Wednesday 11 March 2015

Springing back into shape!


Today I went to a pretty tough exercise class. It's called MetCon. This is a description taken from a Men's Health article: 

"Metabolic Conditioning workouts, or MetCons for short, are fast paced, high intensity workouts completed in a short period of time that will challenge your cardiovascular capacity, put your metabolism into overdrive and rapidly burn fat."

Sounds intense doesn't it? IT SURE WAS. Did I feel like I was getting a good workout? Absolutely! Did I sweat? Oh yes!!! Did I want to accidentally aggressively roll my exercise ball at the instructor when he was demonstrating a cruel challenging exercise! OH YOU BETTER BELIEVE I DID!!!! This workout was a discouraging one. It was really hard not to get frustrated with myself when I couldn't hold my arm straight over my head holding a 8lbs pound doing my 20th squat and by the end of the class I was modifying most things just so I could still get some sort of a workout. This was not what I am used to. I used to always take the most challenging options in fitness classes refusing to do push ups on my knees or modify anything to make it easier. Those days...well they just aren't right now unless I want to injure myself to the point of not being able to exercise for a while. 

What I learned today was humility. Unfortunately I chose not to prioritize exercise for a while and I cannot expect to be at the same level as I used to be. And perhaps I will never be able to do some of the exercises or lift the same weights as I used to, but it's okay. Exercise has taken a different meaning for me now. It's not about how fast, how much or how many...it's about how I feel getting to the gym, during the workout and when I leave. So yes, maybe I fell off my bosu ball kicking my exercise accidentally to the woman next to me (it legit was an exercise), or the instructor patted me on the back and said "don't worry, I know this was a hard one." BUT I FEEL GOOD. I went to the gym, worked super hard and had an energetic day as a result. We must be proud, gentle and kind to ourselves...even in times of wanting to accidentally let go of the dumbbell when the instructor is walking by....


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