You just never know

One of the things I love about my job is how unpredictable it is. Even when you think a day is set in stone, something can happen to turn it upside down. Today we are dealing with a change in the lineup of our "Workout of the Week" series because the video and interviews for today's story have disappeared! It happens. Luckily, we have several pieces shot and written so we won't be leaving you hanging this week!

Here's what one participant has to say about this unconventional exercise class, "After a few sessions my muscles were screaming, more than any other workout I've done." Wow. That's a ringing endorsement, huh? Even so, when this invite rolled into our inboxes our gut reaction was "NO WAY!" But Sonya and I like to think of ourselves as good sports, so we eventually responded with a weak, "Okay." This week's workout is pole dancing. Yup. Pole dancing. "When you can step outside the box and out of your regular fitness routine," says instructor Shelley Houde with a big grin, "you gain a lot of confidence, and it's fun!"

Maybe so, but we were fairly terrified to try this. I was really hoping the room would be a lot darker than it was and I was also thinking we should've planned to shoot this on a Saturday night so we could throw some drinks into the mix.

Shelley's class actually starts out with a lot of the moves you'd do in a traditional group exercise class. There's a basic warmup and some stretching followed by tricep presses, squats and crunches - all using the pole. We quickly move on to pullups, and Sonya and I find out we are incapable of doing even one! How embarrassing! "You find muscles you didn't know you had," says Shelley, "it's tough!"

So you know - Shelley is a farm girl by day. In an email she writes, "So in short, my other fitness workout is at the barn, mucking stalls, carrying water buckets, etc..." The point is - she says anyone can learn how to do this routine. "Once you build strength and keep going and progress through the levels, then it's like YES! I've done it!" And there are a lot of regular gals in the class. Stephanie works at Prairie Meadows, Meegan is an attorney and Kim is a Vice President who says, "This is that extra fun class that helps you get through an hour of strength training and you don't even know you've done it because it's so much fun."

We may never be able to shimmy up the pole like Shelley and the rest of the women we met, but the longer we practiced the more our embarrassment started to fade ... replaced by that confidence Shelley mentioned when we first walked in the door.

This workout was really challenging, and just looking at Shelley's guns should motivate you to give pole dancing a try! Her studio is in Altoona. The website is www.steelaxis.com and the phone number is 822-5740.

Here's to pushing fear (and pride) aside, and trying new things!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com