In today's weight class, we worked in sixty second segments. Doesn't that sound easy? We interspersed dumb bell routines with some other activities, like using a stepper, a stationary bike with a fan, a ski thingy, and also Jacob's Ladder, which sounds like something you'd climb to get to heaven but is really more fitting for a Catholic Purgatory experience. Lots of climbing, but you're going nowhere except down. Because you can't climb fast enough to make it to the top. And if you go too fast, then you feel very out of control and have to drift downward, hopelessly defeated, and climb off.
A minute seems like such a short period of time, but the whole hour has a 'go, go go!' thing happening, including the sit-ups portion. Getting up from the floor is the hardest part for me. I'm supposed to use my core, but that bitch hardly ever shows up. Sometimes I feel like I've joined an S&M club, but I'm only involved with the M portion. When Tracy (who is lovely, and nothing like Aunt Lydia from a Handmaid's Tale) (there is no gun to my back as I write this) tells us to pull in our belly buttons, tighten our stomach muscles and stop using our glutes, I experience a moment of confusion. And bitterness, because my belly button and that whole general area has been letting me down for years.
And then I find out that overusing your glutes can cause problems for your bladder. (Tracy is concerned about the whole body, not just the biceps. In my mind, that was the only muscle that mattered.) Truthfully, it's my bladder that does a lot of the whining during class. "Why am I involved? Isn't it enough that you drank tequila on the weekend? One shot? Yeah, right." It's not just my brain that likes to complain. My organs are about to form a union, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
I would love to have a gym butler at every class, fetching my water and helping me up off the floor. Also, a reporter of some kind asking tough questions. "Is your heart rate supposed to be that high? Do you always slow down when Tracy's back is turned? Is that sweat on your shirt or did you spill your water again?" The reporter could never quote me because my language is boringly composed of sharp cries and this kind of thing:
Dear Jesus, when will it be over?
I just hammered my thigh with a dumbbell!
Oh, God. Did she say we're doing Moby? NO! The hour is up! Right? (like there's some kind of complaint department. I guess filling Tracy in could be the reporter's job. There'd be a lot to say, because my organs are growing very vocal.)
The crazy thing is, for the first half hour, I feel really strong and determined, and I get some pretty wild ideas. Like, maybe I'll head to the bar after class and start a fight. Or rescue somebody from a dark alleyway. (I'm really good with cats.) And then I watch a movie like GI Jane and find out that Demi Moore did six hours of workout a day just to prep. Well, hell, no. I guess my hour workout isn't so bad after all. I think I'll settle for getting stronger, feeling fitter, being happier and possibly someday winning an arm wrestling contest with a child. It's good to have goals.
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