Submitted By: Creed Harkless
This week’s member spotlight is on Clare Nordyke. Clare, along with her husband Tim, has been a regular in the 6 am class for some time now, including a stint as my own personal training client. Since I’ve met her, she’s dropped pounds & inches, gained confidence & strength, and even became a certified yoga instructor.
Q: What drives you?
A: Watching myself succeed far more than I or others think I can. I’m a competitor by nature. And to see people think I’m going to go slow on those steps or pick up the lighter weights, and then I blow by them or grab the 20s, its a great feeling that just motivates me to go further. That and as Next Level has taught us all, you CAN physically measure success and seeing those numbers, how can you not be driven to keep going and push harder?
Q: If you had one piece of fitness-related advice to give someone, what would it be?
A: Get yourself in a routine that you can actually stick to. Make it your habit so much so that you feel worse when you don’t do it. We praise ourselves every time we make it to the gym, but put on so many excuses when we don’t. Very few excuses are legit. Make it your lifestyle and it’s near impossible to fail you. It doesn’t hurt if you can have that routine involve people that are knowledgeable and willing to share their wealth of health and fitness knowledge. Oh, and do yoga. The more flexible you are, the stronger you can be (and less soreness too!)
Q: What role has Next Level played in your fitness journey?
A: Before NLXF, I felt like I was completely alone in fighting the fitness battle. Even in the middle of a busy gym or taking group classes, no
one talks to each other or knows anyone else’s name. Next Level created a family. I still might not know anything about a person’s outside life, but we talk to each other every day, encouraging and rolling around on the floor groaning right beside them. We sweat all over everyone and as much as we complain, no one really cares because they still keep coming. By the end of ten weeks you feel like you know people’s true characters because on that black floor there is nowhere to hide. Frustrations and fears, but successes and breakthroughs too. But its the trainers that built that. The family, the care, the love. Just like Mom and Dad they roll their eyes at our whining but know that its what we need to grow and they keep on pushing us in exactly the ways that we each individually need. Congratulating us on wins and helping us move beyond the losses when we just don’t have that energy on Thursday to do a million and a half burpees. Building our confidence not only mentally, but knowledgeably as well. Teaching us ways that once we can no longer walk into that room, that we can still keep working on our bodies, and being confident that what we are doing will let us see results, pushing forward and hearing their voices in our ears to keep our feet moving as we run in a 5k or to grab that heavier weight in a hotel gym. The fitness battle is just as much in our head as it is in our body and Next Level trains us to be ninjas in both.
