If you ask someone about what a Gym Jones seminar is like, you often hear the same thing over and over: you learn that you’re physically and mentally capable of much more than you thought you were. You push yourself to some preposterously uncomfortable places. You’ll hear the word “pain cave,” a lot. Also: “Holy shit, tailpipe is a lot harder than it sounds!”

All of these things are true. But nothing really gets at how infinitely trippy-in-the-best-way-possible a Gym Jones Fundamentals seminar is. In a blip of a weekend, you willingly congregate with a bunch of strangers (some without shirts!) and are asked to do what Gym Jones Programming Director Michael Hulcher would call “some really hard things.” In front of shirtless strangers! It’s a case study in whiplash—one minute you’re asked to you eat your Whole Foods salad while trying to grasp the nuances of how to write effective macro cycle programming, the next you’re deadlifting an amount of weight equal to an adult male Panda while people you’ve never met are cheering your name louder than your own mother ever has. Trust me when I tell you, you’ll start sweating before you even strap into a Concept 2 Erg for Tailpipe (a 250m row while your partner holds 2 kettlebells on their chest, then switch places for 3 rounds) because you will RIP OFF YOUR OWN ARM TO PULL THIS DAMN ROWER FASTER if it means your partner (someone you’ve known for about 45 minutes) will suffer one second less while racking those kettlebells on her collarbone.

Let’s just say going back to work on Monday is, well, kind of weird.

Even though I train at Gym Jones in Salt Lake City, I didn’t see myself as “seminar” material. I don’t work in the fitness industry. I’m a working mom who’s been pushing a dentist appointment off for a year and change and isn’t flush in “free weekends.” I wear shirts. But attending the fundamentals seminar gave me a profound confidence in my training and my own physical capability that I don’t think I could have channeled from anything else. As basic as it sounds, this seminar is really a singular environment Gym Jones coaches are wildly good at creating where you can test yourself in front of other adults who also want to test themselves while simultaneously feeling supported when you’re at your most vulnerable. I guess what I’m saying is, at a time when we’re becoming more alone and isolated,  when people are retreating to their basements to spin and stare and a computer screen or get into downward dog in front of a “fitness mirror,” it’s good to connect with other human beings. Especially when doing some really hard things. And most likely you’ll come home with all your limbs intact.