‘BEE Fit’ builds endurance

Photos by Danielle McGotty

This week at one of Orange Team’s BEE Fit group workouts, Danielle McGotty – District photographer and third-year photography major from Wall, New Jersey – accompanied me with camera in hand. She captured all the beauty that is what I like to call the “no pain, no gain” face to which we sacrifice whatever attractiveness we have during the workout for that tight bod that comes after.

Most of the exercises focus around conditioning training. We workout in circuits, usually for one minute each, exercise for the first two rounds and then 30 seconds for the final circuit.

When we started the challenge, I hit muscle failure in the first round. I usually had to take lots of pauses for breath in the second round. In the third BEE Fit column, ‘BEE Fit’ but give your body a break, I have a feeling that a lot of the pain I experienced was generated from my lack of endurance.

Each consecutive week the workouts changed and grew in intensity, but the difference in my team’s endurance was visible.

Now, in the sixth week of the challenge, I am still not perfect — not even close. I can, however, make it through the first round of the workouts perfectly fine. I remember to breathe and everything. It’s near the end of the second round that the feeling of death invades.

Physical endurance is built up gradually, starting and growing slowly, but not until the mental endurance is established. We work until we breathe so hard that we can’t talk and then we work more.

Conditioning is a lot like strength training. You lift weights so that you can build your muscles, and soon those weights are easy and so you move to heavier weights. Conditioning is all about cardiovascular and respiratory strength. You work as long as you can until you feel like you can’t breathe anymore, and soon that breathing becomes easier for you and so you up your time and workout intensity.

There is never not room for improvement, and I have a long way to go.