My skepticism kicked in as soon as I heard Beachbody’s latest super trainer, Chris Downing, promise I’d get leaner, faster and stronger in three weeks. But as he rambled through his spiel, his enthusiasm seemed refreshingly genuine and once he flashed that infectious smile my resistance softened. I was in. Now that I’ve finished Shift Shop, I’ll admit this trainer and his breakthrough “ramp-up” method was worth my time. I say that even though my performance tanked on day fifteen, of the 21-day program. Reflecting on my experience objectively, I can see the problem wasn’t so much with the program, at least not technically; it was that this old lady simply needed a longer ramp.
Here’s Shift Shop in a nutshell. The daily workouts alternate between two concepts: speed/agility training, and strength training. The sessions start at twenty-five minutes in week one and get ten minutes longer and more intense each week. At the same time, the nutrition program gradually weans you off of carbs, so it’s a double whammy. By the time you get to the carb-free forty-five minute workouts in week three, most people shift into high gear and see the greatest changes.
For those that follow the program, I am certain the results will be remarkable. And even if you’re like me, and sorta hang in there for three weeks, you’re likely to have something to show for your effort. Of course, it’s no surprise that If weight loss is what you’re after, the nutrition plan is key. I wasn’t trying to lose weight so I didn’t follow the food plan. I just stuck with my normal clean eating approach and after a couple of days I actually had to increase my food intake to keep my weight steady; that’s how effective the workouts were. From the start, I had little interest in speed and agility; that ship has sailed. But strength was something I needed more of and who doesn’t want to be a little leaner, so I set my goals on achieving those two results.
Let me start by saying I realize It’s sort of laughable that at sixty-one, and in mediocre shape, I thought I had any chance of keeping up with this dude and his training cohorts. 
He promotes his program as one for all fitness levels so he had a person modifying the moves to bridge the gap between us novices and the true athletes. Remarkably, for the first two weeks I hung in there reasonably well. I modified at times, but managed to push my limits enough to feel like I belonged…sort of. That was before the week three ramp-up left me in the dust.
It was the Monday morning of week three – day fifteen. At first, I felt like I was streaming the wrong workout. Then when I realized I wasn’t, I wanted desperately to go back to week two. Ten minutes in and my tank was empty; I was slow and about as agile as an elephant. I remember wanting to quit on that day fifteen…no, first I wanted to throw up and then I wanted to quit. But I didn’t. I sucked it up and finished the rest of the week. It was ugly. I dragged myself through it; hating that I had to modify at least part of nearly every friggin’ exercise. By the end of the week there was no glory in finishing. It was just over. Thankfully.
I guess I surprised myself by completing the whole three weeks. I’ve dabbled in so many of these programs over the years, rarely feeling an obligation to stick with them. Need I remind you, exercise is not my thing; never has been as I blogged earlier this year: 2017: The Year I Finally Bury the Hatchet with Exercise. Each day in that third week as I completed the workout, I swore, “That’s it. I’m done.” And then the next day I was at it again, klutzy and out of sync, but still attempting to tag along with the fit kids.
Before I get to what kept me coming back each day, let me mention a couple of things that didn’t. First, I see working out as pretty trivial so I wasn’t trying to prove anything to myself when I started Shift Shop. It’s funny how many times I’ve heard trainers try to use the “prove it to yourself” tactic as motivation and I guess for some it is effective. And I get it; for a lot of people the key to finding the life they want is to build their self-esteem. But it’s a good thing that wasn’t what was driving me, because finishing the way I did certainly didn’t make me feel better about myself. If I had been trying to prove anything to myself, or anyone else, it would have been a colossal fail.
And I also wasn’t trying to learn anything. I’ve heard trainers, again in an attempt to motivate, say something like: “when you push yourself to the point of being extremely uncomfortable on a physical level you will learn that you can do hard things, and that will carry over into the rest of your life.” That may be very true when you’re ten, but at this point I’m pretty confident I can do hard things mostly because I’ve spent a lifetime doing them. And I’m just as unconvinced that pushing myself to complete some outlandish exercise move like the Shift Maker is going to help me deal in any way with the next life crisis or tragedy I face.
So, reason #1 that I dragged myself back each day to get my butt kicked was this trainer, Chris Downing. So many of these people piss me off with their arrogance; how great of an accomplishment is it really to be a body beautiful when you’re in your thirties and spend every day, all day, working out. Some of them act like just because they help people lose weight, they’re saving the world; newsflash, you’re not Mother Teresa. Chris comes off differently. Yeah, I’m sure this Mack Truck of a man has an ego, but his vibe is humble and you even pick up on a little gratitude for being in a position to earn a king’s ransom just for teaching people a few exercises. He jokes and smiles with ease when most of them make it all seem so serious. I knew I was hooked when I heard him gasp during one of the workouts, “I’m on the struggle bus today.” The struggle bus! That’s where I was the whole three weeks, and I adored him for at least trying to relate. At that moment I felt like I was hanging out with my son.
Reason #2 that I stuck with it was my little support and accountability group. While I had nothing to prove to myself, I had everything to give to my team. You see, I didn’t start this alone. Three of us started together, and by golly three of us were going to finish together. It didn’t really matter to me if I breezed through each workout or nearly died in the process. What counted was that I was there to support my little long-distance tribe; commiserating online after each session, but always picking ourselves up to start again the next day. I love and admire these ladies, and while I may not take on every challenge they do; when I do commit, I would never quit on them.
So, I hung in there for three weeks and literally limped across the finish line. What I haven’t mentioned was that I actually had tangible results. Despite my embarrassing finish, and remember I didn’t follow the nutrition plan at all, I made some real progress. I took an inch off my waist and about ¾ of an inch off each thigh. When I started I was using 8-pound dumbbells and by the end of the three weeks my new favorite trainer had coaxed me up to 12-pound weights. My squats and lunges are deeper, and I can hold in plank position for over two minutes. More importantly, I can easily pull the kayak out of the lake up onto the dock without Tim’s help, and it’s nothing to flip that 5-gallon bottle of water onto the water cooler. My Shift Shop guru promised I’d get stronger and leaner in three weeks, and despite my totally incompetent performance, I did just that. I guess that officially makes me a Shift Shop believer.
I’ve spent the last day or so feeling pretty good about my progress these last three weeks. Unfortunately, the most disillusioning thing about exercise is that its benefits peak the moment you finish and then they begin to expire. So now I have to figure out what’s next. See why I hate it?
