A Solid Push

Trainers. They push, yell, and motivate us to do our best. They have the solid rock abs that we drool over and sweat out our perms to achieve. Trainers are a critical aspect to our fitness success. In honor of Black History Month, I’m going to introduce the world to my trainer.

Natasha Ballard is a 20 year-old exercise enthusiast. She is the CEO and Founder of NLB Fitness, which stands for Now vs. Later Battle. She began training because she “love[s] the idea of teaching others how to be healthy, happy, and change their outlook on exercising.”

Weekly she trains a small group of students, on the Banneker Track in Washington. The participants complete several different routines, which incorporate Ballard’s favorite exercises. The high intensity training sessions that she conducts generally last an hour and a half but the results last much longer.

“I was still sore three days later,” said participant Reshod Hamilton. “I enjoyed it… I would work out with her again.” Hamilton is a sophomore, broadcast journalism major at Howard who is already in relatively great shape. With his favorite exercise being cardio, he constantly sings praises about Ballard and his experience with her training sessions. “She properly motivated me and others,” said Hamilton. “I enjoyed the feeling after and the satisfaction of knowing that I am helping my body.”  

Ballard is a junior, accounting major at Howard University from New York and Connecticut. She is also a brother of Alpha Kappa Psi, Professional Business Fraternity, Psi Tau Chapter.   

Arguments

Arguments do two things.  One they show you how strong the relationship truly is. If you can make it through an argument then that means you are committing to the relationship. Whether it is a friendship, family member, or loved one, if you make it through an argument you are saying “I want to work on this with you.” If you don’t make it through the argument then your relationship probably wasn’t worth the efforts in the first place.

            The second thing that they do is show you a person’s true colors. When someone is upset and they dismiss you off jump they probably aren’t someone that you should trust. If they curse you out and call you everything but a child of God then that’s how they feel about you. They tell you your place in that person’s life, whether you want to believe it or not.

            The truth is that when you enter a relationship with a person, a relationship of any form, you are signing up for arguments. You are signing up to butting heads every now and then. You are signing up to have disagreements and to not see eye-to-eye on every issue.

            However, the beauty of relationships is you can choose if you want to enter into this agreement. You can choose if you want to argue with someone and move past it. You can choose to not deal with someone. You have a choice. “I believe in the brotherhood of all men. But I do not believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn’t want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two way street.” You don’t have to deal with someone who doesn’t want to treat you right.

            The bottom line is if you love someone as much as you claim you do, you’ll get past the argument. If you don’t, then move on. 

Insanity Woes

My next exercise is trying the Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVD. According to the website I will “burn fat with intervals of intense lower-body plyo and sweat-inducing cardio.”

I’m scared.

I know it will be hard but a lot of my friends have raved about the DVD program and it is time for me to get started.

Wish me luck!