It was funny hearing the two other ladies talk about how aggressive some of the members at the gym are. They were talking about how some of them shove past other people to get to "their spot". The one lady was saying she was setting up for a class and someone came up and demanded she move because she was in "her spot", and another instance where she was taking down her equipment and the woman came and told her to get out of the way. Pretty sure it's a blank floor with a first-come, first-served policy. My contribution to this was that it kind of bothers me when one class ends and another is about to start and the new class is always trying to shove into the room. Like come on, let us out first. Ever heard of etiquette? How about courtesy? No, I guess not. I can't imagine someone being that juvenile that they would come and demand you move from their "spot". Like grow up a bit. The other side of it is that I can see a number of them feeling like they are entitled to a certain location because they are there every week and then feeling disgruntled when a newcomer occupies that space - but then they don't say anything and sit there simmering the whole class. Honestly, get over it. It reminds me of Nasty Lady #1 from the gardening club when our Girl Guide meetings are held - she is always trying to barge in before our meeting is over demanding we leave because they need to set up. You rent the space - you get the time you pay for, not your time plus a chunk of ours. It wasn't worth the fight, so we always tried to vacate on nights they were there, but man she was nasty, and persistent.
Chatting with the ladies was pretty fun, and I was thinking to myself "I could enjoy doing this every week", and then realized this was the last week I'd paid for this program. It's roughly $100 a month, and while that doesn't seem like a lot, it's just not something I can justify doing on top of the $80 I already pay for my monthly membership. Maybe later on in the year I will come back to it, but not for now. Too bad, I was enjoying those sessions. I am curious to try the Boot Camp class she teaches on the weekend to see if it is similar. If it's in the same genre then I don't really need to purchase the personalized time - although it is helpful to have a trainer circling you and correcting your position during the moves. I've mentioned it before: you can do a lot of damage when you are doing exercise the wrong way. It's better to have someone who knows what they are doing watch over you and correct you when you are doing it wrong. 66 days for something to become automatic. 66 days doing it wrong and you will set yourself to automatically doing it wrong - I know, I have years of learning to undo so I can relearn how to do a squat properly. For some of my classes we are doing these varying moves that involve squats and I am focusing so much of my attention on trying to make sure I am doing the squat right - because what feels natural is wrong. I have to get it just right so I can train myself to continue doing it right. I never realized working out required so much concentration to make sure you have the correct posture/position. I imagine once you get pretty familiar with it it just becomes routine, but this first month is taking a lot of focus on the position of my entire body. Is my abdomen tucked in the right way? Is my butt tucked under me? Have I stacked my joints (hips over knees, knees over ankles, shoulders over elbows, etc)? Are my shoulders back? Am I bending from the hips/knees or bending my back? Is my airway open? Am I putting my weight back through my heels (also learned about doing that this month)? I just learned this week that when I do the drumming class I am not actually supposed to be gripping the drum sticks in fists because I could injure my wrists that way; they are supposed to be loosely held between my fingers and rocked back and forth. Cool.
Still working on those squats. I can't get used to sticking my butt out behind me and bending through the hips more than the knees. It just feels like I am sticking my butt out and asking to be spanked (or something else). I'll get there eventually with more practice.
You could tell as the three of us progressed through the workout that we were getting more involved with what we were doing (or at least it required more effort) because the chat got less and less. By the end no one was talking. The workout was really good too. My knees were still a little sore, so movements like the "bird dog" where you balance on one knee and the opposing hand were not my favorite, but I did well. The first time I did this session with the instructor, I couldn't even make it through two rounds during our conditioning portion (5 exercises, 10 reps each, then repeat). This time I made it through three and was partway into four. And the other two didn't get so thoroughly far ahead of me in our different activities. Make no mistake, they still did things faster and got ahead of me, but I wasn't too far behind. Not like that first night where she lapped me and kept going. It may be that the exercises were easier than the first time - that's a possibility, but it could also be that my endurance and fitness are improving (I'm going to go with option B because it sounds more optimistic and aligns better with my goals).
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