Buzz
When Beth first introduced Mytour fitness challenges to the team, I tried to ignore it. Exercise has never been my strength, and I struggle to even spell it. Aside from playing softball as a five-year-old, I wasn’t involved in team sports as a child. I explored gymnastics and dance briefly, but puberty, along with physical changes, turned me off from any form of physical activity. The only exception was a pilates routine from a book that I stuck to in my teens for a couple of years, hoping it would help me become 'long and lean'—something my body was never meant to achieve.
About six years ago, I trained for and completed a half marathon as part of an effort to save my marriage. (My ex-husband was very passionate about marathons and triathlons, and I thought it would be wise to share his interests.) We ended up getting divorced, and I also had to have both of my big toenails removed.
I’m not great at sticking with any fitness routine, but I may have finally found my 'thing.' It turns out that all I really needed was a compound bow.
Originally, I had planned on learning to roller skate for my Mytour fitness challenge, but I’m not a fan of falling. So, I decided it would be better to focus on getting strong enough to hunt an elk. In May, when my dad told me we’d be using bows instead of rifles for elk hunting, I got myself a compound bow. (The bowhunting season lasts much longer than rifle season, plus our friend Kurt is really into bowhunting.) I went to Archer’s Afield, got properly fitted for a bow, and took my first shot.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” I said, and someone nearby nodded, adjusting my left arm to prevent a massive purple bruise. (That string snaps back with quite a force.)
When I first brought my compound bow home, my draw weight was 37 pounds. According to Kurt and several of the guys at Archer’s Afield, I needed to increase that to at least 40 pounds to be ready for elk hunting. I asked Beth if she could create a strength training plan for me, and thankfully, she agreed.
I decided to join my local Planet Fitness, which is aggressively purple, despite my previous unsuccessful experiences with gyms. I always feel like I’m floundering without a clear objective, and I get the impression that the other, more fit or slender people are judging my 'poor form.'
On May 14th, I completed my first workout—'Archery Strength Workout A'—bench pressing five-pound dumbbells and deadlifting a mere 25 pounds. The heaviest I managed to lift was 105 pounds, which I pushed with my legs on the leg press machine. I also managed to hold a plank for a minute, which surprised me because, based on my posture at work, you'd never guess that I had any core strength.
I texted Beth my workout, and she told me to put some real weight on the bar, which was, hands down, the best advice I’ve ever received. Each time I went to the gym, I added more weight to almost every exercise, and the 'PR' notification in the app always gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
I alternated between workouts, making sure to hit the gym at least three times a week, sometimes four. In addition, I aimed to practice shooting my bow a couple of times each week. I took a beginner lesson at Archer’s Afield, where I learned the proper hand position (on my cheek, near my ear), as well as how to keep my shoulders, arms, and core stable so I could release the arrow smoothly in one continuous motion. What seemed like a simple task ended up requiring more muscles than I had anticipated, and I started to appreciate why Beth had picked that particular set of exercises.
Despite all the strength training, I was surprised by how quickly my arms fatigued during target practice. I would start off relatively accurate, but my precision would decline with each successive shot. It was frustrating, but after the first week, I began to see progress, which kept me motivated to keep returning to the purple gym.
I started to feel cautiously confident, although (strangely) self-conscious about increasing the weights, especially when I noticed I was lifting more than the man working out next to me. I eventually got over this once I realized that most people at the gym were also focused on themselves, and no one was paying attention to me.
I kept adding weight and noticed that my shot groupings were getting tighter, even though they didn’t always land exactly where I wanted. At first, I didn’t quite trust the progress, but seeing improvement in something completely unrelated to the size or shape of my body was incredibly motivating. Years of food writing have (surprisingly) helped with my body image struggles from my 20s, but I still have the tendency to become obsessive and unhealthy when I focus on goals like losing weight or cutting calories, instead of more positive goals like eating more vegetables, lifting more weight, and shooting more accurately.
I started to look forward to hitting the gym, adding more weight, and practicing my shots. It was fun, though admittedly more exhausting than my usual hobbies (like sipping martinis in the hot tub). This kind of 'progress' was rare for me, and I began to feel hopeful that I might hit my 40-pound draw strength goal before elk season. More importantly, I was cautiously excited that, after three decades, I may have finally found 'my thing.'
