PRIMA DONA

Prima dona

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The only bit of exercise that I have managed to be consistent with during this time of isolation has been yoga. My yoga practice has morphed into a beast of a practice. My teacher training is in Samatva yoga. Samatva is sanskrit for balance and the idea is that your yoga practice should be a balance to your daily life. Ooh boy have I ever taken this to heart. My daily life has become one of sitting at my desk in front of a computer all day. As a result, my yoga practice is all moving parts with many many rounds of sun salutations. I incorporate some mindful, isolated movements to transition between poses. My favorite sequence is one that has me flowing from a standing split to a squatting balance pose that looks like a Russian dance move. From there I move to my sit bones and roll down to my back. Then I roll up back into the Russian dance move and then back up into standing splits. I high-five myself every time I manage to do this sequence with smooth transitions.

With the exception of an occasional dog walk, I have not been doing any kind of cardio type exercises. I used to spend thirty minutes on an elliptical machine or a treadmill at least three times a week. Twice a week I attended a class that incorporated cardio with strength training. Every day I would walk the whole building and the outside before getting my first cup of coffee. I got at least 10,000 steps in a day and always took the stairs. Now, the only time I’m taking stairs is to the basement to do laundry. I kind of let the whole idea of doing a cardio exercise slide while we were building our retaining wall. Digging and hauling dirt is a cardio strength class all on it’s own, but the wall is done and I’m still sitting on my ass most of a day. The dog walks have become inconsistent due to weather and meetings and I have even stopped pacing around the house. I have to do something before my heart seizes in my chest.

Since advertisers now have the ability to read your mind, I kept seeing an ad for a streaming fitness channel that offers an Xtend Barre class (as well as ads for onesies because they know I have a thing for them). Every day I would see this perky blond woman, cheerfully doing ballet inspired exercises and it completely sucked me in. It doesn’t really require equipment and I don’t have to wear shoes. There’s a cardio aspect and most of the classes are thirty minutes. Plus, I can pretend to be a ballerina. One thing I noticed was that this class doesn’t require a large space. I can probably do these exercises in my cubicle. This is important because when I go back to work, things are going to be a lot different. The gym will probably stay closed and I will be restricted to my floor. No moving between floors or running up and down stairs. I can still walk outside but again, this is limited by weather. I had been considering signing up for Disney+, but decided that my $8 a month would be better spent on a channel that encourages me to adapt to the changing landscape. There are fitness classes other than Barre that Michael can do or would be willing to do, so we can all benefit here.

So, every morning for the last two weeks, I get up and do thirty minutes of Xtend Barre, a mix of ballet with light weights. I do not have a chair that is tall enough to be my barre. Instead I use the heavy tamper we purchased for the wall construction. If I need to prop my foot up on a barre, I use the TV credenza. The women on the screen are all using one or two pound weights. All I have are five and ten pounders. I use the fives until my arms feel like their going to burst into flames and then I set the weights aside and just move my arms around. Sometimes in the middle of my hundredth pleat, I start to have flashbacks to my days in dance class. I am no more gracefully suited to the ballet barre today than I was at age three, but I persist. I do feel like my thighs and arms are getting stronger and if I use the wide angle lens when I take a selfie, my legs look really slim. The other thing that I really like about this class is the diversity of women taking the class in each video. There are all shapes, sizes, colors, and fitness levels represented, which is so not often the case in workout videos or gyms or yoga studios. This diversity creates a more welcoming environment and makes it easier to show up to class.

I may not be the Prima Dona on the stage, but I think I could probably bench press the Prima Dona. And I did go ahead and sign us up for Disney+.