MOVE your A**!!!!

So I am a Mom, I used asterisks. In the gym class they don't. Inside my commitment to try something new everyday and my latest kick, "Project BODY TEMPLE", I recently tried ZUMBA and TURBO Kick Class.

ZUMBA class was like Mark Wahlberg was in town. The line of ladies, all girly in their hot pink bandannas and lime green tops with purple splashed across the front ZUMBA!, looked like a flourescent pinyata exploded in the gym. They chatted with eachother, fluffed their hair and packed the class. Passes had to be given out for spots. I did not know this, so although I was 20 minutes early I did not get a pass and one girl whispered to me to just wait 15 minutes and sneak in later. I did.

In the class, the leader was smiling like a Muppet. I seriously experienced that we were all on Sesame Street, dancing, smiling and having the time of our lives. One of the girls in the front with the pink shirt and bandanna, a tall blond, was so adorable. She was good enough to only occasionally look at the instructor so she watched herself working out, shaking her booty, and smiling. She was just delighted with herself! Look at me, how cute! How fun! I can do this! It dawned as me, as I lifted my arms in the air and shook my shoulders like a can can dancer, that she is smiling AT HERSELF and that I was too. I looked at myself in the mirror. When was the last time I smiled at myself? When was the last time most people smiled at themselves? Here is this girl smiling at herself for a hour...what must she feel like after this? Probably like smiling at everyone else!

I want more of this! I go on Saturday as well, and this time I do the full hour. I feel super duper sweaty, smiley and sexy afterwards and I go to the instructor and tell her that it was my first time doing ZUMBA and although it was intense, her smile got me through it. She is so touched and I am so grateful.
Later that night dance with my husband outdoors by a playground to a summer band, totally free, without a care who sees me....the dance moves still moving me.




The TURBO Kick Class was another matter all together. The was no line. The class had half if not a quarter of the ladies in it. Now it was at a different time to be fair, but still there was a completely different vibe. The instructor was a short, stocky woman who could have walked straight out of Marine Boot Camp. She was serious and we growled as we squatted and scowled at ourselves in the mirror as we punched the air and kicked A**.
The music was as if someone had dumped a box of bolts and nuts in my head along with a fire siren and shook it around. I felt dizzy with musical anxiety within minutes. Every particle of me just wanted to walk out the door. I have done enough training and had enough life coaching to really get that there is no real right or wrong, there is only points of view, and I was very aware in that moment that I was forming a point of view that this was WRONG for me...it was the most masculine, hard core aggressive thing I had ever done. It was seriously lacking of the feminine. When I looked around I saw plenty of feminine looking women, the perfect blondes with the tans and ripped bodies, the slender Asian, the curvaceous African, a few older ladies even. But I had to wonder what kind of woman digs a work out like this? Does she know she is a WOMAN? Does she enjoy being a woman? Does this workout support her being a woman? I kicked, punched and squatted my way through the workout, constantly telling my mind to Shut the F&^% UP and do it!
As I leave, I do not feel so grateful, I feel worked over. The serious faces in TURBO Kick Class around me exude an urgent, "I HAVE TO" get into shape. The "HAVE TO" equals stress for me. I would rather have the smiles of FUN in ZUMBA and dance my way into a toned tush. Both are effective I just choose FUN.
I am also reminded that different things VERY Obviously work for different people. I am grateful for those differences, as we could all use a Marine to kick some A** now and then.


Zen Honeycutt