September 10th, 2019

I know I have mentioned  before about how I take a Pilates class twice a week.  I enjoy the class and I honestly find that I have gotten tremendous benefit from it,  I really like our instructor and I look forward to classes each Tuesday and Friday morning.

One of the things I like about it is that our instructor is always pushing us to be better than we think we are.  And I really like how she has us doing different things every time.  It's not the same old, same old.  She mixes it up to keep us interested and probably to keep herself interested as well.

As it turns out, one of my favourite things is when it's a smallish class because then we get to use bands.  Sometimes they are called Resistance Bands, other times they are referred to as exercise bands.  This particular set above is called, Flat Bands. Okay. whatever you call them. I like 'em.  And I decided to get a set for myself so that I could workout with them on non-Pilates days.  Yup that's how much I like them. I was willing to spend money on them! Shocking I know.

I found this set at Walmart.  They were marked $14.99 which is honestly more than I wanted to pay but it was the only set they had and I reallllllly wanted them so I went ahead and bought them anyway.  Imagine my delight when the register rang them up at $9.98!!  Yay!!

There was an instruction sheet in the box of course and I tried doing everything on the sheet in addition to the stuff I remembered from class.  Most of what was on the instruction sheet I was fine with. Either it was similar enough to what I'd already learned or an interesting twist of something almost familiar. 

But there was one exercise that involved standing on one foot, with the band anchored at the instep of the other raised foot, then leaning forward and pulling out on the band at the same time that the raised foot lifted behind and...then you put your elbow in your ear and your nose on your ankle or something crazy like that.  It did not go well. It felt a lot like playing Twister only worse because in the game Twister I'm closer to the ground and if I fall, it's not so far down.

So I decided to stick to what I know.  And that went much better.  So I've got workout with bands on my gotta-do list nearly every day now and I seem to be good with that.  I can work out with the bands while watching TV. Or early in the morning in my PJ's coz "bands don't care". Or in the middle of the day between doing other things.  Or when we travel (in the hotel room!). Or any other dang time I want to.  It's awesome!

It doesn't take up a lot of space in the house to do this workout.  In fact, it takes exactly a Sam-sized space because the equipment is me and bands.  That's it.   And because they are so small, unlike other exercise equipment  they take up exactly no space.  I keep them in a drawer of the sideboard in the family room.  Handy eh?

I hear you saying, but it's not exactly an aerobic workout is it and you would be right. I agree. It's not.  But it's not the only exercise I get. It's just some additional exercise, y'see?  It's not instead of, it's in addition to.  I still attend Pilates Class which is a good strong core workout.  I still walk all over the dang place, which is not just good cardio it's also good for my bones.  I'm kind of at the age where I'm paying a lot of attention to my long muscles.  I am not looking for bulk, but for tone. Nice toned long muscles to help me keep my balance and stand straight and tall (well as tall as a short person can stand anyway).  It's a good goal.

There is one downside however.

Have you ever watched an exercise video?  Those pretty girls in full make up and fancy workout clothes and their perfect hair who never sweat? They move so gracefully and perfectly and smoothly shift from this move to that move.  I look nothing like that when I'm working out.  In fact, I feel like a completely different species.  I am not graceful one single solitary bit.  I thump and bump and make weird faces.  I sweat, a lot. I make strange noises. And, you know what? None of that is important at all.  What does matter is that I am taking the necessary steps to be the best version of myself that I possibly can be.  And if I look funny doing it, then so be it.

Maybe I should make my own you-tube work out video.  We could call it the Real Life Work Out Video.  What do you think?