Gym Class Day 1

This is my third year of taking these winter gym classes. Day one we always do fitness testing to set the bar, if you will, for improvement.

I did better than I thought I would in some aspects. I am a weakling in others. All in all, I was slightly surprised that I had my natural strength considering I have been a very lazy butt since October.

I ran a surprisingly decent 14.92 second 60-yard shuttle. The slower girls were running 16-second times while our fastest were in the 13-second range (who are both awesomely fit and gifted athletes). My time was only slightly slower than one of our speedier players, so I was kind of happy.

My balance tests were awful. We have to stand on one leg, with our arms crossed over our chest and our eyes closed (hard to do!) for 60 seconds. If you wiggle too much, lose your balance at all or touch your foot down, you get a point. You count all of your points at the end. My left leg had a 4, while my right had an 8.

I was not so bad in the pull-ups, but I did the 90-degree pull-ups from the ground versus the full-weight hanging style. I know I couldn't get even one on those, but I had 14 in the 90-degree.

Push-ups were my worst. My full plank was only 7. That said, they were full plank and not on my knees. Later, I used the power-wheel to do pike-ups and had a 6.5. I fell attempting my 7th, because I didn't keep decent form (which means I'm done).

We had to do a weighted-throw with 20-kg balls. My chest and my backwards throws were decent, a 17 and a 15 or 16 I think. Not too weak, but could be better.

And my walking lunges holding a 12-kg weight in each hand sucked horribly. I only made it about 12 yards before I was done. But that's a bigger weight than I initially wanted to use, so that's pretty good considering. My knees were bothered, but boy were my legs not happy. They did not want to move up.

So, tonight, we have our team indoor sessions. Lots of running and ball-handling. I need that cardio badly, but I know I will be sucking wind. Worth pointing out, it will only cost me $5 for all eight indoor winter sessions. $5!

Thursday, I'm back at the gym and I'm not looking forward to the big workout, but the sadistic inner fitness babe in me says bring it on.