Don't Sweat It

Last year, in a daring show of omnipotence, our beloved dental school charged every student a year-long membership fee to a gym that wasn't yet built. Many of us griped and complained (and rightly so) because we were essentially paying to have the new gym built. In the meantime, the company offered us "complimentary" memberships (as if they were doing us a favor) at other local clubs. Unfortunately for me, the amount of exercise I will do is proportional to the convenience with which I can reach the gym...and my temporary membership was to a club that was more than 5 minutes away. (5 minutes of driving = not very convenient = I worked out 3 times last year)

Anyway, as it turns out, I'm actually glad that the school forced us to pay to have the new Spectrum Gym built on campus, because it's so very pretty, so very convenient, and so very awesome. (See pictures below for proof.)


Oh, and here's a picture of me during my yoga class doing my favorite pose. Just kidding! But I am going to try to do that sometime. You'll know when I do, because I'll probably have to wear a band aid over my broken nose for a while.

The new Spectrum is right on campus, and so Jeffrey and I have been enjoying walking right over from school and working out. Jeffrey likes to use the basketball court, cardio equipment, and free weights to work out. I like the cardio equipment and free weights, too, but I also like going to the 1 hour classes that they have. My favorite classes are yoga (of course) and Zumba, which is a Latin dance-styled workout. I had also done classes before at Hendrick Health Club in Abilene like Kickboxing and Step Aerobics.

Even so, nothing could have prepared me for what I stumbled into today.

I decided to try a class called "Athletic Interval." The name sounded innocent enough--after all, I was an athlete not too many years ago. I should have run when the instructor walked in the door. You know you're in for a beating when your FEMALE instructor looks like this:(Oh yeah, that's a woman...see her little triangle top bikini? That's how you can tell.)

Helga* began class by yelling at us to start running, and continued to yell at each of us until we cowered on the floor. They she yelled at us for cowering. At one point, she continually yelled, "Come on! You've got to do this!" at me while I lay quivering in an attempt to do my eightieth push up of the hour. I tried to explain that I was having a difficult time holding my position because my hands were sweating and slipping on the wood floor, and if I did the modified position, my knees slipped out from under me because they were also sweating profusely.

She yelled at me again.

I left when she yelled, "Ok, everybody up! We're doing some more conditioning jumps!"

No thank you, Helga. I will probably not condition anything but my hair for the next few days.

*Name has been changed to protect the innocent (meaning: to protect me from Helga)