11/30/11: A Girl Can Get Hurt Trying To Keep Up With The Boys

This is what I was made to do! 

Because the title of this post is a bit misleading, I will start off by clarifying that I am not talking about feelings, romance, heartbreak or any abstract form of pain that usually accompanies any discussion about men; I am talking about the literal, physical pain I have been experiencing living with my crazy, amazing roommates. I must say that since I have been in Israel I have done just about everything I have wanted to do... except exercise. Now, I walk pretty much everywhere, which I guess counts for something, but aside from that there has not been much attention, unfortunately, to maintaining a healthy work out routine. In college I was a regular visitor to my gym for daily cardio, zumba, pilates, and yoga, when I was home in Palm Springs it was treadmill workouts, occasional bikram yoga sessions, swimming, and so on. The point is I was staying active. Then I came to Israel and realized that not only do classes and gym memberships cost a lot of money, but everything is in Hebrew... A bit discouraging.

Lucky for me, however, this lull in my attention to exercise is about to change, which is very important for my mental and physical health. Firstly, I am now settled enough in my work that I can pencil in time to relieve some stress and get a good run/strength training sesh in, and secondly I happen to live with two former Israeli soldiers, one of whom is really big on the whole work out thing. LUCKY ME! Last night was the first night we all decided to get a work out in together, and, well, it was really amazing during... not so much the next day! We started the work out with a light run. I HATE HATE HATE running, and I hate running with people even more than I hate the act itself, so I split off from the boys and went a different direction where I could keep to my own pace and not worry about trying to keep up with two men who are in significantly better shape than I am. I probably got about a mile in to warm up and then I rejoined the boys in the park near our apartment.

I was tired enough after the run (as embarrassing as that is to admit), but I wasn't about to stop now. I decided I might as well get back into the swing of things with a bang... again maybe not the best decision judging by the fact that, on a scale of 1-10, my body hurts a good 9 right now! After the run it was time for lunges, squats, and box jumps (I didn't do too many of these because I have a problem with my left knee which is also not doing so well today). I lost count of how many I did of each but I know I got at least 75 lunges in which is pretty good! After the leg workout we took a short break and then the boys did pushups. Now here's the deal; I have ZERO upper body strength and haven't done a pushup in forever. I figured I would skip this exercise and wait until we did our abdominal workout... That didn't fly with the boys so much. There was a fair deal of peer pressuring, and I was not going to be a pain in the ass, so I dropped down and did my 25 pushups. The boys were kind enough to say that after 10 regular pushups I could do the "girl" kind on my knees... so nice of them :-)

When the pushups were complete it was on to our 8 minute core workout. We did every kind of sit-up imaginable it felt like, and though I took a few rests here and there, I think I kept up relatively well considering I was just getting back into the swing of things. Once that was done it was back home to stretch, eat, shower, and relax! I felt really amazing but knew that I would be hurting the next day. I know one thing though, doing this 2 or 3 times a week with these boys will kick my lazy butt in to shape for sure! After stretching and dinner we figured a movie night would be a really good idea, and it was a perfect way to unwind. It was yet another fantastic night with the boys, and though I can't move today, the workout was just what I needed to blow off some steam from the stress of all of this school work.

Well that pretty much wraps up the excitement from yesterday. Today was pretty normal, and consisted of a seminar and Arabic (which you know I enjoyed for many reasons ;-p). I also finally made it to one of our libraries on campus during my two hour break and found some amazing sources for my papers on Sufism and Arab Jews (Dhimmi). When I was leaving the library on my way to Arabic I was stopped by a very nice man in the hall of my class bulding who was convinced he had seen me on TV,to which I assured him he was mistaken, but the incident made me smile nonetheless :-).

As far as what this weekend has in store, only God knows, but hopefully it will be exciting and not too bogged down with studying!

Until we meet again ;-),
Jordana Simone