Step It Up - What was I thinking?
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Well I took the challenge. I decided to sign up for the latest class of Step It Up, an exercise and nutrition program with the goal of stepping up to your next level of fitness. The programs typically run for four weeks and are based at Smyrna First Baptist Church in Smyrna, Whitefield Academy and The Walker School in Marietta. They offer programs in the wee hours of the morning (5:45am) and another at 8:30 am.
As luck would have it, the 8:30 class doesn’t work. As a Realtor here in Smyrna Vinings, I’m typically known more for working late hours than getting up early. It’s what we call Realtor hours. I can now honestly say that I actually know what people are doing at 5am in the morning. They’re all apparently sleeping! Did you know that it’s still dark outside at 5am?
I really thought the only reason people got up at 5 in the morning was to go fishing, something about catching the fish before they’ve had their morning cup of joe and were alert enough to realize that the little worm is on a hook. Am I getting off subject?
The additional challenge is that this session is actually running 5 days a week for three weeks instead of the typical four days a week over four weeks. I apparently enjoy pain.
When I arrived I was greeted by the enthusiastic instructors as promised. There were about 10 others in the class this morning, with most being newbies, with a lot more veterans expected to arrive tomorrow. We covered the basics of the program focusing on the nutritional aspects. Apparently you can exercise all you want, but if you keep eating those twinkies, it won’t do much for you. Now I know.
We have our trusty little manual which gives advice on what to eat, how much, etc. and we get to write everything down that we eat over the next three weeks. It’s not a fad diet, rather based on the food pyramid. I can avoid the bad food, maybe not the alcohol, but we really need to talk about portion size, either that or my I need a bigger deck of cards. But to keep you from feeling bad about portion sizes, they also say that you need two snacks each day as well.
The first day is largely an evaluation or assessment of your current level of fitness. We started out with a quick little jog around Market Village. It started great (as we were heading downhill), but then it wasn’t as fun as we headed back uphill to our starting point by the ball field at Smyrna First Baptist. The warmup jog was great and I was all set to go home, feeling healthier already.
Unfortunately, that was just the warmup. We then headed out to the ballfield and went through a variety of stretching drills that kept our heartbeat going and added the benefit of stretching out our muscles. These aren’t your old-fashioned stand-in-one-place-and-touch-your-toes kinds of stretches.
After the stretches, we were ready to start the evaluation part of today’s session. First off was another run. Did I ever mention that I hate running. Anyway, I think they said our course was 0.8 miles, but it felt more like 8 miles. The course took us from Smyrna First Baptist toward the Smyrna Community Center, around the lake (amazingly the ducks were awake at that hour, too) and back. It was a timed run to allow us to compare with our level of fitness at the end of the program. Does that mean we are going to have to run again?
We then went through a variety of other timed exercises, including pushups, situps, bows and toes (where you press up on your elbows and toes and hold) and dips. The only thing we missed out on were the sprints, apparently they’re saving that for tomorrow. Then some more stretching.
We wrapped up with some words of encouragement. If we miss a class without giving notice, all the other members in our group have to do 10 pushups. If we’re late, I think they said we all get to do 10 pushups per minute. I’m not real sure about that, I was starting to get dizzy. Anyway, the idea is to increase the teamwork and accountability to the team.
As I write this, I’m trying to recuperate. Something tells me it’s going to hurt a lot more tomorrow. So if anyone needs to buy a house in Smyrna today, just leave me a message and I’ll get back to you just as soon as I can walk.
Don’t let my sarcasm fool you, I am actually very excited about Step It Up and look forward to the next three weeks. And the answer to my question - “What was I thinking?” - is quite simply that I want to improve my fitness level. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
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