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Dude, there is a lesson for just about everything on eHow.com.
Need to learn how to click your heels a la jolly leprechaun style? Here you go.
Why am I even looking up Irish heel clicks to begin with? Maybe because I was doing them this past Friday, during 5Rhythms. Despite telling myself that I needed to tone down my movement during class and take it easy (my hip was acting up), there was this twangy upbeat techno country song playing–sounded kind of like “Cotton Eyed Joe” on speed–and…and…I just couldn’t help it. I pictured myself with a cowboy hat on my head and bandana around my neck, clicking my spurs together in the air with a little “Yee-haw!”
Miraculously, my hip survived. Sometimes 5Rhythms is a bit magical, the way I can enter class feeling like an old woman but emerge 2 hours later feeling sprite and lively. (The caveat is that I always have to stretch, use my foam roller, and sometimes ice after class. Then the class is magical. :-))
Here are some other observations from Friday’s class:
• I’m so done with forcing or faking movement if I’m not into a song or just not feeling the energy at the moment. It’s tempting to make yourself keep moving when everyone else around you is having a good time, but sometimes I just don’t feel that vibe and continuing to dance feels unnatural and unauthentic. When this feeling starts to creep up on me, I start from scratch, taking a deep inhalation and exhalation and bring the movement only into my hands or maybe my feet. I start small, just allowing my fingers to dance or my toes to wiggle. What I usually find is that pushing this metaphorical “reset” button brings me back into authentic movement more so than faking it till I make it.
• The hoodie is quickly becoming my standard 5Rhythms “uniform.” Not only does it keep me warm on winter nights, but it totally brings out my gansta alter ego whenever a rap or R&B song comes on. There may have been some crotch-grabbing the other night. (Side note: Currently watching The Wire on Netflix most def contributes to this personality transformation.)
• If you see me standing by the speakers, it is probably because I am distracted. If there is some kind of commotion going on in the space that’s affecting my concentration, I find that standing directly by the music source reigns me in and hypnotizes me back into focus.
• It’s OK to “form dance” every now and then. I try not to worry about form and shapes in a 5Rhythms class, but sometimes–especially after obsessively watching Dance Academy day in and day out–a girl just needs to slip back into ballerina mode for a song or two and do a few port de bras and penchees.
Thanks to a sleet/snow/sleet storm on early Saturday morning, “long walks outside” have temporarily been suspended as a potential exercise option. The weekend is usually my time to bundle up, fire up my podcast-stuffed iPod, and head out for a long walk, but Mother Nature dumped just enough crap on the streets and sidewalks that any “walk” would be more of a waddle as I try to stay upright on an uneven surface of leftover crusty ice.
Day 1, Saturday, was bearable. I spent most of the morning/early afternoon taking down Christmas decorations and cleaning the downstairs and went swimming at the gym an hour before closing. Actually getting myself to the pool was a feat straight out of my previous post, having to drive down slushy streets and tip-toe over a parking lot of black ice before stripping down to barely nothing and jumping in a large body of water.
I don’t like swimming on consecutive days, so Sunday I woke up with a challenge. How to earn those endorphins?
With that, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the most desperate workout in history: Living room walking!
Materials needed: (a) a long living room, clear of furniture; (b) a 10-pound weighted vest, to increase the chances of actually sweating and getting a workout; (c) an optional set of stairs, to add some glute/quad action; and–the most critical element–(d) a TV, to kill the time that will seem to drag on forever and ever…and ever.
I walked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth for 2.93 miles. For people who run, that number is nothing. For people who living room walk, that’s a freakin’ marathon.
It could not have been done without support from one of my favorite people of the moment:
I’m looking at you, Felicity. And Noel, Ben, Julie, and Elena. A Netflix subscription with wifi streaming makes living room walking soooo much more bearable. Felicity is one of my latest Netflix guilty pleasures. I don’t know why I’m so into it. I watched it in college (her school years coincided with mine), but I stopped watching it after Season 2. And now, at age 31, I’m totally hooked. It’s so cheesy! Ben, Noel, Ben, Noel. Ugh, just make up your mind, girl!
I don’t know if my other current guilty pleasure is better or worse:
Only Netflix would introduce me to an Australian teen drama that’s essentially a TV version of Center Stage. Sure, there’s some legitimate dancing involved, but for the most part this show is about unrequited love, schoolgirl crushes, prima donna ballerina snobs, and rough-and-tough boys who are ashamed to admit they love ballet. I’m hooked. And–100% totally true confession–I used the show as inspiration to get myself to the pool on Saturday, pretending I was a serious student at the “Swim Academy” and had to get to practice. Just swap a leotard for a Speedo, pointe shoes for flippers…same difference.
So, there you have it. Living room walking with Felicity and Australian teen drama-inspired swim workout. I just need to add a Golden Girls squat-and-lunge routine, and I’m on my way to becoming the triathlete of geekdom.
Flowtation Devices 