Stretch class

It's amazing what excuses one can come up with to avoid going to class.

Like many of my other hobbies, once I've been away from them for a while I find all sorts of reasons not to pick them up again. Yet if I do I kick myself for being away from it so long.

In the case of ballet, the longer I'm away the more it hurts after the first class back. It's a nasty negative feedback loop. I've never been one of those flexy-bendy people, and having not taken class regularly for well over 6 months now I've been dreading restarting. This morning I still didn't want to go to Beginner II (2.75, really), but compromised by going to the Stretch class in the afternoon.

I've written about this class before, but I can't find it. I've taken a few stretch classes at this studio, but I really like this instructor.  It's a lot like a yoga class with ballet mixed in, so we'll do the "pigeon" pose but we'll also do a lunge in 4th. This time I got a spot in the back of the room where I could easily see what others were doing. The instructor is all about modifying poses and positions to accommodate individual limitations, so when one didn't work for me I could look around the room and see what others were doing as alternates.

As I've mentioned before, I can be a bit competitive. Parked as I was right behind this flexy-bendy woman who could sit flat on the floor in a front/back split reminded me of just how inflexible I am. For me there really isn't a difference between a lunge and a split -- I'm about the same height above the ground in either. I understand that at my best I'll never be that flexible (on the other hand I've never sprained anything, ever) but it'll take a lot of work to get anywhere near to my best. And that's frustrating. But I need the exercise, and ballet and stretch classes seem to be one of the few activities I'm motivated enough to do.