On the Ball

Not me personally. That's the class I took yesterday at the Y. It is a weight training class using the exercise ball, and it's usually great.

I went flying into class a few minutes late yesterday (as usual) to discover that the only spot available was by freaky space-hog girl (as usual). She seems to feel that she deserves 1/4 of the studio while the rest of us cram into the remaining space. I'm always the one to invade her carefully crafted workout space, baracaded by weights, step, ball, mat, and whatever other equipment we are using on a particular day. So I'm immediately annoyed.

Then I realize that the teacher is one whom I don't particularly like. I mean, I like her - she's very nice. I just don't like her class. She tends to start with small muscle groups first which I find frustrating. I was taught to start with large muscle groups. Starting with small muscle groups makes it hard hard to exhaust the larger ones when we finally get to them. True to form, the first thing we did was bicep curls followed by triceps. At this point I'm fuming because I don't care about my arms but do want a good chest and back workout.

I also notice that I desperately need to shave and purchase some self-tanner.

That's when the little voice in my head kicked in to remind me that workouts are supposed to be fun. I made a concerted effort to look for something - anything - positive! And I found a remarkable number of things.

The instructor did a great lower body work out, in a Di-approved order. She also did great abs. I love abs on the ball or the bosu - they are so hard and they require good form. I also noticed that this instructor is very organized, moving from one exercise to the next efficiently so she has time for muscle groups that other instructors typically skip, like lower back, rotator cuff, and calves. And still she leaves room for a good long stretch at the end.

Wow, that was actually a really good workout. I left her class in a much better mood than I usually do. Attitude is everything.