A post not about baked goods

As an almost-second-year Graduate student, I thought my PE class days had passed me by long ago. Then, last Thursday my Health/Fitness Writing class, for which I started this blog, met outside UF's Orthopedic center for a lesson in getting your ass kicked by life.

I was never a fan of PE class. I'm an incredibly shy person in most aspects of my life, and that definitely includes working out. (You can ask my gym buddy--I won't use any weight machines or free weights if anyone else is around--including him!)

But I always enjoyed group fitness classes because it generally seems like everyone is trying so hard to not look like an idiot in front of everyone else that they're not even paying attention to anyone else. And that was kind of the case on Thursday. We laughed at ourselves as we struggled to remember which foot to put forward during those killer lunges, and cheered each other on as we took turns flipping over a truck tire big enough to house a small family.

I think the most important lesson I took from it, though, is that I'd really been cheating myself during my usual work-outs. Once my legs recovered from our mini-boot-camp session I hit the gym and put in twice the effort--and felt that much better for it.