The OtherArena

[Ken Viewer]

Question that I'm likely directing to the right people here including athletes, coaches, instructors, retired athletes, coaches and instructors...

In Manhattan within a short radius, I seek out group exercise-classes, and here we have some with live piano music and much of it is offered free, if ya don't mind getting on a waiting list first.

So about six times a month I go to a 75-minute nonstop class on top of double-sprung floors (the kind professional ballet/Modern dancers use) to help protect against being injured by falls.

Great classes; 45 minute warm-up session done seated and then 30 minutes standing while holding on to the backs of chairs or ballet bars (the kind that don't serve alchohol) if necessary. No two classes ever identical. Does wonders for me, but the sessions are on-quota because there are so many deserving people on the classes's wait-list.

For a third class per-week (about all that I want), I started going to a class held at the Public Library six blocks away and taught by someone who looks to me like a dwarf Mountain Fuji, the lady wrestler. Nothing wrong with that; if a dog could teach a worthwile class and I could get in for free, I'd attend.

But this instructor (I know of no licensing requirements for "exercise teacher" in New York City) doesn't believe in warming up at the beginning. So we start standing up, full-out.

After the first session, for the first time, my hips hurt like hell. I don't have osteoarthritis. So I canceled my reservation for the second session, took it easy for a few days and went back to the classes taught by professional dancers (or retired ones).

The library teacha-lady uses resistance bands that are provided for us and were cut by one guy who acquired a roll of the stuff, and he's about four feet tall. I still have enough strength to pull 'em without any great effort (unless its stressing my hip muscles/ligaments/tendons/tissues).

But some other participants who are much shorter than I am can't use the bands because the bands are too short. A new roll of that stuff could be purchased and recut so that's no issue, plus I bought my own resistance band that's sized for me.

Anyway, last week, I went back to this library-based circus (people walk out in the middle more frequently than I've ever previously seen anywhere) and held back from working full-out. I wonder if dis teacha-lady is properly trained or I'm just not right for her classes.

Advice anyone?

I have a free Silver Sneakers membership in a local health club where a few of the instructors offer similar classes, but with warm-ups and free get-depressed pills because the instructors I ran across have depression issues.

One of them, with a total of four people in her class (with room for 20), seemed to have a crack (or cracked) issue; and she thought she was teaching a cooking course -- not kidding. When my friend and I got up and walked out, she then had two people in her class, and kept babbling about cooking French clabber with liver and snails.

I still do a minimum of 30 squats a day leaning against a wall in my apartment and have no ill effects from this.

Are warm-ups mandatory for exercise classes? Should they be? Am I biased in favor of warming up before exercising?

Thanks for any advice from health-care professionals or sports professionals or natural athletes...

Ken

[Steve Yohe]

My exercise today was my warm ups & warm downs 10 years ago.

I was never big on warming ups. I just stretched because I was told I was supposed to.... or I felt stiff. For the most part, I never got hurt running. --Yohe