If you haven’t read the first of this series from Jo Howell – about her determination to find 50 ways to leave her 40s, you may want to back up and start there. We hope this series will encourage anyone reaching a milestone birthday – or any birthday – to develop a similar plan. Let’s get inspired together!
I thought I’d start my ’50’ challenge with something simple – how wrong can one woman be?!
So, for those who don’t know, let me explain clubbercise…
Take a cold school hall, 20 or so women of all ages, shapes and sizes, 1 token man (more of him later), turn the lights off, throw in some glow sticks, turn up the banging tunes (not my words!) and voila! Basically, it’s dancing in the dark.
I was a little apprehensive it has to be said. It’s been a looonnng time since I’ve danced in daylight, let alone in the dark with a glow stick waving around my head. My clubbing days have well and truly left me, although in all fairness I never was much of a ‘clubber’ per se. I’ve always been much happier shuffling about to a bit of cheesy pop. Anyway, for one night I was happy to imagine I was in the heady nightclubs of Ibiza; moving to the beat and shaking my thang.
Up on the stage was a vision of day glo, microphone strapped to her head and a spring in her step. In all fairness it started fairly gently; a few grapevines, step toes and box steps. I can do those! But of course, that was only the warm up…
The music proceeded to get louder, faster and more unidentifiable…yes, yes, I know I sound old, but I’d never heard of half the tracks – there certainly wasn’t any Abba booming out of the speakers. And of course, as the music went up a notch or two, so did the moves. We were now adding in leg kicks AND arm moves, the glow sticks were waving up, down, left and right in some kind of rhythm as I desperately tried to keep up and follow the instructor.
We were fairly close to the front of the class (bad move when you’re new!) so only had two clubbercise experts to follow – one lady who clearly knew the routine and one man who clearly thought he knew the routine. But didn’t. He was the token male in the class; 4 ft. nothing, bald and hollered and whooped his way through the 45 minutes like he was at an old school Manchester rave on a Friday night.
Then suddenly, the 45 minutes were over. The lights went up and the glow sticks went off. I looked around the hall and took in the faces of all the other women – glowing, happy faces. My friend (thanks Lou for taking me) beamed at me and as we guzzled our water, we both agreed we’d be back. 45 minutes of fun, dancing, learning something new and pure enjoyment – now what’s not to like about that?
So, if you’re reading this and are looking for a new exercise to start through these cold winter months, try clubbercise – not only will you burn loads of calories, you will love it. That I can guarantee!
Whoop, whoop!
Next up: adventure #2 of my milestone birthday challenge – a dinner surprise.
