Running to Stand Still

"And your focus begins...now!" The muscular gentleman with the intense, fanatical gaze on the screen begins a sequence of jumps and squats and picking up heavy things and putting them back down again, while I struggle to keep up.

My heart pounds, skin drips sweat, as I bend over and stand up again, over and over, running in place and lifting weights, "crunching abs" and "flexing the core."

I am losing weight, fighting time, exhausted, muscles burning, but I take some consolation in the knowledge that, no matter what, at some point, the video is going to stop.