The Berskerer

Yesterday was the day it began: The Berserker. "What is it?"you ask Well, my friends and I decided it was time to get in shape and be healthy. We're all planning on heading up to Las Vegas over the summer for our friend's birthday, and we all wanna look good. Basically, that means no more filibertos tacos for me.

In addition to working out and staying healthy, we decided to start up a web series about it, charting weekly progress in a comical video blog. Unfortunately, the blog won't be available for perhaps a week or two due to the fact that our main director/editor is getting some new software to edit the video. But I assure you that when we're done with it, this thing is going to be hilarious! We've only done a couple of videos so far, and already it's hard to sit through any single taping without bursting out laughing (and coincidentally ruining the whole shot!).

Well anyway, let's talk about working out for a minute...

The Experience of Working Out

My friend and I went to the gym about around 5-6pm. It was already pretty late, and after spending an entire day at school (since 5am), I was really in the mood to do something physical. But of course, chances are, we would have gone anyway seeing as how we just started this whole Berskerer thing.

I just want to start off by saying that the gym at school is SO much nicer than that 24 Hour Fitness I used to go to. Like SERIOUSLY! They got racket ball, basketball, treadmills and bikes with their own personal tv each AND cable. In a nut shell, if you can name it, this place probably has it.

Well, we decided to start off with some racket ball. I had never played racket ball before, and frankly, I was pretty excited. We rented some rackets and headed down there to this little glassed-in room. We had no idea how to play, so we simply started
knocking the ball around until we were both thoroughly exhausted. Then, I decided that we should try and figure out the rules. It turns out that racket ball is basically just tennis using half a field. Who knew? However, that in NO WAY means that it's a simple game to play. The concept is pretty simple, but in actually doing it, I find myself confused and lost in trying to figure out which way I should run to try and hit the ball.

We finished up the day with some weight lifting. It's bee several months since I've been to a gym by this point, and frankly, it's been even longer since I've lifted weights. So trying free weights out and doing a bunch of exercises you've never had to do before made it just that much more difficult.

At one point, I was hanging from this leg grip on this downward pointing bench where you're supposed to bench press these free weights at an angle, and I got a LEG CRAMP! I thought that was absolutely ridiculous. I'm suppose to be lifting with my arms, and my leg starts hurting! And withing the first 30 minutes

of exercise, I was just done. I mean, I kept going, but just about every exercise we would do, my arms would fight me all the way. I kept yelling at them, "Lift the f***ing weight!" and instead they'd sit their idle, not raising or falling, while I pushed as hard as I could to continue lifting something I was perfectly capable of lifting only ten minutes prior.

All in all, I woke up with the worst upper-body cramps I have ever had, and I have even found eating a simple cup of yogurt to be an extraordinarily difficult task. I can tell the next three months is going to be filled with a lot of pain.

--Koi