The recent unexpected hot spell aside, the seasons are changing, and with them my exercise regime has moved indoors. I was starting to get a little bored with just hitting the gym (plus the rugby world cup won’t last forever and I might end up watching Jeremy Kyle), so this week I decided to try out some of the classes available at my local leisure centre.

Monday I was scheduled to try Dance Fitness, described as “45 minutes of fun creative dance moves to challenge your mind and body. Suitable for all levels of fitness”. Alas the class was cancelled so I hit the gym instead and took a minute off my 5km time.

Tuesday was Cuba Tone: “a spicy hot, hip swivelling workout where African, Caribbean & Latin dance moves are combined with aerobic movements to create a fun & effective work out.” This was indeed fun, and at the time I thought it nearly killed me. I expected my knees to complain the following day but instead it was a couple of muscles in my back which clearly weren’t used to being used. One that I will definitely do again, though I might need a larger bottle of water.

Today (Thursday) was Amazon: “a complete total body workout using short, intense and explosive training methods in a unique and un-orthodox manner. Fire up your body’s metabolism, tone, melt away unwanted body fat and improve confidence, this class has it all!”. This, this one killed me. I have no upper body strength and was bear walking forwards and backwards, doing fake handstands, doing push ups with leg changes. I fully expect not to be able to use my arms for the next couple of days – they were shaking at the end of it. But just because I couldn’t do everything this time doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. The instructor reminded by of Barbie from Such a Pretty Fat and I’m no quitter. So assuming the muscles will let me I’ll be back next week.