Bar Method : Seven Months

Bar Method Portland! (from oregonlive.com)

The last couple of months have been extremely busy, with holiday travel, work travel and a flurry of work-related stress in general.  But I've been able to keep up with it all, in large part because of BM.  I know the way I rave about this class makes me sound like a paid advertiser (I most certainly am not!), but it's really transformed my life not just my body.  People who exercise probably can relate to this general sense of well-being; for me this class is special because I hate exercise usually and would never be able to stick to anything else.  General thoughts:

• I am always sleepy when I shuffle off to BM in the mornings but the class really wakes me up and I feel good when I leave.  Very important in these gloomy wintry days.
• I love having these times to myself where I'm not thinking.  My personality tends toward obsessive and over-analytical (good traits in a scientist, not so great in daily life), but it's amazing to give it up 4 hours a week and just do however many lifts and tucks I'm told to do and trust that it'll work.
• At a work conference last week, my friend who has not seen me in a year said: Wow you look amazing, what have you been doing?!  Last year she said: Omg are you eating why are you so thin!  Since my dress size has not changed at all, I am sure BM had something to do with my change from sickly thin to healthy thin.  
• I am still sore pretty much all the time.
• I no longer need the strap for round back!  I still grab it just in case I'm stiff that day but I've been doing the exercise without it more and more.  It's tremendously exciting because this was one of my goals when I started.  Now if only I can make a vertical leg...
• Someone commented recently about how flexible I was.  This really really surprised me.  I'm still probably the least flexible person in class, but when I consider that last year I couldn't even touch my toes and now I can almost flatten my palms to the floor, I have to admit a big improvement in this area.