Day 98: Maybe I'm not so fit after all

On day 98, I was invited to attend a Tweet and Tone event at Exhale MindBody Spa, which by the way, is unbelievable. It is the definition of an "urban oasis," where it's located in a high rise, but when you walk in, it feels like you could be anywhere. It is the most serene and upscale gym/spa/healing center I've ever seen and I loved it.

The Tweet and Tone event was set up to show bloggers and journalists the amenities, where they could take pictures and Tweet their way through the area, and at the end, we would be treated (slash cruelly subjected) to one of their signature Core Fusion classes. I don't have a smart phone, so their effort was largely lost on my presence, but I made my mark and did some awesome networking so it was a personal success.

Now, the amenities are TO DIE FOR. I could legitimately live in the bathroom. It was all marble-y and modern and smelled amazing and had gorgeous wooden lockers, etc. I thought it would be inappropriate to take a picture of the bathroom while there were people changing in it, so there's nothing to show, but honestly, TO DIE FOR.

The gym area was clean, non-smelly, and decked out with the newest and best equipment, the nail salon was all wooden and felt like a modern Buddhist sanctuary, and there wasn't a sight of those spine-breaking vibrating chairs anywhere. They showed us the hand salts, cooling fragrances that at were a far cry from asphyxiating nail polish smell. With Butter London nail polish, what's not to love?

After being taken away by the serenity and beauty of this place, I was then asked to join the other attendees in the Core Fusion class. Core Fusion is an Exhale signature, that combines yoga, Pilates, ballet, weight training, and bits of the Lott Berk method. It focuses on small movements with typically unused muscles so that in an hour, my legs shaking more than I had ever shook in my life. Watch this video to get a picture of the style. It's hard to describe here.


The beginning of the class was hard, with some intense non-stop arm weights, and core exercises, and while it was definitely a challenge, I have been doing yoga pretty consistently and I wasn't dying. We went to the ballet bar to do some legs and butt stuff, and I was crapping out faster than a slug when you put salt on him. Ho-Lee-Mo-Lee. I don't know if I've ever really, truly, felt a burn  in a muscle group before. Not that I haven't been very sore and been very physically challenged before, but pulsing my leg for to a 45 degree angle behind my butt while tilting my torso in that direction made me think that my ass, in fact, was on fire. Add to that that this exercise was followed up by fast-pumping grand plies and enough calf work to make a ballet dancer cringe. But that, of course is not where our story ends.

From there, we got on the floor and the teacher asked us to sit on our butts with our legs upwards at a 45 degree angle, and our hands holding on to the ballet barre to create a V. I have NEVER had a problem doing this, but after all of this work, my legs were shaking so bad that I couldn't straighten them. Shaking...soo....bad. Upon finishing these brutal exercises, I couldn't walk back to my Core mat without my knees giving out twice in ten steps.

After class, I told the teacher that I think she hates people.

She laughed.

For the past two days, I haven't been able to feel my thighs, although the rest of me is pretty okay.

I didn't think that I had it in me to feel this sore in my legs after dancing for 18 years and actively doing yoga for two. Maybe I'm not so fit after all.

Okay, truth: it was probably good I didn't have a smart phone because I might have been saying very mean things at the time. But I'd definitely go back.