Mixing up the workout

You've heard about the importance of changing things up so that your body doesn't get tired of the same old thing, right?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have taken this to a WHOLE. NEW. LEVEL. So, I moved into the new abode and decided that I really was going to have to find a place to work out. I need to be getting exercise. The last time I joined a gym I went all of twice in a year. It was not convenient enough. I cannot over emphasize the importance of convenience in getting my ass to the gym.

So, I managed to find a gym right by my house. See, right by my house. I walk there.

How could I resist??? AND it is an all girls gym. NO BOYS. Who doesn't love that? AND it is fun and different. By fun and different, I mean, I can't really tell anyone because it is embarrassing. . . It's called The Girls Room. . . and it teaches Pole Dancing.

First, it does NOT look like a strip club. It looks something like this. . . only we mostly look a lot more awkward. Almost like a ballet studio, but with vertical ballet bars.

Sure, I'd love to look like a gymnast. . . but I look more like a spastic second grader on the play ground. They are really big on not comparing oneself to anyone else and the instructors are all about everyone having fun and not being too serious,

which is good, because sometimes, it just isn't pretty. (please, please, click on the link. It is one of the funniest videos ever.)

Mostly it is wives and girls just wanting to have some fun and do something different. I'm pretty sure there is at least 1 girl that is secretly excited about the idea of knowing how to pole dance ($50 says if you get her drunk and leave her near a stop sign she'll make an ass of herself within minutes) but everyone else, pretty normal.

At any rate, I have to tell you I have renewed respect for our sisters the strippers. That is some hard work. Not the stripping part, all the rest of it.

We do yoga and push-ups and "core" exercises for most of the class and then we work on the pole stuff. It is hard. My arms are usually about to fall off at the end of an evening. The ends of my hair have been known to hurt because EVERYTHING is in pain.

BUT I am getting stronger. I can tell. I can't do a full push-up yet (hey, I'm a wimp, I know it) but, I can stay in "plank" position (yoga term) without collapse in a heap on the floor, well, mostly. So, I hope if I keep going, that I will continue to get stronger and smooth out some of the rumples. Ya know?

So, that is my new workout routine. There I said it.