My [*cough*] Commitment to Fitness

I know this feeling. I’ve been here before. And yet, I still do this to myself.

I shake up a workout rut. My rut can best be described as "winging it".  That is to say, when I get the itch to do something, I go to the gym and do the same exercises, go to my Sunday soccer game, and maybe go for a run. However, there have been well marked sabbaticals ranging from 2 weeks to a month in duration meaning I do absolutely nothing. I am coming off just one of those sabbaticals. Last night, I took….an…..I almost can’t say this,….an….. exercise class. A class with jumping. Ooooh, lots and lots of jumping. Right now my calves are getting tighter and tighter by the second. I know tomorrow morning I will be scanning the Internet for wheelchair rentals…and possibly a crane to lift me out of bed and out of my car. Tomorrow is gonna hurt. I know this.

I took a Plyo Power ® class. If you are not familiar with its premise, this class was forty-five minutes of jumping into squats and quick tapping on a step. And high knees. And running so that you are literally kicking your own ass. Did I mention the squats? The instructor explained its purpose – agility and something but it's a little fuzzy because I am pretty sure I blacked out when he did. Okay, I didn't but actually my nose felt fuzzy during all this (by the way, if you know what THAT was all about, please e-mail me!).

I thought I was in okay shape for this because I run and play soccer and do leg weight training exercises. And for a good portion of the class I was keeping up. I will admit I was feeling very proud of myself.

And then the wall hit. Hard.

I couldn’t lift my legs. They felt like they weighed 300 pounds….each. They were shaking – involuntarily. I looked up at the clock – I had twenty more minutes to go of this. My only thought: "Oh. Holy. Christ."

How I got to the end? I think it was more pride than anything else. I finished - but barely.

The sick part is afterwards I took an abs class.

The sicker I went home and had a slab of Elio’s pizza and chips for dinner.

However, the sickest part of this sordid story: I will probably go back.

Comments

[Emily]

my "sebaticals" tend to last longer than yours....like by YEARS....I can only offer this advice. When you do go back (and I know you will) do NOT i repeat do NOT bring a perky little blonde friend with you named Amy...Amy who works out for a LIVING (not really but works out enough to bug me). We took kickboxing together...figured she'd be a good motivator to keep me showin' up....not so....well I mean she motivated me...to want to trip her when she started showing the instructor "power moves" to do during differnt exercise sets.....After a few weeks of that I didn't invite Amy to come with me. We both knew why, we would have never made it as friends....

[Once More]

I am in so much pain right now. The thuoght of stairs makes me wince. I look like an idiot getting on and off the bus because I have to hoist or lower myself on/off - slowly. This class was such a stupid idea.