Greetings Sports Fans, TMR Ambassadors and members,
Just like the Holidays came and went – with so much kerfuffle, joy, indulgence and undoubtedly some unmitigated pain and suffering – so too did my Motion Room-Ambassador 4 Month Fitness Re-test!!
Fortunately for me the kind folks at TMR (Saint’s Joseph and James) allowed me a couple of days grace, where I encased my entire body in cellophane and ran up and down my basement steps, stopping only for Salad and Water… not really… it postponed the inevitable, a couple of anxiety fueled days.
I know you may be asking yourself “Tyler Stewart? the Motion Room Ambassador, multi-Juno Award winning drummer, and all round extrovert? Anxious??” Yes. As hard as that is to believe, I was defecating kiln-fired clay over those two days in early January. Would I meet the goals set out for me in TMR’s Results Success System (RSS)? Would the extra holiday intake (EHI) leave me SOL (s**t outta luck)?
When I started working out in earnest at TMR, waaay back on September 14, 2011 – one week before my 44th birthday – I weighed in at 236 lbs, a body fat % of 24.2. and a muscle mass of 48.3 lbs, or 20.5%. The Dream Warriors once pointed out at 2:55 of their biggest hitMy Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style are mostly water! I had goals to decrease the pounds and fat, and increase the muscle and the water to become The Very Definition of a Boombastic Bald Drummer.
Speaking of water, you gotta replenish y’all (stop and take a sip soon) especially if you’re sweating it out 3 days a week at TMR, plus additional night-time Bootcamps and recreational Hockey on weekends. I find getting dehydrated very easy these days, what with indoor heating, cold weather, and ummm… a drink or two here and there:
I digress.
I really felt my stamina increasing over the weeks, as James gently pounded me into the green, green almost-grass of TMR. The gradual introduction of strength and weight-lifting exercises, combined with cardio-intensive ones like bear-crawls…
(crawling, oddly, on all fours like a, wait for it… BEAR)
Airfit lunges and ladder push-ups, were very gruelling, but have really paid off in the Musko-Skeletal Fitness department. (Could that be the name of my Solo-splinter act? “Tyler Stewart and The Musco-Skeletal Fitness Department Live at The Mod Club!” )
Where once I felt incapable of no more than 16 “F#$%*n’ Pushups” I managed to do 30 at my Re-test, an 88% increase in upper-body strength. My abdominal strength was up 91%and my lower back up 250%!!!
Sheesh, it’s a wonder I could even walk before TMR.
Besides feeling better during work-outs, my stamina behind the drums is much better during gigs with Barenaked Ladies and on the Ice with The Jokers Hockey Club I’ve already had teammates shaking their helmets in dis-belief seeing me back-check, as rare a feat as a Leaf Stanley Cup.
I guess feeling better about yourself is really the goal here, eh folks? Not so much the numbers or percentages. I’m thankful to have observable goals, and an on-line system to track them with dedicated professionals helping me get fit, but ultimately I feel a hell of a lot better these days. I find I have more energy for my family and my three young daughters and their myriad of activities.
I’m not as sluggish in the mornings, although 20 plus years as a rock musician, working late and sleeping in, is pretty much engrained in my DNA now! I look forward to starting off three days a week at The Motion Room. It’s become a friendly place for me, with great Staff, and regular peeps trying to feel better about themselves. Maybe this is the place you wanna try out if you’re accepting Mayor Rob Ford’s challenge? You’d be making a good choice, hopefully I’ll see you there.