WHA...?!?!?!!?

Plan

• Christmas RPM @ 9:15am
  

Actual

• Christmas RPM Enduro with Jaci
  
  • 60mins
    
• Body Combat with Magali
  
  • 10mins
    

Truth be told, I wasn't too sure of what to expect this morning. I wasn't sure of the length of the class - I had a feeling that there were going to be some additional tracks, but the question was, how many? In my head, I convinced myself to be prepared for a full 60min Enduro class. I knew that I would find out whether or not it was a 60min Enduro class depending on whether an instructor came into the class to collect and refill our water bottles after track 6.

Before all of that though, many people that I've spoken to who are outside of the gym fraternity (hee!) were all completely puzzled by why I would want to go into the gym on Christmas morning. Most of them were of the belief that it was akin to torturing oneself, and if there was one day that one should 'allow' themselves to relax, it was Christmas Day.

On one level, I agree. If you hate exercising with a passion, then Christmas is one day that you should allow yourself to have 24 hours of things you want to be doing. However, if you LOVE exercise and the gym, there's nothing wrong with including a couple of hours in amongst the festivities.

That was the sentiment and buzz from the members in the RPM studio that morning. All of them were there because they wanted to be there - not because they were torturing themselves. Every single member was looking forward to the class, excited to have a good time and work hard and be able to include RPM as part of their Christmas Day. Undoubtedly, those in the Body Pump class would've felt the same thing, as would have those who attended the Body Combat class too. Heck, those on the treadmills and cross trainers and in the weights rooms would've had the same feeling too. On top of that, even the receptionists and gym instructors were also there because they wanted to be there. That's why I've always enjoyed Christmas Day at the gym.

With all of the injury woes of late, I haven't attended an Enduro class for a while, and last week, I didn't do any RPM with Jaci at all - just with Mid and Magali. Jaci is certainly one of those instructors who notices it when you don't show up. Her present was the last one I handed out, and when I gave them to her, the first thing she said was not thank you, but... "Where have you been!??!?!" O_O Made me a bit nervous that if the RPM workout didn't feel good on the ankle, then I would be away from her classes for more than just one week.

As for the class itself, she picked a great mix of songs for the first half. She even whipped out my beloved Track 4 by Vanessa Amorosi. After the first track 5, a gym instructor came into the RPM studio to collect and refill our water bottles, and in my mind, that confirmed that this was a one-hour long class at the least. I deliberately took the first track 7 a bit easier and cranked up the load for the end half of the class.

At least I knew that the end of the class was coming though - at the beginning of the first track 7, Jaci said, "Right, 4 more working tracks to go." One of the male members straight away exclaimed in a very high pitched voice, "WHA...?!?!?!!?" The rest of us burst out laughing, but Jaci was completely puzzled by who on earth had said the WHA. She didn't recognise the voice, and because she hadn't seen who said it, she couldn't figure out who it was - the high pitch threw her off as well, she thought a woman was the one who had squealed, hahaha!

Last night, I was wasting time on Facebook, and I was shocked to find that one of the members at New Lynn that does Annie's Body Balance class was hospitalised. I was keen to say hello to her friend, and ask when she was going up to the hospital - so that I could go along with her. Both of the girls are Body Combat freaks, and I knew that she would be doing Body Combat with Magali on this Christmas morning.

After RPM finished and I had said my goodbyes to Jaci, I popped on upstairs and did a couple of Body Combat tracks, in my padded RPM shorts, with my socks on (ahahahaha), making arrangements with the girls to go and visit the hospital. I'll be talking about that when I get around to writing my Christmas Day post on DYHAXLIT, but for now, I'll say that like Sarah, it's a crying shame that Magali doesn't regularly teach Combat anymore. Her and Kris used to have a regular team class that they taught on Mondays - it always looked very scary to me when I first joined. In hindsight, it would've been the craziest, most energetic Combat class that Les Mills New Lynn would've had.

I only did a couple of tracks - since I needed to go home to collect the on-call phone for work before going up to the hospital with the girls - but the couple of tracks I did were awesome. I wish I could've stayed for the whole class. Magali, come back to Combat, PWEEEEASE? (she does a whole lot of teaching, mind you, it must've been bloody hard to remember all that choreo. Pump, Attack, RPM, Step and Combat? Crapulence. O_O)

Merry Christmas, everyone. I know that my visit to the gym today has made my day all the better, and I hope your days were awesome as well :-)