Step Aerobics

Last week, my brother told me about how he's taken up zumba recently and is trying hard to make it a daily thing. he hasn't been attending in-person classes but just picks up videos from YouTube and follows them at home. 

It's really long overdue but I got the realization that I should start exercising and moving before it's too late. I've probably used my treadmill a dozen times in total since I bought it in Jan 2016. If it weren't for Swe-cha using it (almost) daily, it would still be gathering dust in our family room. 

Now, so far as cardio exercises go, Zumba doesn't work for me. I tried it before and could not follow the simplest moves. I cannot keep up. Thought a bit more and decided to go back to step aerobics. After all, I was a (self-proclaimed) Step Aerobics machine in my day. 

I got myself a good deal on a Step platform, circuit size, from Amazon. Ambitious and full of self-confidence, I made sure to get the basic platform with 2 sets of risers. 

The step was delivered last night and I used it for the first time today. 

My original plan was to exercise in my home office and watch the video from my laptop - I do have space now since we moved the daybed to Swe-cha's room upstairs - but I decided to go to the living room instead so I'd have more space and could play the video on the 60" screen. 

I found it difficult to navigate and search for YouTube videos from the Smart TV using a regular remote and when a 25 minute step aerobic workout video for beginners finally popped up on my search, I decided to go with that - I wasn't too happy about it at first because I was looking for an hour-long exercise since the classes I used to attend in Manila were an hour long. 

Self-confidence made me use 1 set of risers. I told myself, "sisiw lang ito, beginner eh". I actually considered using 2 sets of risers but held myself back because it's been 20+ years, after all, since I last did this. 

Barely 5 minutes into the class and just doing basic steps, I can feel my thigh muscles complaining. If I had the breath to spare, I would be laughing at my earlier bravado but I couldn't because I was too busy trying to stay alive. 

I took off the risers and that allowed me to scrape by and finish the 25 minute exercise. I picked a 10 minute cool-down video with stretches and could barely finish it. 

Now, as I write this post, I tried to get up to get a drink of water and found my legs wobbly. I am just going to ask Swe-cha to bring me water. 

I learned 2 lessons today...

1. we need to exercise regularly

2. huwag mayabang