Squats…why do you have to hurt so much?

I’m not, how would you say, the most graceful of ladies. In fact, I once acquired the nickname “Accident prone Andi.” Currently I am nursing a broken left middle phalanx, otherwise known as my left index finger. If there is a slick sidewalk, I WILL fall! If there is a low ceiling, I WILL hit my head! I’m more of a danger to myself than Bella Swann in the Twilight saga! I’ve been known to walk through screen doors, It looks a lot like this:

One time on my way to work at Taco Bell in Willow Grove, I was running to catch a bus that I thought was getting ready to leave, so I attempted to jump a small rail. I hyper extended my knee, and then proceeded to land on the same knee. It caused me so much pain that after I got to work, I blacked out and was rushed to the ER. Insurance you say? Not so much, I was 18 years old. This has become an injury that haunts me to this day.

After my last child was born, I developed crippling sciatica; back pain to the point where I was stuck on the floor, in the prone position for 2 days. When I was finally able to go see a doctor, she prescribed physical therapy. I’ve never been to physical therapy before, and I soon found out that it’s a sneaky term for exercise. 2 hours a day, 3 days a week for 3 months and I was feeling like a new person, I was hooked. Not only did this routine make my back feel better, it took away my winter blues, and I didn’t catch that cold I usually got around Christmas time. After graduating to a home program, I began to get bored exercising by myself, and that is when I discovered group exercise.

I picked a class that I noticed was doing exercises similar to my physical therapy, made a few friends and learned now to do squats. The woman next to me was easily 70 years old and made me look bad. Did I mention how uncoordinated I was? After the warm up, we did squats; everyone in the class was holding 2 8-10lb weights! 8-10lbs?! That is a pair of large newborn twins! I went with a pair of 5lbs and then placed them down on the floor 3 squats in.

Important things to know about squats:
1. While your butt goes out, your chest stays up.
2. Weight goes in your heels, so you are able to lift your toes off the ground.
3. Knees stay over your toes.
4. Squeeze your glutes to push back up.
5. You WILL be sore the next day, like “No, no son, you can’t sit on Mommy’s lap today, or the rest of the week” sore, so don’t try to keep up with the 70 year old lady holding 10 lbs weights because she’s been doing this a lot longer than you!

Group exercise is a part of my routine now. I’ve done most of them: Step aerobics, Yoga, Les Mils Body Pump, Spinning, Abs, Boot Camp, Circuit challenge, etc. People who attend group exercise classes are supportive and encouraging.

This is Lauren Dalton from the Drexel Recreation Center on group fitness.

If you have the opportunity to try one jump on it, and be sure to tell the instructor that’s it’s your first class and address any concerns that you might have. If you bad knees, wrists, back, they will be able to give you a modification to an exercise so that you can still challenge yourself without it feeling like it’s impossible. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll eventually learn to be more graceful.

Next post: “Portion control: Seriously, that’s the entire meal?!”