midnightmadness#9

(updated Madness 7&8 photos)

The amazing thing about the spirit is that once it takes over, failure is not possible. I wish you could see what I see as I weave in and out through the dreadful apocalypse of pain and pleasure. From the cries of hatred toward the urge to give up and go home, determination raises its weary head and bellows NO.

Ed almost lost it and wouldn't listen when I said stop. He earns everyones respect. Tom has become an animal. Brandon is progressing at a rate that is surprising even him. Solange graduated to the big plate club. Dave is like a freight train that has no brakes. The bar has been raised as I new it would. Now the fun begins.

Madness #8

Change is in the air. The morale is high. Eye contact and friendly greetings fill the streets, a new day has dawned with "yes we can". Inside these walls, however, we only have so much time for such trifles. The task at hand is licking its chops, anticipating a feast of flesh and souls of the mad who dwell here. How sweet it is to face the self within a concentric ring of like minded maniacs who strive for glory in a world filled with the mundane. After yet another day of trudging through the collective nightmare that we agree to call reality, we take advantage and step out of the muck and gladly create our own version of what we want the world to be. A place devoid of purposelessness. A tribe of human spirits searching for the spark of humanity. What a smell.

midnight madness#7

Entering the sacred silence. The players, now transforming from probationers to practitioners, find themselves in a grinding battle that leaves all bruised and one bleeding. The screams and gnashing of teeth quickly turn into a silence that to my ears could be called sacred. There is a change in the eyes that occurs when someone reaches this state. They go hollow. The person is there but they are not there. As the spirit turns inward, the flesh machine works on auto-pilot. They move, but they do not move. The work is complete, but the body does not complete it. It is pure will. Purely animal. Purely human.

What is the key to this state? The key is in a philosophy that is anything but new. It is a philosophy that has been merely forgotten with other skills and paths lost with the great forgetting. It was lost with the disappearance of our natural predators. It was lost when we no longer had to wander with the seasons. It was lost when we no longer had to fear the elements. The philosophy of survival. The philosophy of getting the mind out of the way and experiencing the trial because life depended on it. Because we no longer have these external trials to overcome, the key to true experience is self imposed destruction. The Key is taking ones self to the edge of consciousness. The key is bypassing the machine to experience self, and to take that self to the gate of exhaustion. Its a humbling thing to watch, but more humbling to experience.

Slow and grinding can best describe this last evolution. Kendra and Jessica were first to complete the endurance third, JT and Brandon reached all of the weight goals, and Dave's head almost exploded from the over capacity of will power surging throughout his central nervous system. Survival.

midnight madness #6

(CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MADNESS)
Fresh gladiators entered the coliseum and intensity became paramount. These men were all business. No flattery, no feigned enthusiasm, just head down focus that could stop a charging rhino. Curses were being hurled at the facilitators as eyes stung from a river of sweat meandering its way into the tear-ducts. Some unfortunate souls made the choice not to go on as their legs gave out or their breath failed them. Others trudged on with the thought of "joining the fallen" quickly becoming an attractive alternative to the hell they were barely enduring. They endured.

This madness reminds us that no matter how mentally or physically prepared we may think we are, the day we leave behind could lead to our ultimate demise. EAT. HYDRATE. REST. If you fallow these rules, you'll prevail.

Thanks to the new faces for joining the revolution. I'm confident we'll meet again.

WE'RE BACK

After a very brief hiatus, midnight madness will return this thursday 1/8/09. This year will prove more challenging than last. Our goal: awakening. It's time to take our revolution to the next level. Some of you are already incorporating Extreme Fitness Concepts into your repertoire. Now, the time has come to envelope the ideal and become a change agent in physical culture. I'm seeing more and more people looking at clocks and watches instead of TVs and mirrors and that inspires me. However, a consciousness shift will be the catalyst for the change I hope to accomplish.

Here is a brief allegory that explains what disturbs me about the pervading mindset in most gym facilities:

Said a sheep to a shepherd as the shepherd was deadlifting 445#,"Lifting that kind of weight is not worth the danger for achieving these aesthetic gains. Baah, Baah, Baah." Said the shepherd to the sheep, "I've experienced something you haven't HERD of yet."

Be the shepherd.

See you thursday.