The First Class

                I survived my first Boot Camp class!

                I feel so great! I mean, I know tomorrow I probably won’t be able to move, but right now, the endorphins I made are working their magic! I drove home with a smile on my face, a complete turnaround from the grumpiness that was me earlier today.

                Don’t get me wrong, it was hard. Exercise is supposed to be hard or it’s not working! But it wasn’t too hard. I could do the stations as well as I was able and that was fine! The other people taking the class were very welcoming and didn’t mind showing me how to do something if the instructor was busy. Everyone worked at their own pace.

                I worked out much harder than I would have done if I had just gone to a regular gym and used the weight machines on my own. The slight pressure in the back of my mind that other people were participating on the same timeline as me made me try harder. I also liked that it was a class for a set time. I would have talked myself out of going altogether if there wasn’t a specific time my presence was required to participate.

                The instructor, Ira, was great! He helped when I was confused on how to do a station, and he kept track of me and made sure I was doing the exercises correctly and safely. Each station was just 60 seconds, so it didn’t get boring. I liked how he yelled out “10 seconds” near the end of each segment, so you would try just a little longer, even though your muscles were screaming!  And yes, my muscles screamed! I had a hard time walking from station to station after a while, because my thigh muscles were shaking so much! I never worked out that hard on my own at the Y, I promise you!

                The stations were all completely different from the last class that I watched. The most amusing one was where we had to swing a heavy sledge hammer onto a giant rubber tire! (I learned I’ve been swinging my, albeit much smaller, hammer wrong all these years while gardening!) We also used the weight machines more this time around.

                Now, I’m not surprised I made it through the whole class. I’m extremely stubborn and refuse to quit in the middle of a class, no matter how poorly I am performing. I may never go back to a class again, I’ve done that lots of times, but I won’t stop in the middle! What I am surprised about, is the fact that I am already looking forward to the next time we meet!