I opened the gym door this morning and found my group of
exercise besties for our regular Friday Boomer Bootcamp, described by the YMCA
as improving “gain strength, flexibility, balance, and stamina.”
All I know is that we’re constantly moving, but we get to do it to the loud beat of oldies, making it easier to ignore that gimpy hip or creaking knee.
All I know is that we’re constantly moving, but we get to do it to the loud beat of oldies, making it easier to ignore that gimpy hip or creaking knee.
Except they
switched instructors on us. Instead of Vickie, who always keeps us stepping
like backup dancers for the Four Tops, we drew a person with all the enthusiasm
of a phlegmatic clerk at Walgreen’s.
Instead of
warming us up with booming notes from The Temptations, we grapevined to some
faint unnamable background music while our instructor, who had no apparent
sense of rhythm, led us just that little bit off-beat so we struggled to mirror
her movements.
Oddly, the
song choices improved toward the end, although she could have used some advice on timing her musical line-up.
It was a little disconcerting to
suddenly have Barry White rumbling out the intro (There's many times that we've loved. We've
shared love and made love. . ) before he commenced with “Can’t Get
Enough of Your Love.” Unfortunately, at this point we were standing on one leg and
had to stifle any urges to move to the beat.
With “Twist and Shout”
we were sitting in chairs for slowwww leg lifts, followed by Aretha Franklin’s
“R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” for overhead weight raises. Anyone choosing to match movement
to music would have been risking a concussion.
When I
looked around the gym there was more than one sneaker tapping. I wouldn’t have
been one bit surprised if at this point the whole group had launched from their
chairs into a fully choreographed routine like something out of “Fame.”
"I Can Do Anything Better Than You"
I think I should hug our instructor who does a very good job.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have followed Vickie to other classes and sites like the faithful once followed the Grateful Dead.
DeleteI can remember watching an aerobics instructor at the pool wondering how her class stayed awake. And watching another and noting that in a different lane her energy had infected me and I was swimming faster.
ReplyDeleteAn instructor (good or bad) can make all the difference.
back when I was a gym rat (in my 50s) I did my hour with the trainer, then 45 minutes on the treadmill for cardio, then I thought I would check out one of the classes. the instructor was all about moving...fast. I almost didn't make it out alive. that was the first and last time I did that.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about going to one of those "fit after Fifty" classes at the local community centre, hopefully they do more than sit in chairs and lift their knees.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a good instructor makes all the difference in my workouts. I do a three-times-a-week class with an hi-lo aerobic instructor whose classes have not changed an iota in 30 years! She has quite a following, too. :-)
ReplyDeleteI might have fallen over with laughter at Barry White.
ReplyDelete