Loving LEK

I'm sure we've all heard the old adage "write what you know", right? It's a little bit stupid because how can a Sci Fi writer actually know what it's like to start a colony on Mars? Nobody's done it yet, despite Elon Musk's best attempts. We now have a Tesla orbiting our planet though, but I digress.

Write what you know means write from your experience and point of view. So that's what I have decided to do here with my new blog series Loving LEK.

I KNOW that I absolutely love working out with this woman, Lauren Kleban for those of you who've been living under a rock and have never heard of her. I'm not judging. Actually I'd be super excited to hear that you didn't know who she was because then I'd get to be the one to tell you all about her and send you rushing straight to her website to sign up for her free seven-day trial. It's like when you've been raving about your favorite television show for like four seasons, telling the entire world and anyone else who will listen that they must watch it, and then one day you get a text or tag from someone thanking you and singing your praises because they finally watched it (Peaky Blinders - watch it, then come back and tell me I was right, it's the best series on the planet).

Don't ask me why the hell I seem to always wind up writing about fitness, I have no answer for you. I'm as close to a sloth as is humanly possible. As my favorite long-standing joke goes, if I was a rapper I'd be known as Lay-Z. I really would rather be plonked in front of the television watching whatever the latest hot new drama is and eating (vegan) cheese doodles. Still somehow I manage to move my body at least five-days a week. A task I'm happy to report has become much easier since August 2017 when a couple of friends made a point of telling me that I must try this new workout they'd been doing with a trainer out of LA.

I'll confess, it's hard for me to find a workout that I like, that's doable for a middle-agey lady like myself - and also -- not only delivers results but could also manage to undo a couple of years of weird oblique bulking that was created by doing another type of workout. You see I've always had a muffin top - hence the name of this blog - Mastering My Midlife (and Midriff). I'm thick around my middle to begin with even when I'm skinny as a stick (which is not now btw) and once I built muscle the wrong way in that area, it was nearly impossible to shrink it even if I never ate again. Until Lauren.

Lemme confess to you, I tried every fucking thing after I left that other program to try and reduce that muscle mass and nothing worked. I even went for a ten-session treatment of Rolfing and my therapist could not get that band of muscle to budge. I felt like it was just going to be something I had to live with.

In any case, I started LEK with zero expectation. I was just really digging the smooth jazzy vibe of her sculpt class. 

Now listen, when I say smooth and jazzy, I say it the same way I'd refer to a top shelf bourbon (yeah baby, I just compared you to good booze). She doesn't actually play jazz in the class, that would be weird. What I mean is that she's a super chill, fully in control teacher with mad skills in the arena of shaping bodies. The side effect of my love of her classes was two fold, one I kept doing them and two I started to notice the shrinkage around my middle. I'm not all the way there yet, but I'm confident if she keeps coming out with the kickass classes that she's been delivering since I signed up for her on-demand classes, by my one-year anniversary Ima be in fighting form.

I was having such a good time and seeing such bloody good results that I wanted to share it with other people. At first, it started out with just a friend here or there, someone who'd come to me to say that their workout was too expensive, or their classes were getting to complicated, or they weren't seeing the results they'd once had with the current workout they were doing. Low and behold, after some time, these same people were coming back to me quietly telling me how much they'd been enjoying their LEK fit classes. Their bodies were changing in new and exciting ways, it was so much more affordable they were able to try different online courses, or that they just so appreciated the vocal cues they got from Lauren's classes. Then I was finding that I'd do a class and think - damn girl, that shit was next level, and I'd want to tell somebody.

A few days ago it was as if I was struck by an an insight so powerful I couldn't ignore it. If I loved this workout and wanted to talk about it, maybe there were other people who'd want to do that too and since I am kind of social media averse apart from my IG that someone else set up for me, maybe I could write about it and the series was born. It's like that movie Field of Dreams if you build it, they will come. Who knows, maybe no one will come, but at least I'll get to talk about how much I love LEK.

So how can you tap in? It's easy. You can click the follow button to the right of this post, or sign up to follow via email to have the posts delivered right to your inbox. Afraid of commitment? No problem. Simply drop by Mastering My Midlife when you're in the mood, head to the links on the side of the page and hit Loving LEK and that will direct you to the latest post.

I'd love to tell you what to expect, but I often color outside the lines. One day I may write about a particular class that I found especially good. I may discover a tip that helped my form in some way or another that I felt compelled to share, or maybe I'll write about my results, I'll likely share my trials because I can be very clumsy. Whatever. It's about connecting, staying motivated and accountable.

If you think that's something you'd be into too, then I'll look forward to seeing you around this space.

Warmly,
Shan