I love me some Y!
The YMCA.
My local Y is a nice facility with … {drumroll} a lap pool and an activity pool! The latter’s warmer waters are suited for aquatic parent/child sessions and more.
As a waterbaby and lifelong swimmer, I’ve sorely missed pools and lap swimming. As a new Y member, I’m thrilled to discover that it’s a nice pool, clean, the standard 25 yards in length and with pool tools like kick boards and pull buoys on tap.
My local Y is more than a nice facility. It’s very active and offers a cool array of classes, most of which are included in the monthly fee; the handful that aren’t, pilates for example, incur a minimal additional cost.
Feast your eyes on what’s up at my Y:
* Bosu Boot Camp — featuring 1/2 dome ball
* Cardio Kickboxing
* CHISEL! — hard core aerobics & weights
* Cycling
* Hip Hop
* Jujitsu
* Latin Rhythm Aerobics
* Roll & Restore — employing foam roller to relieve tension in muscles & connective tissues plus improve balance & strength
* Silver Sneakers Cardio Circuit
* Step — high-intensity & low-impact aerobics
* Stretch & Flex
* Tai Chi
* Tae Kwon Do
* WOW! — women on weights
* Yoga
* Zumba
And those are just in the studios!
If splashy sports are your thing, get your feet wet in these classes:
* Arthritis
* Water Fitness
* Water Yoga
What inspires this post isn’t solely my excitement at being with this Y and back on the sporty horse after a much-too-long hiatus. See, I’ve always been a sporty tomboy plus I go absolutely nuts without exercise. I need it far more than the average person and therefore too suffer greatly without it in mind, mood, overall health, fitness and well-being.
So I’m truly thrilled to be back in the game (AND at an affordable rate!).
What inspires this post are all these fun classes I get to try! True, I’m not a groups person or a people person. I lean toward loner sports: long-distance running, weights, yoga, swimming — and it gets no more loner than staring at the bottom of a pool for hours!
But I like this town and this town likes me so there’s pleasure in engaging — and sampling the goodies at the Y.
Like yesterday. I checked out the spinning class. I admit, bicycling’s never been my thing. I enjoy it recreationally, tootin’ around town or on easy trails in the hills. But as a sport, not my thing, though I do “endure” for the workout.
In a class, however, it’s fun and motivating!
Music’s blasting, the ladies are pumpin’ their legs and butts and sweatin’ it up, the teacher’s shouting timed speed intervals and leading with combined cycling and arm exercises with weights.
Cycling’ll never be my sport but it’s an hour of sweaty spinning fun!
From spinning in studio B to yoga in studio A. Now, yoga I do enjoy and have done off and on solo for years.
This, however, is my first foray into bikram yoga, aka hot yoga. Bikram yoga’s typically practiced in a room heated to 104 F. (40 °C) with 40% humidity.
Well, I’ll be blunt. That’s never appealed to me.
Luckily, the Y’s class isn’t exactly hot yoga. It’s lukewarm yoga. Temp around 75 F (24 °C) and maybe 10% humidity, which I found just the right level of comfort for loosening and relaxing the muscles without swimming in sweat.
Some of the poses I knew, some I didn’t. Either way, watching and listening to a teacher instruct is beaucoup different from using a book with illustrations and written instructions on the floor as a guide. {Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I LOOOOOOOVE words and books and always will!!} Simply noting the difference in instructions from a human rather than a book!
I especially like yoga because it allows each person to comfortably go at his/her own pace and according to his/her own levels of flexibility, strength and stretchability.
I can tell you right now that I’ll never be able to contort into positions of which the teacher’s capable, like this:
Neither do I aspire to it!
At this old-lady age, I’m joyful to maintain a moderate to high level of fitness, strength, flexibility and agility. And I’m joyful that my Y, rich with offerings on both dry land and water, allows me to in ways fun, invigorating and uplifting.
Which brings me to the apex of today’s post. Tonight I’m sampling a class that I’m suuuper-excited about! One far outside my rough-n-tumble tomboy ways! One that I may have done maybe once in my youth for an hour!
BALLET!
Rest assured, my level will be obvious!
This:
Not this:
Allelujah, Arizona! 