hailyeah

Two summers ago I was one of the fittest people you could ever meet. I was about 5′4″ and weighed no more than 110 pounds. Monday-Saturday I woke up at 6:30 (!!! In the summer…I was 16!!! lol) and met my friend at the bike trail by my gym. We’d run 3 miles then turn around and come back…it took us a little more than 40 minutes. We’d get back to the gym (gymnastics gym that is) and just collapse on the floor for twenty minutes before practice started. Four and a half hours later I was dripping with sweat and my muscles felt like jello….I didn’t notice until the end of practice though because gymnastics is sooooo fun!!!! After that I’d go to the pool for a while then Monday-Thursday I had a 3 hour practice with my competetive cheer team. Don’t think that cheerleading isn’t hard! 1/3 of every practice was conditioning/flexibility, 1/3 was tumbling, and the last 1/3 was stunting…it’s all hard than we make it look! My body was great then…I could run forever, I did 5,000 sit ups one day just to prove I could, I could do 26 pull ups without stopping…even backflips and 180 degree leaps on a 4 inch beam.

Well by the end of the summer I was burnt out ( I had been training at this level for at least 6 years). Gymnastics became frusterating as recovering from broken bones in my foot and wrist surgery was not going as well as planned,  I had daily screaming matches with one of my coaches ( anytime something wasn’t working out for me he said I was scared…..I am definately never scared ) , and I was 16- I could spend 30 hours a week in the gym! I needed a life! So I quit! It felt soooo good at first ( other than my mom crying like every week about everything I was just throwing away). I could stay out late and sleep in!!!

After about 3 months Irealized that gymnastics was my life and I absolutely loved it. I talked to my parents and they said there was no way I could go back, I had to live with the decision I made. After about 3 more months of begging and trying to prove myself to my parents they finally said I could start again. Of course you just can’t take 6 months off of gymnastics….I had lost everything! Losing strength, flexibility, and muscle memory wasn’t even the worst loss. I could no longer tolerate the pain of pounding wrists and ankles with about 3 times your weight, about 200 times a day. I finally called it quits for good. Everyday I wonder what my life would have been like if I just would have stuck it out that summer.