Aerobics Ugandan Style
on Thea's Blog (Uganda), 29/Sep/2009 07:34, 34 days ago
It’s taken me three months to get round to it, but last night I finally dragged myself to one of the 3x weekly aerobics session at Mountains of the Moon Hotel gym. I was told by a veteran that it was going to be ‘quite intense’ but nothing could have prepared me for what followed. We were aboutfifteen people, bumping up against the running machines in a small, sticky, fan-less room. The demographic couldn’t have been further removed from the standard in the UK. Rather than the usual skinny, lycra-clad, fitness-freak girls, these aerobicians were almost all middle-aged Ugandan men in shell-suits with beer bellies plus three roly-poly Ugandan ladies. Only three mazungus had braved it and I soon understood why.The cheesy dance music started up and so began an hour and a half of wild high kicks, jumping, squatting and punching the air. We were made to throw our bodies in all kinds of erratic directions, and twist and turn our limbs in impossible angles. Just when I thought it was surely time for a break, the instructor would give us another hamstring- popping movement to copy. An over-enthusiastic young guy in the middle of the room kept yelling out numbers at random which meant we usually ended up doing twice as many repetitions as we were meant to.And then there was the sweat. I was a little surprised by my own outpourings, but this turned out to be modest compared to some of my fellow exercisers. There were literally puddles on the floor (this is not an exaggeration) in which we then happily sat down in order to carry out a series of abdominal stretches. Despite these discomforts the atmosphere was extremely jolly. The beer bellies were having a great time and their enthusiasm was infectious. Even the large ladies were taking the pain with good humour. Afterwards we were rewarded with a hot shower, some ginger tea and roasted g-nuts. At which point, a bit like after a grueling labour, the pleasant flood of endorphins erased the preceding pain and left me with a warm glow. If today’s intense muscle ache has worn off by next week, I’m definitely going back for a second installment.