Counterintuitive

I dragged myself to another spinning class yesterday. One of my friends ended up meeting me there although we didn’t sit close to each other as we had in the previous week’s class. In general it’s hard to get to gym when you aren’t used to it. When I was going almost every day before pregnancy, I’d practically jump out of bed and be at the gym without a single doubtful thought entering my mind.


Lately it’s tougher. I find myself justifying reasons to not go. I have to floss my teeth. Hey, we are out of milk. My toe nail polish is coming off. Whatever insignificant reason, I’ll use it. However the main reason is I’m tired. Or I’m in pain from running 5 insane hours of errands the day before! Anyway, I did get there which is a big step.

For some reason, maybe 10 minutes into this class, I wanted to vomit. It’s not something I like to associate with exercise but on occasion it happens. Mostly I breathe through the huffing and puffing and hope it will go away. It did subside a few minutes later only to rear its head again about 10 minutes after that. I pushed through it as much as I could. I found myself breathing harder and harder. Not enough to pass out but it was getting there. Again, I focused on my breathing to try to get the nauseated feeling to go away. It worked momentarily.

I adjusted the resistance on the bike to drink water and try to recover. It felt better. The last few minutes of class, my heart was pumping as if I had been chased by a ravenous bear. Finally the class was over! Phew!

We stretched and left class. I met up with my friend and she commented too on wanted to throw up. I felt better because I thought it was just me. Everyone coming out of the class looked generally like they had been hanging by cliff with their nails. Ahhh so it was just a tough class!

I was telling my friend how this one instructor told me that if you feel like throwing up in a class that it was a good thing. It meant you were pushing yourself and your heart. I also recalled telling that instructor that I never considered wanting to vomit a good thing, especially since it’s something I try to avoid in general since it feels so horrible. I guess there are a lot of things in life that are a bit counterintuitive. Sometimes you are skeptical and think it’s you but usually there are others who feel the same way. That’s always a relief.

Back in the Saddle

Last night I finally went back to exercise after almost 6 months off. The last time I went to the gym was the morning my daughter was born and honestly I was feeling very atrophied. I can’t say I felt lumpy because I’ve been incorporating my daughter into exercising in some way – long walks, doing squats with her in my arms, dancing with her etc. I really missed the endorphin kick.


So I decided to go to a spinning class. I actually hadn’t done a spinning class for a year and a half. But I knew that if I went to a spinning class, it would definitely get my adrenaline pumping and it would provide a good workout. I actually tried a different kind of spinning class than I was used to. Normally I would go to a room full of bikes with an instructor and we’d just ride for 45 minutes simulating uphill climbs and sprints. This class had that element but there were two new pieces to it. One piece is that there was a device on the side of the bike that would tell me how many revolutions per minute(rpm) I was doing, how much resistance I had on the bike and the power I was putting into the workout at that specific moment and cumulatively through the class. The second element that was new was that there were weight bars on the side of the bike. We would use those weights for our arms during cool down to get some extra muscle development and heart pumping ability into the workout.

When I got to the gym, I was handed bike shoes that had clips on the bottom. These would snap into special pedals on the bike so that your feet wouldn’t slip out. I’ve used them before but they are a bit awkward to walk around in. Then I had some issues with the locker. No matter how many times I set my combination into the door, it didn’t shut. Finally I called someone over to help. Turned out it wasn’t me but that the locker was defective. Phew! Then I went into the room and set up my bike.

The instructor welcomed me as a ‘new’ rider and then we were off. I really did miss that movement of my legs pumping up and down like a piston. I found I wasn’t quite getting up to the rpms the instructor suggested. No matter how fast I went, I couldn’t get to that number. Oh well, I thought. The important part is that I am here. It felt good until it didn’t. I got a stitch in my side which reminded me I needed to breathe deeper and into the discomfort. After some time it went away but then the ride became harder and I thought my female parts were going to implode. I really should have worn my padded bike shorts or gotten a cushion (note for next time).

I found myself looking at my watch and wondering when the class was going to be over because I was already hurting. Then we finally slowed down to do the arm exercises. The saving grace of the class in many ways was the music the instructor selected. I liked all of it and I sang along which helped the time go by a little faster (despite my peaking at my wrist). She even had a U2 song so that was a big plus in my book.

After the class you can log into the company’s website and view your performance which includes your average rpms and speed as well as your maximums. It also tells you a range of how many calories you burned. Seeing that totally psyched me up to go again. Now I just have to figure out how I can continue to go to the gym and get back to my 5 times a week consistency before I had my daughter.