I did the unthinkable today - I went to the gym for a 6 a.m. class. I've belonged to the gym for about four years now - every time I peruse the class schedule my eyes skim over the 6 a.m. listings like they don't even exist. I am not a morning person, never have been and probably never will be. However, now that I've come to the realization that I really need to fill my work schedule in order to meet our financial needs, I no longer have the luxury of going to 9:30 classes at the gym (regularly, at least) and not scheduling patients until after 11 a.m. So I have two options - work out in the afternoons (nearly impossible with the kids' schedules), work out in the evenings (hmm, no thanks - that's my relaxation time) or work out at an ungodly hour of the morning like I did today.
I picked a Pilates class as my first 6 a.m. experience - just really couldn't fathom the intensity of a spinning class or anything too energetic so early in the day. The class was listed as being taught by the same instructor who teaches the 9:30 a.m. class on Wednesdays, so I figured it would be pretty similar to that. I couldn't have been more wrong.
There is a different vibe at the gym in the early morning hours. While the 9:30 crowd is made up mostly of mothers who have just dropped their kids off at school, retirees or fire fighters, the 6:00 a.m. crowd leans more toward the population who have to be at work by a certain hour and are trying to squeeze a workout in as early as possible. As I set up my area in the Pilates room, bleary-eyed and bed-headed, I realized that no one in the room looked familiar. I'd never seen these people before because by the time I get to the gym they are already safely tucked into their offices or wherever it is they spend their days. As the music started I could see that this class was going to be very different; instead of the usual new-age relaxing music played in the later morning class, the instructor was playing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", soon to be followed by Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy With It". Nice.
The energetic music matched the boisterous mood in the class. I noticed a much larger male population in this class than in the 9:30 one and the geriatric contingent was decidedly smaller. The men were pretty entertaining - shouting out their dislike of certain positions the instructor was forcing us to assume and commenting on the difficulty of the movements or number of repetitions. This was definitely not the serious quiet atmosphere of the class I'm accustomed to taking. There was a lot of chatter throughout the class and I found myself trying not to fall off the BOSU because I was laughing so hard. At one point a guy next to me said "Isn't this fun?" then in his best Mr. Rourke voice he added "Welcome to Fantasy Island!" Kind of hard to hold the plank position with comments like that.
Then another odd thing happened. Ffiteen minutes before the end of class about 60% of the participants started packing up their areas and leaving. By the last five minutes the entire middle of the room had cleared out and there were only about eight of us left. I guess they were trying to get on the road to the office before rush hour got too bad or something. I laid back on my mat, stretched my legs and sighed in contentment, especially loving the fact that the heavy breather from the 9:30 class was not lying next to me. I'll take Mr. Fantasy Island over her any day.
So 6 a.m. - a new workout time for me? Definitely not every day - but I guess I can do it if I really need to. Getting up was the hardest part, especially when it's still pitch dark outside and you have a warm, cuddly six year old pressed up against you (she snuck in at some point during the night as she sometimes does). But now I feel good and am ready to get on with the rest of my day. So here I go!
1 comment:
Good for you!
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