My first group exercise class...at a Gym.

Wow. I never realized that I am uncoordinated…until today. I took my first gym group exercise class. I’ve done group exercise before, in the Army, but this was different. Group exercise in the Army usually consists of group runs, push ups, sit ups, various forms of torture completed with an M16 in hand or the use of your own body weight for resistance. I’ve always endured these, and even, in a sadistic way, enjoyed them. They were usually creative. Once I had to do 100 squat thrusts, yelling “You’re my dog, Drill Sergeant!” after each one squat thrust, when the said Drill Sergeant overheard me refer to him by his first name to someone else. So, it never dawned on me that I may have a problem with group exercise class.

The class was called Body Blast, and its description stated “Get the heart pumping using a variety of equipment, then wrap it up with weights and core strengthening activities.” What they fail to tell you is that the first 5 minutes is step aerobics. It was then that I realized that moving my feet and hands in a specified pattern, at the same time, while stepping up and down on a step, was really not my cup of tea and was going to be a challenge. It was ugly…REALLY ugly.

Everyone else were veterans of this class, they moved with such grace and synchronization as…well…a dance team. I felt very much like the newbie, but it was so bad, I couldn’t even be embarrassed. I just laughed my butt off…which did not help me with the coordination at all. Thank God it only lasted 5 minutes! We then moved on to squats and lunges. About 10 minutes into that, I was praying for the aerobics back!! Ouch. I am definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

Overall, this class was definitely worth it. It is mostly strength training and sculpting, which will be a nice addition to my cardio. I am hoping…eventually…I too will be able to master the step aerobics portion of this class. Then again…maybe I should practice a little at home before the next class. Maybe.