Gymtonic: My thoughts on exercise

I was clearly made for community.  Reason #8634: I only enjoy exercise when it’s a team sport or dancing.  Which, admittedly, I am not the best at.  Maybe it’s because these events usually mean rallying around something, or just going for fun.  It doesn’t involve pushing and yelling and feeling bad about yourself.

Last night, I went to Gymtonic, the workout class that has taken middle class Rwandans by storm.  I had heard about this, been told it was a good workout, and that it was hilariously fun.  One of my coworkers has been trying to get me to go with her for a while—and it didn’t work out until now, a whole 4 weeks into my time in Rwanda.

And what the experience it was.

Let me just begin by saying that I hate high-impact exercise.  You can tell this just by looking at me, and I wish it wasn’t the case.  Couldn’t I love running and pushing through the hard stuff?  Not when someone is yelling in my face in front of an exercise class.

I have also found that I get extremely angry when pushed to my limit physically.  This is strange for me, because I generally am a positive person—but all of this falls away when in a hard workout.  I just want to get through it, for no one to look at me, for no one to call attention to how badly I am doing to keep up with everyone else, for no one to yell at me to go faster.  When someone does so, all of this anger channels out at them.

This takes me back to my basketball team in high school.  During practice, I hated my coach.  He pushed me harder than I have ever been pushed.  It may have gotten results, but not without a cost.  The only way I avoid hating my personal trainer when she puts me through cardio circuits is by making her tell me stories.  Lately, it’s been stories about her upcoming wedding:

Me, breathless: “Please….just tell me…something.  What do the bridesmaid dresses look like?  Tell me about the venue….”

So clearly something is going on inside of me…where is this pent-up rage coming from?  I’m trying to figure that one out. For now, I just keep trying to force a good attitude even when I am not feeling it. Which means not lashing out at the well-meaning instructor who is yelling at me in front of the class.

As for Gymtonic…

Everyone around me was having a GREAT time.  Maybe I just needed someone to make fun of the moves with me.  Sally, you would have loved this. 

I heard before that it included a lot of bouncing.  And it did.  More than your typical aerobics class.  There were only about 10-15 of us, meeting in a cleared-out meeting room in the ‘Golden Monkey Hotel’ in town, the new hotel for tourists to the national forest nearby.  It has statues of monkeys and gorillas everywhere.  Hanging off of railings, overlooking terraces…and this is all outdoors.

I was expecting AfroBeat music.  When we were walking towards the hall, however, I heard a bit of ‘Who Let the Dogs Out,’ and realized this would be a mix of all the songs from elementary and middle school.  Including ‘Boom Boom Boom Boom’ and, of course, ‘Sandstorm.’  We did a variety of moves that involved constantly jumping and bouncing back and forth.  We’d stop for a second to stretch, and I’d think, ‘finally! It’s over!’ while we even bounced in stretching.  Then Sandstorm would pick up again and we’d get going again, jumping, jumping, jumping.

One of the funniest parts was when we were separated to two different sides of the room.  We had to powerwalk—fast, long strides—to the center, clap hands with the person from the other side, turn back to where we started, and then return.  After this, we all came to the center and jumped up and clapped hands with our partner up high, over and over again.  Since I’m so tall, and I was so tired from the previous hour of jumping and bouncing, I didn’t have to reach far for my partner when she was jumping.  But then the instructor got in there, and jumped as high as he could, just so I would be forced to jump a little bit.  I take comfort in the fact that there are more tall men here in Rwanda than there were in India.   By far.  None as tall as me, but not far off.  My instructor wasn’t one of them. But his vertical wasn’t bad.

I apologize if this sounds complain-y.  Not my intention.

So it costs only about $8.50 for a month of classes, which meet three days each week.  After doing it, I was so tired that I didn’t want to go ever again.  I forced myself to walk home, up the mountain, and collapsed into a chair for the rest of the night, until I found the strength to hop in the shower.  As much as I didn’t want to return, I bucked up and went for it-signing up for the next month, which will take me until about a week before I leave. 

My hope is that I can become one of the happy exercisers.  Maybe I can be a ‘happy bouncer’ by the time I come home.  There’s always a chance, right? Then I can head up a Gymtonic location in the SPH gym for our professors (I can just see Joan and Arden clapping hands in the middle now hahaha), or in my living room when guys come over to pick things up on Saturday mornings, just to make them feel awkward J Not that my roommates and I have ever done that with Zumba videos before….