Balls...

I have convinced best friend Rachel to join me for Dynamic Core, this evening. And boy is she in for a treat. I offer to pick her up about twenty minutes before class and head over to her house. I call when I pull up and she graciously informs me that class is not in twenty minutes. It is, in fact, in just under an hour. Well then. I guess we have some time to waste. So I help her bake some bars for a friend's birthday.

Rachel has been slightly nervous for this class since I convinced her to go, so I spend some of our down time telling her how much fun it is and how she's going to have a really good time. Let's face it, one of my greatest strengths is making people feel comfortable in stressful situations, something I am making great use of, right now. I have to tell her that even though she is sore from Zumba (side note: I am not sore and do not get sore very often, anymore. I miss feeling like a really worked my muscles) she'll push through the pain because I will be doing the same thing and she's not allowed to be a bad friend.

When we get to the gym, a line has started forming outside the studio. We head towards the door and remove our shoes and then I prep Rachel on what's going to happen. 'People are going to be aggressive so as soon as people start leaving this class, we have to bolt in and claim the good spots. I'm not getting stuck right in front of the door again.' And it's true. People aggressively cut in line in order to get a good spot. And the seemingly demure little old ladies are the worst. If I were as small as Rachel I would probably risk getting backhanded in order to throw me off. Good thing I'm a fat person at the gym and no one messes with me.

We grab our equipment and wait for Kiki to kick our butts. And boy does she kick our butts. She starts with squats and we do a pretty good job keeping up. We then move to weight plates and this is where numerous people in the class suffer. Many people (myself and Rachel included) have to drop our plates and simply to the actions without any added weight because our shoulders and arms are killing us. Kiki's really giving it to us, tonight. And everytime she encourages us to keep it going is the exact moment that I have chosen to take a break, so I have the added pressure of not wanting to be a disappointment.

We move to abs, and I'm a little more able to keep up. here. I have to share my excitement with actually being able to do sit ups, because I haven't been able to do a true sit up in probably five years. There are still ab moves that are really difficult for me to do, but I'm pleased with my progress.

After abs, we move to balls. As in exercising with a ball as our equipment. I take a six-pound ball, thinking I'll be fine with that. I really should have gone for a two-pounder. We bounce it, kettle bell swing it, do oblique rotations with it. I honestly haven't felt this worked in a long time. And to end the class we do push ups with one hand on the ball. Correction: The rest of the class does push ups with one hand on the ball. I can only squeak out two before I collapse.

When we're officially done with the workout, I'm as happy as can be because it's over. But boy, am I going to feel this in the morning. Rachel is worried about her ability to care for patients, tomorrow. We hobble to the car and go back to Rachel's house where we make chili and process what we just went through. It hurts to sit, it hurts to stand, but it hurts in a way that reminds me I've just done something great for my body.