Balance and Resistance

by Kungfukid
(My living roon)

For the last couple years some executive at the company I work for has been on a health and fitness kick. They apparently do not have enough busy work for themselves, so they decided it would be to the advantage of all employees if they started a company-wide exercise program.

I am sure what they really want to do is keep the employees healthy to reduce health care costs and limit missed days from work for being sick. So two times a week everyone stops what they are doing and goes to participate in an exercise class.

I should not complain though because it does give us about a half hour away from our desks, and it is a great stress reliever.

The class I am in during my scheduled time period is called balance and resistance. That does not sound too bad, but is more difficult than you might think. It mainly involves about 30 minutes of standing and balancing on one foot.

Every class is led by an instructor who leads us through a series of exercises which look similar to some yoga and tai chi poses I have seen before.

The hard part is that you have to stand and balance on one foot for a minimum 15 to 30 seconds. One of the most difficult ones, which apparently is the instructor’s favorite one, requires you to stand on one foot for what seems like several minutes.

To start, you stand with feet shoulder width apart, shift your weight to one foot, raise the other one up in front with the knee at a 45 degree angle.

Then after several seconds, at the instructors command, we begin to make small circles with that foot in the air.

First clockwise for ten reps then counterclockwise for 10 reps.

After that, without putting your foot down, we are ordered to straighten out the leg straight out in front.

After several counts we have to do the alphabet with that foot. You know, attempting to make a motion with your toes in the shape of an A, then proceeding through the alphabet.

After that we get to bend our knee back to 45, but not putting it down on the floor just yet, because next we have to bring the leg through to the back and hold straight out. We are now leaning forward slightly with our foot behind us as if kicking out to the rear.

Next the instructor asks us to bend our knee at about 45 degrees so we can reach around with our hand and try to catch our ankle with our hand so we can bend even further forward and stretch the leg backward and upward in the rear.

After holding that for several counts, we let go of the ankle, keeping the leg straight out in the rear and again go through the alphabet motion with our foot.

Keep in mind we have been standing on one foot this whole time.

After completing the entire alphabet motion in the rear, finally, we can then replace the foot down on the floor. The instructor then says “walk in place and shake it out a little” then get ready to immediately do the other side.

This exercise along with several others in the routine, will have anyone's legs burning before the end of that 30 minute class.

Kinda funny, I have never once seen that executive VP in any of my classes. I wonder what is up with that?