Finding Balance Through Exercise

 

I found the gym to be a place to hideaway and get away from the normalcies of the day and it has helped me mentally, physically and emotionally to find the balance I need to find peace within my own life and happiness about the very person I am.

Lately, I’ve been starting each day off with some type of cardio workout whether it is on the stationary bike, elliptical machine or the treadmill and it gives me energy to boost me up at least for a portion of the morning. Since I gave up coffee and still get those withdrawal pangs, the burst of energy from trying to reach my target heart rate is so necessary for me; even beneficial.

Then during lunchtime I am one of the many that crowds the floor of the group exercise room to do whatever class is being offered. Today, the class that was listed on the schedule was kickboxing.

 

It has been a minute since I’ve taken a kickboxing class. I enjoy throwing punches, kicks and also toning up my arms and legs in that class. At least that is what my memory held of that class from when I used to take it years ago; but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be humming a different tune.

 

So my friend and I walked in and we saw that each person taking the class had a pair of weights and a floor mat.  I didn’t remember using weights in kickboxing class before but I thought, maybe her methods are different and so I just weathered the storm to see what else would be part of the class.

 

Turns out, we didn’t do any punching or kicking at all. Instead, we lifted weights, we did squats, we did burpees, we did planked jumping jacks, push-ups and some other intense things that even though I was not ready for it,  I am glad the mistake for the class was made because my body felt great at the end. I could have bowed out gracefully pretending to be disoriented and unable to do some of the crazy moves that I’ve only seen before in the workout DVD known as the Insanity. Actually most of the routine were moves I’ve seen in the aforementioned program.

 

So I got curious at the end after I sweated out my clothes, used up all my breath and was practically gulping for air and had sore muscles. I said to the instructor, “this was kickboxing class?” She actually forgot the schedule had changed and told me the class was circuit training. Not that I am going to take anything away from a class that I haven’t taken in what seems to be a century, but I am actually happy with her mistake because the circuit training class was awesome and the instructor really worked us today.  What a great workout!

 

I actually believe that exercising has changed my life. I am in my third month of working out consistently since August 1^st and lost 20 pounds.  This newness I’ve found has truly built some excitement in me and more importantly, change.