Daily TribuneGoing in not knowing what movements, rep or round count was ahead was like stepping into the vast unknown. I was never bored, for sure, but I have questioned my life choices when there were a lot of burpees and push-ups involved.
LALA and I with Coach Martin after completing our first 1,000 rep challenge.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ELIZABETH S. TIMBOL FOR DAILY TRIBUNE
Let me open with a fact — I’ve always been the curvy girl. Growing up in a time when body positivity was a foreign concept, it was payat or bust!
It didn’t help that I wasn’t the most active, save for the occasional long walk around the mall across from where I lived at the time. I even gave running and a few barre classes a try. Obviously, none of it lasted — mostly because I got bored. There was also the insecurity of going into a gym full of toned bodies versus my rather unfit form.
Then, about 10 years ago, I was hanging out with friends who were into CrossFit, doing clean and jerk of 60 to 100 pounds (or more), and pull-ups at a mile a minute. I was in my 40s, but my interest was piqued enough to find a CrossFit box nearby and sign up for a trial class. With that, I set off on the circuitous path towards my fitness girlie era.
For the next year and a half from that first bootcamp class, I would run to the box, which was five minutes from home, for what felt like an endless series of running, sit-ups, burpees, AMRAPs and EMOMs, along with a crash course on strength-training. Something just clicked and I enjoyed the mild insanity of the workouts. When work moved a little farther from home, workouts took a backseat to life. As expected, whatever weight I had lost crept back in. Then it was 2020, and the pandemic lockdown happened.
As our lives moved online, sports and fitness coach Paolo Cabalfin launched Your Daily Dose, a strength training-based program with group classes held via Zoom. I was among the first to sign up, wanting restart my #fitnessgoals. Armed with 5lb dumbbells (which were the only ones I had at home) and not even an exercise mat, I would wake up excited for the 8 a.m. workouts. Slowly, I made my way up to 10, 15, 20lb dumbbells and kettlebells and even managed 100lb deadlifts. I also took yoga classes in between. We all had to find a way to expel that extra energy after being cooped up at home for months by that point. Working out became my poison, and I fell stronger because of it. Even when the world opened up, I tried to keep as consistent as possible.
Sometime in 2024, with an intense curiosity for Pilates, a fellow YDD-er invited me to join him a class his sister was teaching at Strong Philippines. Their focus is on ‘Pilates inspired. Cardio-infused,’ workouts that hit a sweet spot of Pilates, Cardio, and Strength in one workout. I was hooked, making my way five days a week and twice on ‘Pilates only’ Sundays. I learned how to work with the cables, and work on progressive overloads. Rowflos were intense — a cycle of 300m on the Bike Erg followed by a series of lifts, squats, or sit-ups with heavy dumbbells until the time ran out. I was out of breath on most days, but competitive me would keep going.
Then Strong introduced the Not A Pilates Pilates Workout (The 1,000 Rep Challenge) — where, working in pairs, you had to complete 100 reps of nine different movements, and hit 100 calories on the bike erg with a 60-minute time cap. A total of 1,000 reps. I paired up with Lala, a dancer and choreographer, and as two strong 50-year-old women, we wanted those bragging rights! Together, we powered through, finishing second with a time of 26 minutes!
In 2026, the challenge got a redux. The caveat? You had to run it solo. With my inner voice screaming, “Wait up, that’s a thousand reps on your own,” I signed up. Martin issued a dare — “You got this sub-45!” Honestly, I just wanted to try to finish.
Leading up to the day, I tracked erg calories and reps — convinced it would give me a fighting chance. On the day itself, I wrote the movements and the rep count down according to some version of a strategy. I broke it all up into sets — 30 squats and lunges here, a 20 calorie bike sprint, and 30 sit-ups and push-ups there. That quickly flew out the window once the clock started. Killing it one rep and calorie at a time, I finished, as predicted, sub-45 minutes!
Perhaps it was the surprise element that these workouts had in common that kept me consistent. Going in not knowing what movements, rep or round count was ahead was like stepping into the vast unknown. I was never bored, for sure, but I have questioned my life choices when there were a lot of burpees and push-ups involved. Yet when I looked at the clock — 42:45 — after that final rep of Strong’s 1,000 Rep Challenge, I knew this to be true: Despite my imperfections, this is the strongest and fittest I’ve ever been. I will always be the curvy girl — I have fully embraced that — but if this is what my fitness girlie era looks like, then bring it on!
