictures every day this year. He posted the above one of James last week and the description he posted with it moved me and inspired me so much, I asked Brian if I could post it here. He agreed, so here it is:
It was the spring of 2008, and PK Gen were up early to train on a chilly morning in Vauxhall. Stephane had been leading the challenging session and to finish it off, on this day he came up with a very simple gem of an exercise: He looks up at the scaffolding bar directly above our heads, and says that to finish the session we’re going to work on muscle-ups…
(Now, for those of you that don’t know what a muscle-up is, just imagine doing the upward motion of a pull-up, then in one motion getting your palms on top of the bar and completing the manoeuvre with the upward motion in the way you would for a dips or a push-up. Suffice to say that, its not what I’d call easy).
…but that wasn’t it. The thing about this was, we were going to grab the bar and do the muscle ups, but we were not to let go until we could literally do no more. This wasn’t about counting. This wasn’t about sets or reps. This was about giving it everything you’ve got, and going on until either your mind or your body failed.
Now, when it was James’ turn to step up, I witnessed something that I hold with me and mentally refer to often. He grabbed the bar and he did his muscle ups. Like with any exercise that you train, the first few are always the cleanest, neatest. He continued. Still keeping a good technique he’d move up to the bar, manoeuvre above it and push upwards, then lower himself ready for the next one. He continued. His technique wavered a little, but the rhythm was still there. He continued. I could see that he was beginning to put in more of an effort and that the true work was beginning. He continued. I could see the exertion on his face now, but he persevered and continued the motion, and while it was a little less fluid than before… he continued. He got to a point where it was now less of an exercise and more of a fight: it was now more of a clamber on his way up, and almost a fall on his way down, but he’d never let go of the bar. He’d never let his feet touch the ground. He continued. James, time after time would pull himself up. If he couldn’t pull himself up, he’d will himself up. If he had no will, he’d just grit his teeth tighter and force the damn laws of physics to change in order to get himself above that bar. Every single time I thought I was seeing his final turn, he’d squeeze out just one more. He’d pull himself back up to the bar, arms shaking, shoulders twitching, but it wouldn’t stop him… he’d use his chin, his forearms, his waist, his very life blood if he had to in order to squeeze whatever last drop of effort he could…. and then, when he got to that point that he knew he had nothing left… where it looked like he was ready to pass out – where I, as an onlooker, was beginning to feel out of breath… he continued. I wasn’t watching James training here, I was watching an historic Championship Bout. Seeing the underdog going up against an opponent that the world knew was going to beat him to a pulp. An absolute certainty. But just… when… you think he’s going to go down… he looks deep within himself and unleashes the last gasp of a combination that floors his opponent and leaves him standing victorious.
Maybe I’m overstating it. That being said, I honestly don’t know how many times he completed those muscle-ups on that day, and emotionally I don’t think I had the capacity to count. All I could do was encourage and will him on, whilst just gazing around at the group, who were all as dumbfounded and amazed as I was.
Now THIS is what I’m talking about. Anyone who has trained for anything in their life understands this. The dedication and absolute refusal to give in. When people ask me about running and tell me how hard they find it or that they can’t do it, I simply tell them ‘it’s mind over matter’ – and this right here, what James did, proves it. He wasn’t in a competition or a race, so why didn’t he just take it easy? Why did he push himself to that limit? Because if he didn’t, the only person he’d let down is himself, and that’s the worst kind of let down there is.
I’ve never met James but I’d like to thank him and Brian for this story – at a time where I’m finding my own training for a half marathon very testing, I’ve read this passage every day and it has motivated and encouraged me to go on.
You can check out some of Brian’s awesome pics over on his Flickr page here and check out his Parkour crew here.
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Tags: Brian Appiah Obeng, Inspiration, motivation, Paris Half Marathon, Parkour, running
