suck in the abs, keep the ankles straight!

The last time I was ever yelled at in a gym, was when I was 16 or 17 years old. Jumping up 5 flights of stairs and up the side of a hill as part of drills for the basketball team.

Fast forward another 15 years to this past Monday at a class called "pre-season conditioning", and I'm sweating so much that my eyes get blurry, as I do 1 minute drills at 7 different stations...for almost an hour. What does that entail?

• - doing jumps over tiny hurdles


• - bouncing on a huge rubber ball moving my legs almost in jumping jack fashion while sucking in my abs


• - doing the plank and downward dog move while holding onto a medicine ball

running sideways in an out of a ladder that's placed on the floor

• - doing crunches with a medicine ball and lifting one leg (serious coordination there -- and all the effort needed not to fall on my back)


• - lifting a long weight bar while squatting


• - and leaping on a half cut squisshy ball, and being yelled at not to let my ankles turn

The class started with 6 people, midway through, I looked around. Only 3 of us left.

At the end of the class, I got very lightheaded when we stopped and were stretching.
Some soreness in front of my left shoulder that was odd. The instructor said I was probably balancing a certain way and putting more stress on that side unconciously, so naturally it hurt. Ok.

So am I going to do this again. Actually, all in all, I think so. I get so bored with excercising -- and doing something like this, just once a week, I think I can handle that. If only because I'm determined to not ever be scolded again about my ankles turning!