A woman's work is like a gardener's work

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Part one

"The Diary of Bridget Jones", H. Fielding.

Today I put on tight cherry trousers to work, which I last wore at the institute. And not because I was very relaxed, but because suddenly it became easy to get into them. And all this happiness began 5 months ago, when my super-active girlfriend pulled me to aerobics classes. Then I rested very actively with all my limbs. Where do I also need aerobics? I work from morning to evening, husband, child … more French lessons … Although … I was - I was not! In fairness, it should be noted that my friend was extremely sweet and correct with me: she did not burden her with advice, did not make comments, and a month later she quit studying altogether, because she fell in love, and this took all her strength and time. Therefore, I was left alone with sports, without support and protection. Since then, impressions and observations have already accumulated decently, I will try to convey the most entertaining of them to you. So …

First impression or equipment

It all started very badly back in the store. When I was choosing a tracksuit for myself, a disgusting discovery awaited me: it turns out that sweatpants as a type of clothing are generally very poor at masking body fat. Rather, on the contrary: they emphasize them in every possible way. This is not a business skirt with a jacket, under which, if desired, can be easily removed: yesterday's cake with cream, and three years of sedentary work, and a terrible complex, born when meeting with first love (do not wear a mini - it does not suit you) … or else that usually hides under a neat, politically correct knee-length skirt! I measured a heap of junk: with lycra (or in American - spandex) and without, synthetics and cotton. At such moments, the sacramental feminine comes to mind: there is absolutely nothing to wear … without lycra, they will bubble on their knees, with it - they will be too tight. In the dark, you look objectively slimmer. Light is easier to wash - it does not dye.

It turned out that trousers-like trousers, tight-fitting butt, but loose in the calf are in fashion now. Happy owners of beautiful legs can also wear pants just below the knees, which are called tays. In the end, I settled on two sets - dark and light, both cotton and both tight. In the dark, I looked even more or less. Light (gray with pink accents) took at the insistence of a friend. She said that in her I am very similar to her favorite plush rabbit.

But most of all I was surprised by the sneakers. Have you ever suspected that running shoes has come this far since the last time you packed your gym uniform for school? It turns out there are running shoes, walking shoes, basketball shoes, and fitness shoes. The latter differ, in my opinion, in the ugliest shape (with deaf lacing) and are more like skates. In addition to disfiguring the appearance of your graceful ankles, they perform another important function - they reliably fix the arch of the foot so that during your acrobatic steps, you, God forbid, do not twist your legs.

More and more colors are offered in dark or bright colors, and they are usually matched to the tone of sweatpants. After looking at my feet in these bots, I sighed and chose running shoes - low, airy and completely unrestrained. They were more like the image of sneakers that formed in my brain. Later, while jumping, I regretted it more than once: I had only to follow the trainer's movements, but also to catch the shoes with my feet. As they say, experience is just what you get after the moment when you really need it. I gained the following experience: if the manufacturers say that these shoes are for running, and these are for fitness, it is better to trust their opinion than to experiment on yourself.

And another important point: you don't need to spend more than $ 50-70 to buy decent and high-quality sneakers. If you pay 50 more, you will get the same product, but only from a better known manufacturer. In addition to Nike, Adidas and Reebok, at least 10 other firms produce good sports products, but only much cheaper. My thanks to brands such as Asics, Sprandi (all the same technological bells and whistles as Nike, but half the price), Russian manufacturers of quality sportswear Iceberg and Poles with their Active Whear brand.

Club

I don't remember anything specific about my first visit to the club where I still work. I only remember that I gave a lot of money to the girl at the reception. Apparently, the very fact of parting with such a large amount of money produced an anesthetic effect on me, and then everything was like a fog. The girl, on the contrary, somehow immediately broke into a smile and was so sweet that she showed me all the miracles. A huge room with pieces of iron, a smaller room with cardio-pieces of iron, a room with a fake mirror for aerobics (that is, the girls in this room think that they are jumping in front of a mirror, and the men on the simulators think, looking through transparent glass, that the girls are jumping in front of them) … This was followed by luxurious changing rooms (where instead of lockers, for some reason, there were bank cells), showers and a sauna, where I was struck by disposable soaps and stacks of towels that you can take. I was also amazed by the hairdryer. And boilers with drinking water. And a doctor who walked through the halls and looked after the condition of the trainees. I left, overwhelmed by luxury, crushed by grandeur and my own imperfection.

On the eve of the solemn day of the first training session, I had a terrible dream. I, in slippers and a long T-shirt, make my way through a gym full of terrible instruments of torture - exercise machines. Around people, beautiful as the ancient Greek gods, in tight suits and with inspired faces. The lesson begins. I, like the deer Bambi in a cartoon, get tangled in my legs and helplessly flop to the floor. The formidable coach looks at me from above with reproachfulness and says that in aerobics I am hopeless, so she asks me to leave the gym. Needless to say, I woke up in a cold sweat. After a quick bite of a dozen almond cookies and coffee with cream, I trudged off to workout.

First training session

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Looking around, you can also notice that you are not the only one who looks like a chicken: many do not get to the beat. But what can I say, the first lesson is always muscle pain and low self-esteem. But the most amazing thing is that self-esteem grows very quickly afterwards! Just imagine, now you are not only a Komsomol member, an activist, but also an athlete! It kind of adds a plus to your assets. Then it’s so nice to tell the boss, leaving work fifteen minutes earlier: "We will discuss this tomorrow, I’m late for training!"

Little by little, the aches in the limbs began to disappear, the brutal appetite after training somehow smoothed out, breathing returned to normal. After a month of going "to sports", I began to get pleasure from this procedure. Come, take off your warm autumn coat, put on a tight, weightless form. A hall with a parquet floor and a mirror, loud and very groovy music, cheerful shouts of my girlfriends, and movement !!! It's better than disco. It is healthier than diet, it helps to throw out the energy accumulated during the day in a stuffy office. And then? Solarium and massage, relaxing sauna and aromatic body milk. Damn it, this cult of the body and the rich physiological life, as I contemptuously christened it to myself, is an excellent means of fighting depression. I became light on my feet, my gait became more confident, and the fact that I dance much better than before - don't go to my grandmother! And even if my husband grumbles that with the beginning of my regular classes, our household has suffered irreparable damage (I now do not cook dinner), I am very glad that I discovered such a pleasure as sports.

To be continued…