What? Exercise that’s not running? Huh?
I know. It’s shocking… but I managed to survive an entire 60 minutes of non-running exercise.
Although it didn’t make my list of New Year’s Resolutions, one of my goals for 2014 is to improve my overall fitness. My cardiovascular health is great, but my strength and flexibility have a lot of room for improvement. Working on them will benefit my running and reduce my risk of injury.
So I bought a 12 class pass to a local fitness studio, and went to my first BarSculpt class. The class was an intense, hour long workout that isolates different muscle groups with stretching in between. It was the perfect combination of strength and flexibility work to complement my running.
I was horrible at it. There were exercises where I had to stop at 6 reps out of 10 because my form was getting so sloppy I couldn’t finish. I thought I would at least hold my own in the legwork, but evidently it’s possible to run half marathons and not have developed all the same leg muscles you need to kick butt in a barre class.
Why this is cool: Rather than being disheartened, I’m thrilled! The class was so challenging, even doing the modifications, that I’ve realized I just found a huge area where I can improve. I’ve been so narrow-minded in my fitness approach by only running that I’ve really neglected strength and flexibility. I can’t wait to see where I am in a few months… I would like to be able to do this well.
I credit my positive attitude in spite of my poor performance in class to running. I went from being nervous about running for 90 seconds without stopping to running two half marathons this fall. I have experienced improvement and success as the result of hard work, and I no longer feel embarrassed when I’m bad at something I’m new at. I know I can get better… a LOT better, as long as I’m patient and work at it. If it weren’t for running, I might have gone to a few classes, decided it was too hard, and quit. Now I see the difficulty level as proof that the class is going to work for me and make me a lot stronger. Thank you, running.
The studio is right near where I drop Will off for preschool, and going there right after drop-off gives me fifteen minutes prior to class to socialize. Here’s a tip for getting to know people in a class: immediately after you leave class, write a note in your phone with the name of who you talked to, a brief description, and a couple things you talked about. This might sound crazy, but our memories aren’t always working full speed when we’re working out. It only takes a few hours to forget the name of the person you met… especially when you won’t see them until class next week, best case. Before your next class, review your notes, and you’ll be able to say “Oh hi, you’re so and so, right? I’m Kelly, it was nice talking with you last week… was the grocery store as packed as you thought it would be?” Needing to write it down doesn’t mean your new friends aren’t important enough to remember, it means connecting with them is so important that you’re going to be sure you DO remember.
I struck up a conversation after class with someone, and found out they were also a runner and thought barre classes were absolutely great for runners. Awesome!
I even had time after class to grab a soy latte before picking Will up from school.
Life is good 🙂
What perfect timing! I was just looking at my gym’s group exercise class schedule and noticed that they have a barre class on Wednesdays. I’m doing my own personal challenge of trying different strength classes at the gym, and was curious about the barre class. Glad to hear you liked it and that it will work well for runners.