Only human, after all

Isn`t it amazing how life happens and always offers you something to write about when you have a weekly Blog?  If someone had told me on Thursday evening that I would write about falling down today, I would say, “nah, not this week…”  For we recorded one of our legendary step classes on Thursday, and it was a blast!

By now, I`m sure most of my members will be familiar with the fact that I had a fall on Friday morning in step class.  Yes, strange, huh, we were supposed to be doing it only one more time as a formality, because it had been recorded and executed splendidly the night before.

Taking a fall in front of the class is not something that has happened to me a lot during my 25 years of teaching – I remember there was one time, many years ago, in the community hall of Lothair, where I started teaching on handmade Amstel Lager step benches.  I just tripped and fell down, uninjured, blushed, got up and continued.  A few years ago, I misjudged myself stepping backwards into a lunge, slid right off the stage and bumped my shin against the sharp corner.  Ouch!

I`m not really sure what happened on Friday – maybe I was just a bit tired after the week, maybe the placement of my feet was a bit sluggish, but I twisted my ankle and went tumbling down.  I know that normally when people fall, we just have this tendency to giggle, but I have to say, everyone in the class went silent – and I?  I really thought that was it – that I hurt my foot badly and what was I going to do with all the classes and how were we going to finish the challenge and, and, and!?  My mind went into turmoil!

And it wasn`t really the fall that was so embarrassing, you know – it was the fact that I was totally unaware of the fact that I was still wearing the mic, so as I was stumbling off to the kitchen and felt Lizelle`s reassuring hand on my shoulder, I burst into tears, microphone and all!  Boy, oh boy, that was really embarrassing, knowing that all my Zoom members had heard the sulking and the “ek’s `n regte pissie” 🙈.

At that point Annelize and Carien were bravely tackling the step class together on stage, standing in for me, and luckily, after a few minutes, realizing that I could actually step on the foot, I recollected myself and was able to continue.  Over the weekend I have had so many concerned messages from my members – the ankle is still a bit sensitive, but I believe it will all be okay tomorrow when the new workout week with all its challenges starts…

I’m not really ashamed of falling down, I mean it has happened to everyone.  In 2013 when Jennifer Lawrence went up to the stage to receive her Oscar, she tripped over her gown!  In 2015, when pop icon Madonna performed at the BRIT awards, she fell backwards off the stage after a dancer accidentally ripped off her cape.  The difference between Madonna and me is that the crowd thought at first that her fall may have been part of the act, due to the lyrics, which mention falling and getting back up😂.

Friday morning`s fall reminded me of this quote by Michele Jaff: “Life should come with a trapdoor.  Just a little exit hatch you could disappear through when you`d mortified yourself…”

But life does not come with a trapdoor, and life happens, with its ups and downs, twists and turns, trials and tribulations, falls and feasts.   I must say, worst things have happened to fitness instructors.  I once read about Lori Patterson, the CEO of Victelib who recalls her most embarrassing instructor moment: “I put my mic on and decided to run to the bathroom before class.  When I came back into the hall, all 40 participants waited there and clapped.  My mic had been on.  They said I peed `real good`.”

In the past few weeks, almost seven of our members have had a fall in class, luckily no one was injured.  Only Thursday Talana described how she knocked herself on the chin with the bar a week ago.  Melinda says she`s constantly mixing up the moves in ‘Rivers of Babylon” and two weeks ago we giggled with Annecke when she showed us the hole in her camo pants.

The beauty of our members’ mishaps is that people rarely notice.  You may think people are staring at you, but everyone is so busy contemplating their own moves in the mirror, that they pay no attention to anybody else.  I think that`s why our classes are so popular – everyone is minding their own business which makes the class atmosphere really relaxed and easy going.

It`s a little bit different when you are the instructor – when you forget the mambo that comes before the jog in “Hypnotized”, everyone notices.  When you misjudge your movement in the dark hallway and run into the bathroom wall and climb onto the stage with bleeding knuckles, everyone notices.  When you bump the bar against the stage mirror, EVERYONE shrieks.  And when you trip over the step bench, EVERYONE gasps.

I was reminded Friday morning of the fact that I am human.  I am not an Avenger or a superhero.  I cannot move things with my mind or fly.  I cannot do it all on my own, and at times my plate gets too full.  And sometimes, I fall too. 

Almost like Christina Perri in her beautiful song, “Human”, that`s how I felt on Friday:

“I can hold my breath
I can bite my tongue
I can fake a smile
I can force a laugh
I can dance and play the part

But I’m only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I’m only human”

And it`s okay.  As a fitness instructor, I was reminded on Friday morning that it`s just as important to take care of your own body than those of your members.  It`s part of your job to eat well and to rest well and to recover well.  If you start to feel robotic, chances are you are coming off as robotic.  Friday`s fall made me do a little introspection, and that`s a good thing.  There`s always more to learn, ways to grow, things to work on.

More than ever, I appreciate the human body and the miraculous way in which it was Created.  I don`t thing I have ever taken my health for granted, and I hope and pray I will never stop celebrating it.  I will always appreciate the woos! and the cheers and the smiles and I will not forget that being peppy on that stage is pretty much a job requirement.

But I will take extra care of everyone`s form, and my own.

There will surely be more embarrassing moments before my career is over – who knows, I might be wearing two different shoes one day, my pants might split open, I might fall off the stability ball or get stuck between the springs of the Rebounder.  It will be okay.   It`s going to be okay.  I`m human, after all. 

Just as much as I will continue to prepare quality playlists every week, I will reassess the motivational words I use in class.  And then, for as long as our joints and our limbs, Covid and our President and this weird new Delta variant of the virus allow us, we`ll make magic together – stepping, doing plies, holding planks, dancing, laughing, growing, feeling, pumping, being human, together. 

For we are human.  We are not perfect.  We are alive.  We try things.  We make mistakes.  We stumble.  We fall.  We get hurt.  We rise again.  We keep learning.  We keep growing.  And we are thankful for this priceless opportunity called life.

Yours in fitness

Mirna

082 779 0507