I have always been very active and athletic. My parents enrolled me in gymnastics when I was in preschool, and I did it competitively until junior high. Initially I loved it and was good at it, but eventually the pressure, commitment, and fear of the stunts that I was performing overwhelmed me. I grew to hate gymnastics, but I had invested so much time and energy into it that I didn’t want to just walk away. After years of dreading practice and meets, my parents helped me realize that it was ok if I did not want to do it anymore and I finally allowed myself to quit.
After stopping gymnastics, I decided to explore all the different sports that I had never been able to participate in due to the massive time commitment required by gymnastics. I tried soccer, softball, volleyball, basketball and track. Eventually in high school I realized that my strength was in running so I fully committed myself to cross country and track. I went all in again just like I did with gymnastics and I performed really well; had some great accomplishments; made amazing lifelong friends and truly loved the camaraderie on the team. But I hated running. And I hated competing. But once again, I did not want to be a quitter, so I stuck with it through high school.
After high school I continued running on my own hoping that I might enjoy it if I did it just for fun without the element of competition. Over the next 20+ years, I did a lot of laid-back road races, trail runs and even a couple of marathons, and although I liked how I felt once I was done and appreciated the mental release that it provided, I still hated the actual act of running. I probably should have looked for alternative forms of exercise but running was all I knew, and I didn’t think that anything else would be as good of a workout.
Then about five years ago I saw a kickboxing gym and on somewhat of a whim decided to try it out. I absolutely LOVED it! It was a great full body workout; it was therapeutic getting to punch stuff; and most importantly, it was so much fun! I didn’t hate it! While at the kickboxing gym, I heard a lot of rumblings from other members about a place called the Warehouse in Rosemount and I was very intrigued. I ended up joining some friends for a Pound class at the Warehouse and then I was offered a Birthday Golden Ticket (free month membership) and I gladly accepted it. In that month I slowly started drifting away from my kickboxing gym as I attended more and more classes at the Warehouse. Turns out I liked the Warehouse even more than the kickboxing gym so at that point I officially joined and have never looked back!