jianantonic | (no subject)

I have been in a funk lately. A breakup funk, a lazy summer funk, an oh-my-god-i'm-so-busy-at-work-i'll-never-see-the-end-of-it funk - call it what you will, I've been totally funked up. The results manifest themselves in three major ways:
I'm eating shitty food that I shouldn't be eating.
My workouts have suffered tremendously.
I'm constantly in a bad mood, be it sad, angry, depressed, testy (haha, she said "teste"), whatever, I've been unpleasant.

The root of these problems is more or less out of my control at this point, but that doesn't mean I can't fix them. Once I get into another good workout pattern, the other things will fall into place - I eat better when I'm exercising well, and my mood is definitely better for it. But I've had a hard time motivating myself at the gym, or even to go to the gym. So it's time to work on that.

Thursday night bridge has been canceled for the remainder of the summer, so that freed up another gym night for me. The lovely and talented Jen had tried to coax me into a body pump class at Gold's ever since the first time I trained with her, and now that Emily has been taking the classes, she's been urging me to go, too. Well, the two women I look up to most in the world (or down, as it were, as they are only about 5'4 each) can't both be wrong, so when I saw body pump on the schedule for 5:30 on Thursdays, I asked Emily to accompany me to my very first class. I couldn't change my mind and not go if she was going to be waiting for me there, so by making the date with her in advance, I guaranteed my attendance. I got there right at 5:30 (I had to leave work early to make sure I made it on time, too), and Emily had already set up my equipment for me. She explained some of the directions the instructor would give to me and calmed my nerves a bit. It's funny - even though I know I'm in better shape than a lot of the people in these classes, I've always been nervous about taking them, not being able to handle the intensity of an hour-long workout like this. (In my regular hour-long workouts, there is much more resting between exercises.)

I was indeed nervous, but I kept thinking about Jen. When she trained me, she rarely wore anything that really showed off her figure, but I remember the one time she wore a tank top, I was so amazed by her shoulders - they're incredible! - and she just told me it was all from body pump. She got her butt and legs mostly from RPM, so I think I'm going to have to start taking that class soon, too. Anyway, the room was really crowded and the instructor asked how many people were new to body pump. I was the only one who raised my hand, so she spoke directly to me for a lot of the class...it was a little unnerving, but nice that she was making sure I had the right form and all that. Working out with Jen had prepared me for most of the moves we did, so very little was new to me. I just had to keep up with the instructions about pace and transitions.

So, the class...it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Every few minutes, I'd reach a point where I thought I would die if I had to do another rep, but that was usually right about the point where we transitioned to something else, so it wasn't bad. I knew I was getting a good workout, and I wasn't killing myself. Most excellent. The hardest parts were what the instructor called "bottom halves." Fuck the bottom half, okay? (Hehe, she said "fuck the bottom.") That shit is hard. Basically it's half a rep - you don't go all the way to the top, so you don't get that sense of rest upon reaching the top of a lift. They're painful! Luckily we only did like four at a time before changing it up, but I think those bottom half movements are why I'm so sore today. But you know, sore is good.

Now that I've got that first class out of the way, I'm much less nervous about taking others. The hour was definitely hard, but it flew by. It wasn't bad at all. I think that if I make classes a part of my regular routine, I'll start to feel a lot better about my workouts, and other things in turn. I've got bridge all weekend and Monday, but Tuesday I see my trainer and Wednesday I'll try to hit up another class. Wish me luck...

Peace.