Learn while you go for the Burn!

Posted by Andrea Shared Interest Foundation

January 22, 2009

Unfortunately, just because I am geographically nearer Kilimanjaro does not equate to physically being nearer my training goal!

So yesterday I signed myself up for my very first African fitness class!

I turned up a little nervous, not really knowing what to expect.

Can I point out that I was first to arrive? (I forgot that we were working on African time!)
Not that this made any difference to the remainder of the class – or even the teacher – as they strolled in over ten minutes late!

We started out with a little warm up. Nothing new there….Lulled into a false sense of security, it was about 20 to 30 minutes into the class that I twigged it was all about the booty.

Every exercise we did seemed to involve sticking your backside out as far as you could. I began to think of the effect this could have on my walking style and started to see the funny side.

There was no time to laugh though as I was already falling behind (no pun intended!) and since I was next to someone exactly like Phoebe from Friends (off in the opposite direction to everyone else and kicking her right foot when everyone else was kicking their left), for health and safety reasons alone I really couldn’t risk it. I feared ‘Phoebe’ would knock me out!

On top of that, the instructor kept changing languages from English to French with a little Kinyarwanda in there just for the hell of it!

So, just as I was getting into he would say something in a different language and I would look slightly confused as the rest of the class moved in unison (well apart from Phoebe who just kept side-kicking me!)

But hey on the whole, what a result! Not only did I leave the class slightly fitter but I can also count to 10, and say “turn”, “stop” and “you’re not doing that right” in three different languages.

Maybe this is something us Brits are missing out on. Learn while you go for the burn. What a concept.