Gymnastics

I forgot to press publish on this post last Friday, but I don't feel like editing it so here it is!
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Happy Friday! My work day is over but I wanted to get this written before the weekend started.

Last night I made some overnight oats, which I haven't had in a LONG time. Into the tupperware went oats, vanilla almond milk, chia seeds, peanut butter, and honey. Sooo delicious.

For lunch I had some mac n' cheese that I made last night. I mixed a whole bunch of peas and spinach into it to get some nutrition in there. I also had a big bag of these amazing snap peas.

So, back to last night! I mentioned I was doing something exciting so I hope the anticipation wasn't too much to handle (haha). After a 10+ year hiatus, I went back to gymnastics!! After doing some research I found a gym at MIT that offers adult classes to community members for a fee. Because I'm 1,000,000% out of gymnastics shape, I decided to take a beginners class even though it was recommended for people who have NEVER done gymnastics before.

I was so nervous about this all week! I think I mentioned this before, but back in the day I was quite the gymnast. I started competing at age 4 and made it up to level 9 (USGA) before calling it quits. At one point I ranked 4th overall and 2nd in beam and floor in NY state. Pretty bad-ass huh? Gymnastics was such a HUGE part of my life for so long -- it was such a part of my indentty and I believe played a huge role in shaping me into the person I am. Gymnastics taught me discipline, commitment, tolerance, persistence and that working hard will get you far. As a child I learned so many valuable lessons from the sport. Unfortunately gymnastics wasn't all good for me. As I got older the pressure of the sport became too much for me and started to make me physically sick. I decided to quit after a state meet gone wrong where I completely choked in my routines and ended the day with a migraine and sick stomach. Not good. I quit when I was 13 or 14 and never looked back. I never once missed competing.

Recently though, I had started to get this itch to get back into the gym. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was curious about crossfit. Crossfit workouts remind me so much of smaller versions of gymnastics strength days (our strength days lasted 4 hours as opposed to 30 minute crossfit workouts!) and I think started making me a little nostalgic. So that brings me to now. I decided to take the class and last night I walked over to MIT after work ready (kind of) to get back in the gym!


The class:
There were about 10 people in the class -- all ages, sizes and both men & women. Some people had done gymnastics before but most were beginners. I was definitely the only one (besides the coach) who had competed before though. We started with some splits and bridges. My splits are pathetic!! Seriously need to work on those. I was pretty surprised at the flexibility I still had in my back. My bridges weren't too bad and soon I was kicking over and doing "tick-tocks". We also did forward rolls and dives, backward rolls, cartwheels, handstands and strength (push-ups, crunches etc). The class lasted just under two hours.


The aftermath:
I am seriously feeling it today. My neck hurt immediately after the class and is not feeling much better today. As the day progressed, more and more of my muscles started hurting. As I'm sitting here my thighs, hips, abs, all parts of my arms, back, shoulders and neck are hurting.

But it was all worth it! I'm super excited to go back and am hoping to go to another class on Monday!