10-29-21 Real Girl Fitness Quest

Full disclosure my friend Susan coined that title phrase, and its apt, and she said it was “stealable”, so voila.

It came about as I was previewing today’s class selection at my fabulous local gym. This real girl is slowly trying all the classes at the gym.. well the free ones at least, hahaha. Making myself step out of my comfort zone of long time runner / swimmer who gobbles cardio with abandon, time to work on the whole body.

Rather than lament the aging storyline, the woulda coulda shoulda, today is today. And who knew those ab muscles made you more stable?? (lots of experts). Apparently if you engage them, core muscles punctuate stability and balance – a couple of nice friends to have right? Cracked ribs, broken collarbone (2x) fully detail how I have not engaged those core muscles when running turned into tripping. And in each instance, there has been time to form the thought ‘shit this is going to hurt’, but missing was, ‘you hooo little core can you help me not hit the pavement’. Those core muscles are sticklers for the love connection, you gotta pay attention to them, for them to pay attention to you!

Which brings me back to the gym. So many classes, so many options to love up on my core.

Have steered clear of gyms for so many years; a) my chosen sport running can be done anywhere and a treadmill inside is this side of hell, 2) the age old stupid thought about looking stupid. Maybe this is the grace of age, maturing enough to say who the fuck cares, just get out there and be somebody. I give this advice to anybody about running. Who cares what you look like, how slow you go, how far you go, just get out there – but don’t we always give way better advice to others, than we ingest for ourselves??

Well not this time – I am a real gal in search of fitness. First foray was “Ringside” – cardio/strength class with boxing moves as the recovery. My Sugar Ray Leonard was on tilt! If I knew how to insert an emoji it would be the one with the hearts for eyes. Slight drawback for the people on either side of me, as it was not until the end of the class that I asked the instructor for a tutorial on jab/cross/uppercut/shuffle/duck – needless to say my classmates did alot of ducking with sugar ray on the move! And that class is fully in my rotation now. Fabulous!

Today is a real leap.. hot yoga. Visualize your Champion gym shorts, cotton t-shirt, mat that may or may not be used in a garage during oil changes – that is who is walking into the class today.

My trusted accomplice Susan has yelled from the sidelines – I look forward to reading the blog with the words Never Again. My super fit friend Toop said – “it is a strenuous class!” – exclamation mark FFS?? And my niece who is a yoga instructor said very encouragingly, go you, be a badass, oh and don’t do more than you can. What does that even mean as downward dog means I bend down to pet the dog!

Stay tuned. Noon class, update to follow.

Whatever your fitness journey, hope to see you along the way.

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