SPOILER ALERT: IN TONIGHT’S CLASS I FLEW OFF MY MACHINE.
That first sentence defines me almost perfectly. As my dear and lovely friend Kristen explained above, the resistance machines that are used in these classes come with a lot of bells and whistles, some of which are far too complex for me. This usually results in Kristen coming over to my Reformer to help me mid-exercise like a mother helping her 5 year old.
A brief intro. I am prettttty awkward. Not socially (well, sometimes - depends on the day), but just in the area of basic motor skills. Uncoordinated to the nines. I have only joined one exercise class in my life which was a Bikram yoga class in D.C. During one unsuccessful attempt to touch my toes, I fell over. A slow, slow fall. Also, 60 of my classmates turned to look at me in disgust and harsh judgment. I have kind of accepted and embraced this awkwardness. People are too embarrassed for me to laugh at me when these things happen, so I am forced to laugh at myself. Behind every smiling clown is deep sadness.
ANYWHO. My main form of exercise used to be running. By main form I mean 3 months out of the year I run and then I take the next 9 months off. I don’t see the results fast enough so I quit before I achieve them and lose myself in a box of Cheez-Its. That being said, I was thrilled I had a buddy to embark on all of the scary exercise classes with of which I was too intimidated by to join alone. I mean, can you imagine flying off your machine in a room full of strangers? Me neither. I am really hoping to attain the body I have always wanted and this week I am willing to do the work. I had my dream body in college once, for like one day.
Tonight’s Energii class was called “Core-Ass Attack”. I spent half of the day in anxiety. The class started at 6pm. We were almost late because Obama was in town and his motorcade shut down the highway. Can you say prima donna. We made it to the class on time and at 6:15pm I started staring at the clock, counting down the minutes until the pain and torture was over. It is roughly a minute of the hardest exercise possible, followed by 49 more minutes of equally ridiculously hard exercises. The class tonight focused on abs, glutes, thighs and calves, all of which I no longer have sensation in. Various crunches, lunges, squats etc etc etc were involved. After doing a million lunges with one leg against the resistance springs, I laughed out loud when we were asked to switch legs and do one more million lunges using the other leg as a prop. Will I fall off my machine now? No, that happens later in perhaps the easiest position of the entire night.
The feeling of accomplishment after the class is beyond well worth it however. I feel like I have finally found a class that strengthens and tones all parts of my body – muscles I didn’t even know I had.
In conclusion, I cannot more strongly recommend finding a friend to sign up for anything that you may feel intimidated to do alone. Be it cooking classes, art lessons, whatever. It feels really good to try something new and go out of my comfort zone and accomplish it. As cliché as it sounds, life is incredibly short (and kind of long at the same time), and my days are much more fulfilled when I take risks and then am able to bask in their benefits. I once read in a self help book (don’t judge) that an extremely positive step to take every day that results in happiness is to set a goal and achieve it – no matter what the goal is. Unless it’s like to smoke as much crack as humanly possible. Well, whatever. To each their own. I now suddenly see the beauty in bucket lists.
SAPPY CONCLUSION: It is really awesome to have someone to re-live each hard pose that makes up these exercise classes, text pictures of macaroni and cheese to and ask if it’s appropriate to carb load after only one class. This blog adventure was Kristen’s idea and I am so happy she asked me to join. She is definitely one of the coolest chicks I know and it really makes me happy to go on this journey with her. Kind of sounds like marriage vows but you get the point. All of my coworkers reading this are now saying “creepy” out loud.
Until next time! Happy flying off your machines!
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