Back at the beginning of 2022 I joined a gym.  It had been quite a while since I had been a member of one. My favourite form of exercise prior to this was walking.  This could range from a couple of kilometres to a more substantial hike.  After all, I am blessed to live in a lovely area of East Sussex that is conducive to these sorts of outings.

However I was mindful of extra kilos and lack of fitness so thought that this would spur me on.  It most certainly did.  But it did take over 12 months to get into a rhythm.  Plus I have also changed the mixture of things too. I’m a class fan.  Rather than do my own thing on the various pieces of scary looking equipment, I prefer the accountability of classes.

I blazed into this year with a good basis, but I was curious about things that I haven’t tried.  So for instance when a pole fitness class appeared in the timetable, I wanted to give that a go. Pole fitness is an extension of pole dancing that uses the pole as a piece of fitness equipment.  It essentially provides a whole body work out. But my goodness, I bashed myself around the first class I tried.  The bruising was impressive. I’m glad I gave it a go, but it isn’t something that I will be returning to.

I was also encouraged by a friend of mine to try out a callisthenics class. ‘Cali’ is a form of strength training that uses an individual’s body weight as resistance. I didn’t think that I had adequate core strength for this sort of class.  But I have been making great progress and thought I would give it a go.  It came as quite a surprise that I managed to do a slow somersault over a bar in that first class.   The session is also on the longer side (90 minutes) but you aren’t active all the time.  I did injure my shoulder during this class.  But this is something that I would have another crack at in due course.

Then I decided to return to dancing.  Dancing has been something that I have dabbled with in the past, but wish I had done more of it. A couple of years ago, I discovered a company that offered Charleston courses, but I couldn’t decide which venue to opt for.  I also seemed to think about it during the winter and got cold feet.

This week I completed a 5 week Charleston course. It was great fun.  The 5 weeks essentially built up a routine. I looked forward to those Monday evenings.  It slotted in well with my other exercise classes. I’m currently deliberating over whether to sign up for the next term as the routine features ‘hat’ ography.  One thing for certain is that it has reignited my enthusiasm for dance, so I will be researching the next course to try. Maybe two nights of dance a week…

Do you have any activity that you’d like to try and haven’t done so yet? Or something new that you have tried recently?