No pain...no gain? - Sarah's Peonies

So, I went to work out yesterday. Crazy, I know! And I’m not the kind of person that does workouts with a trainer, in a room of people. Totally out of my comfort zone. I mean, I have trouble standing up straight for a long period of time. I also would definitely fail the “walk in a straight line without falling over” police test, being totally sober if I had to provide one. Which luckily, I won’t have to anytime soon.

It was a 45-minute high-intensity cardio workout…. Whew! It was hard, believe me, it was so hard. Especially for me.

The Work Out

I told the trainer (who was a very good looking man) that I had balance issues and that I was working on strengthening my arms and legs. Oh yeah, and that I walked with a cane and couldn’t see out of my right eye. I wanted him to have the full picture. The challenges I would be up against. He told me not to worry, just watch and do what I could, and he will help me as much as he can.

He also explained to me how the session works. He showed me a whiteboard that had exercises like the Pocahontas, the Tinker Bell, the Iron Man…..What? There was a whole list of them. Probably about 15 different exercises. OK, so this was going to be a little more difficult and confusing than I thought!

Breathe, Sarah just breathe! You are AWESOME! You got this! No prob!

That was my inner self-talking

The challenge was on…

So, the music started playing. The clock turned on. And we started… Well the other people started and I watched I saw the other six people getting into their exercise position thing, and I followed. I got down on my mat, got into position and… BEEP! … the other people got up on their feet and start doing another exercise. So I stood, figured out what they were doing, and started doing what they call the Iron Man… I think. I took my second step, well sort of and BEEP! On the floor again, doing the Pocahontas or whatever.

The next 45 minutes went on like this. Up, down, up, walking, stretching, pulling and whatever else he had on the board. It was super confusing. But it was my first time, so I only can get better, right? And I probably should’ve asked him how this whole thing really worked. I should’ve paid more attention when he was talking to me. Which sometimes is a fault of mine! I figured out in watching everyone else and asking questions along the way that this cardio exercise session was a 20\40\60\80\60\40\20 interval thing. I understood why the beginning was so fast-paced that I could not keep up.

And then it was over…

It was finally done and water was needed. Desperately!

Needless to say, I had an excellent workout and was sweating buckets when I was done. I had to use a towel that was provided to wipe myself down. Then I got on my jacket, got my cane in my hand, turned to the trainer and said “ Thank you. See you next week!” And walked out the door. I had to walk to the bus stop which was not pleasant. I was exhausted.

I am proud that I went and actually did it, although I am in serious pain now though. I have used muscles I didn’t think I had.