Adventures in Fitness

Following last week’s adventure in pilates class I returned to the gym for the Rep Reebok class I had been attending months ago. And today I wore a pink shirt. (Important information for later)

I think it’s called that because the steps used are manufactured by Reebok and maybe the class at one time followed a plan designed by the company. In short, it’s sixty minutes of weights and strength training, no cardio

I had heard around the water cooler that the instructor I was familiar with was no more as she went off to open her own pilates studio and the gym has been having trouble keeping a consistent instructor.

Today was not only my return to the Tuesday 11 am class but the first day on the job for a new instructor.

Admittedly it’s a hard job. An instructor has to do the exercises, while doling out instructions and be perky while ten plus grumpy faces stare back her.

There were two warning signs:

1. She brought her own microphone headset. The wire leading to the microphone was thin so the nerf-like green ball looked like it was hovering in front of her mouth.

2. She was a former Rockette. She was taking this season off after eight years of doing the Christmas Spectacular. You should see how chiseled her back is.

I didn’t look at the clock until 11:30 which meant I had gone thirty minutes before looking at the clock however that meant there were still thirty more to go.

Near the end of the class after an excruciating ab set she asked in earnest if we should do more and someone yelped an affirmative and the instructor looked right at me and said, “Pretty in pink don’t roll your eyes.”

The Box

My roommate has Tivo and yes, I do like being like being able to tape a program easily though I seldom do. And as on demand television is growing with cable providers what is going to happen to the serendipitous rainy after when a great movie is on? Or a fantastic documentary?

I still think that if cable companies have the capability to block pay channels like the four different HBOs and Showtimes then they should be able to offer a package a la carte, like for 10.00 you get five standard cable channels. Mine would be

American Movie Classics
History Channel
Nature Channel
TNT

And I’d have to think about the fifth.

Perhaps in the quest for consumer driven control of media it will raise the standard especially with advertisers having to reshape how they fit into the paradigm.

And that’s not a bad thing.

Snicker, Snicker, Buzz, Buzz

I decided to venture over to the gym at work and take the Wednesday, 11 am pilates class.

The instructor had a slight British accent which somehow made her instructions of contracting, extending and isolating muscles less of an order and more of a polite and reasonable request with an implied promise of crumpets if we all did well. She was thorough in her guidance, using great descriptions to highlight what muscles to use and how we could identify that we were doing the exercise correctly.

While in a position similar to the precursor to the classic Yoga stance downward dog pose the instructor said, "Extend your taill bone like a naughty bee about to sting someone from behind."

It was worse than trying not to laugh in church.

Halloween 2005

Two pictures from Halloween