Shaping Up

We’re getting back in the habit.

No, not that habit. This habit.

Ever since we moved and I had to quit working out at 9Round, my body has been craving exercise. Working out at 9Round made me love exercising and I’ve missed it so much. There’s a 9Round close to my work, but if I leave at 5:00 and try to make it over there (Harbison Blvd = Columbia’s Mall = my version of H E double hockey sticks) I won’t be able to begin my work out until 6pm. (Mind you – it’s about a 7 minute drive from my work to 9Round if there’s no traffic. That’s how bad it is at 5:00).

There are a few good gyms in Lexington and some people suggested a place called the Body Shop, which seemed great, but I love classes, so we wound up here:

I know, I know. I hate big franchise gyms too, but they have awesome classes and they have this:

THE CARDIO CINEMA

It’s a fairly dark room that plays great movies. You can use the treadmills, ellipticals & bikes in here for as long as you’d like and you have a great movie to watch. I’ve always found I can run much longer when I’m distracted. This room may become my new best friend.

When we went to join last night (around 6:30pm) we put on our pristine workout clothes and set out to conquer our laziness. We left the gym at 7:30 with a contract in hand and an appointment with a personal trainer. Crap. How did that happen? First thing I knew we were talking to this juiced up New Yorker about how he moved to SC to be with a girl and the next thing I knew my name was on his calendar for Monday at 5:30 and Ryan’s on Tuesday at 6:30. Shoot. He better not check my BMI! After we realized we had talked to him for over an hour, we decided we needed to eat, not workout. Well, I decided it. It was past my supper time and I couldn’t work out on an empty stomach, right? I didn’t think so. We decided to tackle it the next day.

As we were discussing our new gym membership over chicken wings and fries (yes, this really happened), we decided to give working out early in the morning a shot. We decided to go to bed at 9:00 and wake up early for the 5:30 class.

Fast-forward to this morning. My alarm went off at 5am. I snoozed until 5:15, and then threw on my workout clothes (again). I grabbed some Gatorade because I needed to dominate this class like Michael Jordan would’ve, and Ryan and I headed over to the gym. I convinced him to do the class with me because there were other guys in there. The class was called “Body Pump” and was taught by a guy named Rine. Should’ve been a sign. Everyone in the class was so nice & they came over to help us get our equipment set up – I guess we stood out as first-timers. After the class-regulars and instructor introduced themselves we got rolling. It started off great and I was really feeling the burn. Rine had a Britney Spears mic that he used and abused. Imagine this.

About half way through, Rine shouted out “Amy and Jason we’re so glad you joined us today!” I lost it. Jason? Where did that even come from? Through the pushups and lunges he called Ryan “Jason” about six more times. I couldn’t quit laughing. After the class, one of the men made a B-line for Ryan and said with a smile, “It’s Bryan isn’t it?” Ryan said, “No sir, it’s Ryan.” The poor man hung his defeated head and walked out.

It wasn’t a complete fail – we got a great workout and I already can’t walk very well. I think we’ll go back, but if Rine keeps up with the “Jason” thing, I’ll eventually have to correct him. I can't handle a whole year of trying to keep a straight face with that man.