Why yes, I am referencing this:

I am definitely too old to have been into High School Musical, but it happened.  Can I still do that fancy footwork from the chorus?  Yes I can.  Penny, since you read this now, I expect you to choose the most embarrassing moment possible to call me out on this at work.

Anyway, as those of you who are my mother already know, I have been hittin’ it hard at the gym lately.  This is partially because Abby and I are running the Color Me Rad race in Richmond next month and we want to finish it with relative ease so that we look super cool and not like hot sweaty messes in our epic race photos.

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I like the stoic man in the yellow shirt in that picture.  He is not having it with those Color Me Rad shenanigans.  Color Him Mildly Amused.

So the other reason I have continued to hit it hard is that I’ve gotten hooked on some of the awesome group fitness classes that my gym has!  I had tried a couple before but never attended regularly.  I started going a lot more in January because one of my good friends from work introduced her own new strength and circuit training class (called Xhilarate) and did a couple weeks of “demos” with us before she premiered the class to the general public.

I was always a little hesitant to try group fitness classes because, even though it’s counterintuitive, I felt like I should be in super shape already before starting so I could keep up with everyone.  Basically, I was just self-conscious about working out in groups and not knowing what I was going in for.  Honestly, I’m so glad I bit the bullet and tried it because these classes are probably the most fun I’ve ever had working out!

Through Xhilarate, I was also introduced to a workout class called Dance Body Boot Camp, which combines ballet barre fitness, weights, and resistance training.  Despite the name, there’s no dancing involved.  It’s this kind of stuff:

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It’s pretty hard.  The technique is something I was totally unfamiliar with because I have no ballet background at all, but it’s an incredible workout.  I love it so much that I asked the girl who teaches it if she would give me a little lesson on the theory and technique behind it so I’d be able to work out DBBC-style on my own when I leave for grad school.

And that’s actually the main point of this post: she one-upped my request and said she’d train me as an instructor!  That will provide me with such a great knowledge base to keep doing barre workouts once I leave the OBX.  I’m not going to be teaching here at all, but I’ll have the training and ability to do so if the possibility were to arise somewhere else!

So up until a few days ago, “fitness instructor” was pretty far from my list of ambitions, but I’m really excited about this new opportunity!  Anything that will set me up to be happy and healthy as I move on to the next stage in my life is probably a good idea.  And hey, it’s grad school, so there’s a good chance I’ll be eating ramen noodles exclusively.  A little more exercise couldn’t hurt.

Do you take group fitness classes?  Any faves?  Any other HSM fans out there?  Oh, just me?  Okay, cool.