Two months ago, precisely on July 2nd, 2019, Matea Jurčić and I celebrated one year of our friendship with a special training session, since I’m still waiting for the pancakes. Three days ago, on September 3rd, we completed our 100th workout together! I say ‘together’ because, after her own workout, she willingly and without much protest #nottogointodetails 😉 stayed and did an additional short, high-intensity training session with me, focusing on abdominal muscles and the shoulder girdle.
When you spend a year with someone with practically no longer breaks, you could write a multi-page essay about them. Still, since my writing skills aren’t the focus of this article today, I’ll try to briefly convey what this significant achievement means to me, and who Matea is as a person while becoming a standard part of my life and the overall SpartanFit story.
To begin with, let’s go over few important dates in the history of our group. On January 20th this year, Matea reached the milestone of fifty training sessions, joining the chosen circle of people who achieved the same in the last two and a half years (Iva, Ivica, Matea, Rafaela, Roberto, Roko). Four months later, on May 28th, Ivica Antić “Bajba” became the first in our history to reach one hundred training sessions, and recently, Matea joined him.
On her 50th training session, Matea was finishing my first program, which realistically could have happened earlier, but we decided to focus on a mix of strength and running halfway through our collaboration. The aim was to derive even greater benefits from this combination and apply the acquired skills to her athletic performance. Over time, this decision proved to be a good one. Although strength training sessions were no longer present twice a week, it didn’t hinder us much in achieving our goals. Afterwards, we switched to my second program, “Superset 4,” throughout which upper and lower body workouts are performed separately. This program encapsulates all the crucial elements of a well-rounded athlete (strength, explosiveness, endurance). Matka and I have already made considerable progress in the third phase of the aforementioned program, and the results are visible and palpable.
In terms of our interaction, I like to emphasize that one of the more beautiful aspects of individual training sessions we practice here at SpartanFit is the relationship that transcends the pure trainer/trainee context. I’m still extremely proud of Matea and grateful to be part of her sports story and development on both athletic and, more importantly, broader life level. There were many times during our talks between sets when we got carried away and talked about something beyond training, where we ended up mutually responsible for the extended breaks. In those moments, we often blame each other because that’s how we influence one another. Since I am aware of the trust Matea has in me, which is entirely mutual, I make a conscious effort to truly listen to her in those moments, ocassionally asking questions I hope will lead her to find the answer she’s looking for. Ultimately, if needed, I give her advice which I believe will be helpful. Throughout our year together, we celebrated two birthdays, her 15th last year, and my 31st a month and a half ago. In reality, there’s only a years difference between us since Matka is 2 and a half, and I am 4 years old, which is an amusing inside joke we share.
My trust in this young woman is not just a phrase that sounds good on paper. I voluntarily and with great pleasure presented it to the public, first through an abdominal workout I devised, demonstrated by Matea herself, and then through our joint “couples workout.” In the process of preparing this article, I reminded myself that in the dedication about her 50th workout, I wrote about how our initial training sessions were much more timid and quiet. Now, the more significant problem is how to “calm her down” sometimes, where I know that my biggest support is Danijela Jurčić, just so it doesn’t seem like I’m making things up.
Original release date: September 6, 2019.