Finished my 12th circus class last night and I’m still having fun. For both better and worse, my body is showing the effects of regular training.
Better:
Muscles – Yes indeed. Especially arms.
Abs – No one’s more surprised than me to see abdominal definition on my forty-something post c-section torso. I’m still miles away from a six-pack, but it ain’t a keg either.
Taller – Not really, but stretching has lowered my shoulder position making my neck look longer.
Energy – Feels like my body is defying the first law of thermodynamics some days.
Mood – Have I mentioned how damn happy I am?
Worse:
Bruises – I’m flailing around on a steel hoop once a week, identifying bruises in weird locations is how I spend the other 6 days.
Man hands – Callouses and veins are part of being able to hang on.
Wear – I will have to pay close attention to twinges if I want to prevent them from turning into actual injuries. I tweaked my shoulder in class last week and am now learning to focus on correctly engaging my muscles to keep it from becoming a problem. I suspect this is only the first of many.
Nauseating – Hanging upside down on the hoop while it is spinning: internet wisdom says I’m just going to have to suck it up and get used to feeling a little queasy.
Both better and worse is the drive I have to improve. My enthusiasm makes me want to plunge into the deep end, but the grown up side of me knows that pushing too hard will only lead to injury and take away all my fun. Instead of signing up for more classes, I’m sticking with training once a week and continuing with running, stretching and conditioning between classes. I can always drop in at Skyzone for some trampolining if I need an extra circus hit during the week.
