This morning –– against all odds and with the defrosting still incomplete –– I awoke and rushed to HOUSE OF AIR for my 8 am boot camp class entitled AIR CONDITIONING. [These photos, by the way, are from EXACTLY where I was jumping.]
In summary: I LOVED it.
Really, my fitness goal I now realize is entirely LIGHTNESS.
[Which I always immediate associate with the phrase “divine lightness” best ascribed to the magic of Mozart’s music; I want the equivalent experience, via an aerobic adventure.]
Right now, I’m still super-strong (there’s a recurring line in the novel which our hero uses to explain everything: “my father was a marine”) and super-yoga-flexible. I just want to be, more or less, camera-ready –– and that’s just about leanness aka lightness.
The problem has been that I just haven’t felt any impulse to do anything aerobic whatsoever.
Somehow, I’m reminded of that great Dorothy Parker poem about suicide:
Résumé
Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live.
Well, regarding methods of exercise, I feel the same sense of rejected options. [Note to self: write witty couplets on topic tomorrow.]
I have started the burpees and they are workable, but I don’t really LOVE them (at least not yet).
HOUSE OF AIR, however, is a trampoline workout that finally got me past the “I want to be drenched with sweat but I’m not sure from what” hurdle.
First, I was baffled by the ease of parking which is unheard of in San Francisco. I kept thinking there must be a “catch” –– some hidden sign I wasn’t seeing for “Staff Only” or the like. Somehow, though, the parking is both easy and ample.
Then, I found myself confused by the fact that we were basically just directed to jump up and down to warm up while the late-comers checked in. My Yoga Police mentality was in full force. It’s a 50 minute class and people are coming 10 minutes late? Shouldn’t they be turned away –– or at least punished somehow?
But it turns out that was the warm-up we were going to do anyway and that’s just how it flows at House of Air.
The workout made sense for me, with modifications. I cut out one of the solid ground laps of lunges (who needs them?) and I modified one of the jumps between the trampoline and a solid service that I just felt was NOT heading in the right direction for a happy knee/back situation.
But far beyond ANY OF THIS, what’s amazing and wonderful is that within seconds of starting I was bouncing up and down, jumping higher and higher, and an incredible feeling of lightness was instant and total.
The 50 minutes flew by and since we were already at the shore, Susan and I met up for a 9:15 am beach walk with Belle.
Returning home, post defrosting triumph, still more cleaning was necessary. I washed all the windows in the cottage and cleaned the oven (and rewashed the helpful towels from the rounds of the defrosting process.)
And now –– post dinner party as Susan’s +1 with some cool high-level SF artists, architects, arts commissioners, and other notables I won’t name-drop –– at home, preparing to outline pages 105 – 368 of the novel.
And while I am still reveling in the Divine Lightness and DEFINITELY going back for more, tonight before bed I will say a prayer to all the Divinely Light Angels that 50 minutes of jumping and lunges does not result in morning-after rigor mortis of unknown and undiscovered muscles in my legs.
