Something pretty spectacular happens when a woman discovers her potential. Something even bigger happens when she realizes that that potential actually has no limit, that there is no cap on how high she can climb, how far she can reach, or how hard she can Hit!
I remember clearly the day I came to realize I would never stop getting stronger. I was a new member of 30 Minute Hit, just starting the circuit, feeling pretty strong, and thinking I was punching pretty hard. Then I heard a sound that changed everything. What I heard was the most incredible, powerful, hard-hitting sound of someone punching the bags like I’d never heard before, and when I saw that the person throwing those punches was a young woman very much like myself, I was like, “Wait, we can Hit that hard?!”
I just never knew that I had it in me to be so powerful. I didn’t know we were “allowed” to be that powerful. To be honest, I never knew that I wanted to be that powerful. It was enough back then for me to, “be fit, feel pretty, and to be liked”. What happened at 30 Minute Hit that day was that I was inadvertently granted permission to unleash my inner warrior. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually too. That day on the circuit gave me a whole new perspective on my body and on my goals. Now all I wanted was to be stronger in every way. And to Hit as hard – or even harder – than the woman I was sharing the circuit with that day.
What also happened that day, was that I found a place where I could set goals based on the strengths that I saw in others, without feeling like I was at competition. I discovered camaraderie, and what it felt like to be challenged, lifted up, and celebrated by other women. A sisterhood like no other, the women of 30 Minute Hit taught me how to be the strongest kind of woman.
For most of history, women have been forced to keep our power a secret, lest we be shamed, burned at the stake, publicly humiliated, blamed for violations against us, and countless other injustices. While we make progress little by little, the major changes we need to see in the world cannot happen without women being at the forefront of decision-making, policy change, and equitable opportunities for everyone. We need to begin within ourselves. Every woman needs to find a place where she can unearth her most authentic, baddest, bravest self, and let her shine. It is not enough to feel fit, pretty, and liked. We need to be bold.
Thanks to 30 Minute HIt, what I learned about myself, and about all women, is that we don’t have to be afraid to be bold. The patriarchal values on which our world relies have very cleverly kept women under thumb for far too long. It is fear that feeds the inequities and prejudices against women. It is a fear based on nothing less than the knowledge that a woman can alter the course of our world, not only with her strength and her intelligence, but also with her heart. The feminine energy we have gives us the ability to function in both strength, and in love, simultaneously.
The Hit is a place like no other, where a woman can be both her strongest and her most vulnerable all at once, because she knows she is safe, supported, and surrounded by a community who want to see her Hit her hardest, and who love her fiercely.
Kristi Bieber