Strike!

It's tough out there. Try and turn on the tube without hearing about the woes of the economy, the qualms with the big bailout or the shrinking housing market. If your family is like mine you're feeling the pinch of the increasing unemployment rate and the sting of Cobra payments. All this on top of a typical February vitamin D deficiency, paired with the sub zero temps, and even the most jovial of souls are feeling a little blue. Personally the stress of it all compounds when my bed is unmade, my floors are unswept and I haven't had a good sweat in a day or so. It's too bad I don't come equipt with a meter that screeches at decibels only young ears and dogs can hear signaling it's time to switch on the endorphins. Today was one of those days. I was at my limit and slightly cranky at best. I hit the club in time to try a new(er) class and officially got my tail kicked. "Strike," is sponsored by Everlast and is a hybrid kickboxing/martial arts/weight lifting class that will make your rear end burn in places you didn't think possible. You're arms are fatigued by 1lb gloves on each hand and you swing a 9lb body bar around like a born again ninja. Nine pounds! Doesn't sound like much but try jabbing and blocking and moving that thing around for an hour and it's a guaranteed smack in your butt, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps and chest. It hits em all baby and logged 889 calories burned on my heart rate monitor in just an hour. And the best part? Let all that aggression burn from your pores as you simulate, "smacking someone side the head!" If you live in my hood, be there, 4:45pm each Tuesday, Anne is the fearless-exercise-nazi-leader, your gonna love/hate her!