#628 thoughts about the gym

I'm SO glad I went to the gym tonight! Here's the thing: my favorite instructor, Marylynn, has quit working at the fitness center I go to. It's really far from where she lives so it wasn't convenient for her anymore. I don't blame her. I'm sure she doesn't get paid big bucks to teach classes at our gym, and she still teaches at a couple of places near where she lives, which, needless to say, is far from where I live.

Anyway...

I've had a hard time committing to going to the time-slots when Marylynn used to teach my favorite class, RIPPED. The instructors who took over the time slots are good instructors and nice people, but I really liked RIPPED. The classes that are taught in the RIPPED time slots are sort of RIPPED knock-offs. It's fun and fine, but not the same energy.

One of the ladies that I see in many of my classes told me that the Tuesday night RIPPED-like class is pretty fun and I do like the instructor, Cher, so I decided to go tonight. Before class, a few of us were standing around and we spotted Marylynn over by the cycling room. She was wearing her RIPPED workout clothes and we got really excited that she was teaching our class. But then Cher came in snd Marylynn put on her cycling gear. Sad. But then, Marylynn came over to say hi and she and Cher decided to switch classes, so Cher did cycling and Marylynn came and we did real RIPPED! Happy!

RIPPED stands for Resistance (arms, shoulders and back); Interval (cardio section); Power (lower body and chest); Plyometrics (cardio section with jumping) and Endurance (kick-boxing). The D stands for Diet. We also do a section of abdominals and then a cool-down. It's a great work-out because each section is only about as long as you can stand doing those moves, then you get to work on something else. It's a good work-out for someone with Attention Deficit Disorder because it moves along and changes really fast.

I've been going to the Fitness Center for several years now and I've come to know some of the people and the instructors. I go to classes early in the morning, usually, and you mostly see the same people in those classes. I even know some of their names. What's funny is to see the morning people in the evening classes. We look different in the evening! Most of us have been to work, so our hair is still fixed and we have on a little makeup. That is certainly not true at 5:30 in the morning!

Here's something else that's funny about the gym - seeing people you know at the gym in real life, like at the store or at their job. They are dressed in regular clothes and they are not all sweaty and sometimes I don't recognize them right away. I'll give you an example. On Saturday, MT and I had to take our car into the shop to have something repaired. I was waiting for MT in the truck, but he was taking awhile (and I was having trouble beating a level of Angry Birds) so I decided to go in. The man MT was talking to looked familiar, but I couldn't place him right away. When I walked in, the man looked at me and smiled and kept talking to MT. When he was finished with MT, he turned to me and said, "Hi! I bet you didn't know I worked here, did you?"

I said, "Nope," still trying to place him. Suddenly, I pictured him in shorts, a sweatband and a t-shirt and I knew it was the guy from my cycling class, Dennis! He cleans up real nice. When I saw him at the gym on Monday morning, looking how I'm used to him looking, he asked me how the car was running, so then I knew for sure it was him! (LOL)

That's all for tonight. I'm wondering if my poor swollen knee joints will be able to handle Zumba in the morning. I'll let you know.