TRX – Day 58

Twas the night of the school Christmas play, as I sat in eager anticipation to watch the panto unfold. I made small talk with one of the dads sat next to me, as he enquired about my challenge and how I was getting on. “How nice of you to ask,” I replied. I gave a brief account of where I was up to and that my next class would be TRX. A sharp intake of breath was the response - in my experience, this is not a good sign. It turned out that he took the class as well and jokingly warned me I could kiss goodbye to walking up or down stairs the day after.

With this knowledge, I was filled with trepidation as I entered the class. I knew Chris the instructor already and was pleased to see him, knowing that he was already aware of my limitations in the areas of balance, strength and stamina.

TRX is a suspension based workout, where you work each part of your body against the tension of a pair of straps dangling from the ceiling. They looked a bit suspicious to me, as it had a passing resemblance to a sex swing and I certainly didn’t feel confident putting my full weight on them. What if I pulled the ceiling down? I haven’t done a challenge for a week now and I have been indulging in pre-Christmas wine and nibbles.

We started the warm-up with a few lunges and squats. Usually, I am falling all over the place but the straps were keeping me steady, like a wobbly toddler on a pair of reins and I felt more confident using them as a support.

With all of the exercises, you could go at your own pace. If you took a step forward or back depending on what you were doing, it would provide more resistance. Chris seemed to enjoy watching me wince and then encouraging me to move and make it harder.
We went through curls, crunches, a variety of lunges and numerous other movements. So far, so good and I was certainly feeling the burn, as different muscles shook off the hibernation mode I had put them in for over a week. However, I should know by now that I am not going to get through a class without at least one experience of mortification; this time, it was when we had to put our feet through the handles and with legs akimbo in the air, work on our core. It looked like we were strapped into stirrups and about to give birth.
 

Having failed on an epic level to bring my arse off the floor as I pushed down on my hands, we moved onto my nemesis: the plank. I hate planking and planking hates me. I assumed the position with my legs behind me, strapped into my stirrups, my arse forlornly waggling in the air, as I attempted a full plank and when that seemed impossible, a half plank (elbows on the floor). This progressed into bringing our legs up, whilst in the same position and then for extra fun, we had to do a running man plank. I looked around to ensure everybody was making a meal of it like me, but my classmates were able to follow and assured me that it took a couple of classes before you properly picked up the technique. Although this was the beginners’ class, one lady had been doing it for 18 months and looked great for it. This is the problem with my challenge; I only do things once and then I am off doing something completely different, which means I seem to find everything hard to start with but if I kept up with TRX, I’m sure I’d see a lot of benefit.

For now, my next challenge was a steep flight of steps to conquer, which looked and felt almost Himalayan. I almost planted a flag at reception when I got to the top. I can only imagine what tomorrow will bring and I’m considering whether I can put a Stannah Stairlift on my receipts for this challenge. If I can have toddler reins, surely I can have a stairlift as well?

Sofa Dodger; One Woman's Quest to Try 100 Different Sports and Fitness Classes in a Year is available on Amazon, please click here