Hold up, it’s another writing-as-workout metaphor!

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Back in January, I joined my local 9Round studio. 

If you haven’t heard of 9Round, it’s a small boxing/kickboxing gym with nine stations. You spend three minutes at each station performing a specific drill or combination. There are hanging heavy bags, speed bags, and other weighted bags for kicking and punching. You have 30 seconds in between stations for “active recovery” work. The nine rounds are different every day, so you never get bored or know exactly what to expect. So in 30 minutes you’ve completed an intense, sweat-inducing, full-body workout. 

I love it. I leave wrecked every time. 

The workout starts at Round 1 which, unfortunately, always includes jumping rope. I hate jumping rope. My joints hate jumping rope. I’d rather do anything else than jump rope (except burpees, which also sometimes happen during a workout, which I also detest). 

But – and here’s where I get to this workout’s relationship to writing – the hardest part only lasts three minutes.

It’s hard to get started knowing I have three minutes of jumping rope ahead of me. I dread it. But I know it’s part of the warm up. I know it will be over soon. It’s just something I have to do to get started. Once I’ve started, I’m in it and time passes pretty quickly. (Except when doing burpees. Time has no meaning while doing burpees.) Before I know it, I’ve completed a 30-minute writing session – I mean, workout.

Here’s another thing about writing/working out: I do best when it’s on my calendar already. If I have to think about “when can I fit it in today?” or “do I feel like doing it today?” I’ll never do it. If it’s on my calendar, I don’t think about it. I just do it. 

I literally have “heads down time” (that’s what I call my writing time) scheduled Monday-Friday and “9Round” scheduled Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (ok, so Saturdays are my flex workout days where I can swim or walk instead of going to 9Round) on my calendar. So I don’t dread it, I don’t overthink it, nothing else can be scheduled during that time; I just show up.

I show up, get the three minutes of jumping rope or staring at a blank page over, and keep going until the time is up.

Every time I get sweat in my eyes, I imagine I’m Van Damme in Bloodsport.

(Image credit: https://moviesfilmsandflix.com/2021/11/23/mff-theory-a-closer-look-at-the-final-fight-in-bloodsport/)

Next round! Write on,

Amy