Final Thought

Three weeks ago I suggested to a friend that we attend a gym class, seeing as they come free with our membership. To be honest I am not the gym class type, the idea of jumping up and down next to sweaty people not really doing it for me.

But my gym has recently got something called 'flywheels'. These are a set of 25 exercise bikes in their own little studio. Groups of people go in, sit down and get shouted at by a Chinese instructor to work faster and faster. This appealed to me for two reasons. Firstly, getting ordered around by a Chinese person is nothing new to me. Secondly, it looked quite fun.

So in we went to our first class and it was initially surprisingly easy. Then the 'resistance', button was pointed out to us and I realized this is fact will be hell. It was. I was walking funny for two days afterwards.

Yet that has not stopped me going back again this evening for another hour, with one thing making it all worth it, the instructor.

The instructor is this tiny Chinese woman who in another life could well have been a Nazi prison guard. She shouts order after order and if you try to turn down the resistance on the bike she glares at you like the failure you are. Fantastic motivation.

The best bit though is the "final soundtrack". Last week we had the China Olympic theme song, so the instructor stopped her bike (we had to continue) and proceeded to gush about how proud she is for China and the olympics. This week was even better, someone has written a song for the people who have recently been involved in the China earthquake. So yet again the instructor provided a five minute speech about these unfortunate people and how we should do everything we can to help them.

This 'Final thought', is bizzare and yet brilliant at the same time. I want to keep going back just to find out what it will be every week! Her emotional moment never lasts long though. She came up to me this evening after the class and simply said "Your style needs improving, and you do not stand correctly, but you could get better with practice". Typical Chinese honesty.

bx