The Gentle Woman goes to Gym

On the 30th of March I decided to take up going to the gym again and I signed up for an abonnement at a gym 5 min from my work place. I have a back pain that sometimes bothers me a lot and the only times when I did not feel it where the ones when me and Lucian Manescu were going to Tae-Bo, 3 times a week in our sweet town Iasi. Sure, even back then, after the first 2-3 lessons I used to feel like a beaten potato, sore and aching in pretty much every place one can feel sore. So I knew what to expect, especially since I have not trained my body much since I came to Germany. The Munich Marathon Staffel was the only sportive activity I did and that was way back, last year. This time, I had some minimal requirements:

–          Aerobics class – checked: found class called Body Conditioning

–          Medium level – checked

–          After work time schedule – checked: the class started at 5.30

–          Trainer woman – checked

Here I was living my office at 16.50 last Friday with my sports shoes in my backpack, all smiles, getting ready for a bit of stretching, a bit of music, a bit of fun. Since it was my first day in that gym I stopped at the front desk and said:

–          “Hi, do you mind telling me where the Body Conditioning class?”

–          “There is no Body Conditioning class today.”

–          “Yes, yes there is. It is in the schedule”, and I showed him the flyer.

–          “Ah”, he said. “Today the Body Conditioning class is at the other gym that we have. Today we only have “Men’s health”, from 5.15.”

Awkward moment of silence. I must have looked like one of those frogs that look at something so intensely that their eyes are becoming the half size of their head…

I mumbled a shy: “Excuse me…” and tried to grasp the concept of Men’s health.

I was thinking: what could this be? For sure it is not with a woman trainer….for sure it is not medium level cause what sane man would admit going to a medium difficulty program…for sure it is not aerobics…and for sure they are using some strange equipment that I never saw in my life. And for sure my friends will laugh at me: Cristina who reads the Gentle Woman Magazine [I have no3 issue on my office desk] went to Men’s health!

And then I heard:

–          “But there are a lot of women that participate to Men’s health”

And then it hit me!

Maybe is a program of how to take care of men’s health and this is why many women take it. Or it has some insights on men that I must find out. Must be like this. And this reason, which was illogical, + the fact that I already paid the abo and a week passed without me using it, got me saying:

–          “Aham, ok, where should I go?”

I quickly changed into my Nike Pink sports girly outfit and entered the room. 7 individuals were present and looked quite fit: 3 men, 4 women. There were no posters there of how to take care of a men’s health, and the women looked a bit masculine…if you know what I mean…so I was definitely not in the class I imagined I would be.

The trainer came. He said: “I am Mahfhrkrdhbfdh. I will try to talk in English today”. I was way too nervous to get his name.

He looked…of course… gorgeous. “Exactly what I need now for my moral. A handsome man who will see me looking stupid today. What happened to: female trainer, aerobics, medium level, relaxation…??”

Mahfhrkrdhbfdh gave me this metal bar to hold and then he started putting weights on it. As he was putting weights my hands were starting to feel a lil bit shaky.

– “I will only put 4 cause you look fragile”

And when he said that, I felt this urge, that I always feel when someone says: you can not do that. I had the urge to say: oh, please add 4 more because I can do it!! Thank God one of the 4 weights was not properly ensured and fell on my right foot and stopped this thought from getting materialized into words.

And the lesson started.With me holding a bar with weights on top of my head, my foot hurting, and then putting the bar on my shoulders, and then flexing my knees with that monster on me. Up and down, up and down.

I could see myself perfectly in the huge mirror in front of me. It was like a circus act. My skinny gambs were shaking and you could not tell the difference between my pink t-shirt and my face. Because from time to time I was looking at myself in the mirror, knowing how stupidly ridiculous the situation was, from time to time I started laughing, like a mouse, soft, but you could see it on my face.

I even did push-ups! I managed to do 8!

At the end of the class I shook hands with Mahfhrkrdhbfdh and thanked him. He must have thought I thanked him for the class. I actually thanked him for allowing me to make so much fun of myself, an office potatoe, Gentle Woman reader that survived the Men’s health intensive weight lifting class and gathered one more reason to: READ THE INSTRUCTIONS/FLYERS CAREFULLY…next time…!