BetterU Challenge - end of month one

When I first walked into the gym, I thought – whoa.

Body Evolution is not the type of gym I was used seeing.  Now, I’m by no means an expert, but I've had a few gym memberships in my day.  Sometimes I even used them.  But walking into this gym, I was completely taken aback by the lack of typical gym equipment.  You know the ones – large monuments of metal so complicated to use that you have to hang back and watch two or three people use it first before you have the courage to try it for yourself?  But, this gym was different.  There was only one monument and nothing else but bars, bands, straps, and balls.  It was all very “fifty shades” of fitness.

What soon became readily apparent was that those monuments at the other gyms had made it possible for me to cheat.  I was anonymous at the big box gym, and now I was just one of a few women without any equipment to hide behind.  Now, things like form and actually doing the entire exercise became important (no stopping half way through a rep!).

Of course with good form comes…not-so-good pain.  I felt muscles I’d never known existed before, let alone know they could hurt.  I found it difficult to get up once I was sitting down, and difficult getting down once I was up.  Instead of sliding into my chair at work, I more or less fell into it.  Needless to say, even a simple trip to the restroom presented quite the challenge.

It’s been a few weeks now and the exercise has gotten easier.  I don’t hurt quite as much, and I’m starting to get used to the smell of my post-workout self.  And what I find most comforting is that since most of us started together- we’re all in the same boat.  There are a few that exceed my own abilities…I simply don’t stand next to them unless I have too.  But various degrees of capability aside, we all support each other in a way that only women who’ve seen each other at our ugliest – wearing spandex with no make up, can.