Keep Moving

Happy December! I'd like to introduce you to one of my Important People. It's Angie and she's my trainer. Angie is petite and pretty in what I think is a Jennifer Lopez sort of way. She has long dark hair which is almost always stuffed into a baseball cap. Her skin is bronzy and I wonder if she uses a tanning bed but my guess is no. She's way too busy to spend her time doing dangerous light time. Most of the time I see her she is dressed in her gym clothes with the jacket zipped up to her chin. It's cold in the gym.  Which, by the way, she owns with her hunky husband, Justin. I can hardly conceive of spending my work days in such an environment.  There isn't a book in sight.

I've been working out with Angie for six or seven years. Once in a while, I work out with another trainer.  There are three: Maddy, Dale, and Zoey who's fairly new.  Maddy is the go-to girl for the gym and can be relied upon to do just about anything around the gym. I don't see how Angie and Justin could get along without her. I see Zoey once a week and Dale sometimes directs the Saturday flex class. Each is interesting in his or her own way and can easily amuse me with chatty bits of personal information from their own lives.

 I don't remember the sort of routine I started with but I do remember that Angie worked me in correspondence to whatever body part was on the fritz. That has continued as I've made my way through my 60's and now into my 70's. I've learned what to expect in terms of movements but I swear that the routine has never been the same twice since I started there. I know that pelvic tilts and other on the back exercises will take up about half the time and that I'll be up on my feet for the other half.
I will clock-watch as much as she allows me to. I don't like to exercise and I feel free to tell Angie every time we're together. She has promised to allow me to complain as much as I want but it
doesn't make the drill any easier or any shorter. And she always asks me if I want to stay and do cardio. HA!

There are things that Angie regularly says.  Most of these are comments I don't like, but I try not to complain when she says them in the spirit of being a true gym rat.  Here are some examples:

• That's right!  You've got this!
• Only three more; you can do it!
• Don't forget to breathe.
• Watch those planks as you step up; they're a little rickety!
• Push, Ter, push!

And here's what I really like to hear from here:  "Good job, Miss Terry, we're done for today."

I'll  never be an official gym rat but I do know that I need to keep this body moving if I expect to follow my life's path. If you go the gym, well, bless your heart. (And I think that's part of the goal of exercise, isn't it?  To "bless your heart"?  Happy downward dogs to all!