Climbing those....poles???

Yes, usually my workouts have more to do with my powering up the hills on my bike or to get through a hill on a run.  Sometimes the hills I climb are mental.  Lately, the weather has driven Stacy and I indoors doing more P90X stuff in hopes that more strength and cardio fitness will translate back to the run and bike.  But last night, Stacy had invited me to do a fitness class unlike one that I had ever done before.  And I am more sore than I could have imagined (though Stacy had told me she was usually very sore so I knew it was coming).  Yep, it was a pole fitness class.  And can I just say, that "Climbing those poles..." was just as hard (if not harder) than climbing hills on foot or bike!


I developed a whole new respect for strippers!

 Stacy has been taking this class at "Work It Girl Fitness" for a little over a month.  First off, she is way fitter than me and crazy strong.  But she enjoyed the challenging workout and when the owner offered to let her bring a friend for a free class to try it out, she said I was probably her only friend who would even try it.  Does that mean she thinks I'm up for crazy adventures?  Guess so! 


Stacy working an insane "inversion" move

The class was pretty informal.  I guess a lot of the time it is only Stacy and one to three other girls.  But last night it was a full house with all but Stacy and one other girl never having done it before.  So the teacher took us through some warmups and stretches.  Then she showed us a variety of "spins".  Then we tried some "climbing" that I had a heckuva time getting the hang of and was very frustrated.  I tried it with bare feet and "boots" (think big hooker boots that apparently are for "traction").  I don't know if I was doing it wrong or just lack the upper body strength, but I found the spins way more achievable.  Going to try to load a video from my phone, but I couldn't play it on my laptop because I didn't have the right program.  It played on my desktop with "Quicktime".

Before we even left, I was feeling pretty beat up and sore.  I had seen Stacy with bruises from the pole before.  I don't think I am too black and blue (a little afraid to look), but a very large portion of my muscles were screaming when I got home so it was ibuprofen before bed. 

My husband had been at a Knights of Columbus meeting so my mother-in-law had stayed with the kids.  He gave Stacy a hard time saying that he got up in front of all the guys at the meeting to explain that Eric (Stacy's husband) wasn't there so that their wives could attend a pole dancing class!  LOL  He's ornery like that!  Of course he didn't say that (in front of the priests no less), but he said he thought it would have been funny.