Danny Zucco meets Billy Blanks by Emlyn Lee

12/14/20099:25:50 PM Link 2 comments | Add comment

Guatemala

My friends and staff often say that I work too much...which is probably true, but I love what I do, so I hardly consider it ‘work’…I mean, working in Antigua, Guatemala for a month, isn’t too shabby, huh? But I try to balance my mind, body, and spirit by reading, exercising, and embracing my faith. For me, there is nothing better to end a day than with a good workout. It gives me time to process the day, and relieves some of the ‘unforeseen fires’ that happens in an international service-industry. Plus, the calories inhaled from the boxes of Wheat Thins, bags of Twizzlers, and cans of cashews that I snack on at my desk needs to be burned. Today is no different, and I would like to share how I 'unwind' at the gym in Antigua.

There are two gyms in Antigua city. I joined La Fabrica, just two blocks from my apartment, and it reminds me of the ‘old school’ boxing gyms. Second hand Lifecycle equipments, rusted free weights, and some other ropey-hung apparatus that I’m too afraid to know. There was a salsa dance class in session when I got there. Even though it was a principiantes (beginners) class, it seemed A LOT harder than my best Shakira shimmy efforts could EVER handle. So, I got on the elliptical, pressed some buttons that I couldn’t understand, and trotted along. From across the room, I noticed this middle-aged professional lady scrambling in to the gym. She apparently was having a Manic Monday, and late for the salsa class. I noticed her not only because of her frazzled state, but because she was wearing 3-inch stiletto heels! I don’t understand how she is able to walk in them on leveled floor, let alone on Antigua’s cobble-stoned streets. But then, she rushed in to the exercise group room, stepped in line, and joined the class, not missing a single beat…business attire, stiletto heels, and all!

After about an hour, I was wrapping up my workout, and in came a local guy, wearing Ivan Lendl replicated wristbands, hair greased back similar to Danny Zucco of Grease, and parachute pants that MC Hammer could never touch. I HAD to stay and see what this class was all about. I asked the customer service rep behind the gated front desk what class was next, and he said, “Tae Bo!”

Pinch me!! Boxing was one of my favorite workouts back in Austin, until I tore some cartilage this past summer, and Tae Bo…seriously?!?! Billy Blanks was my best friend in the late nineties, and worked out to his VHS tapes daily! It was meant to be…my first Guatemalan group exercise class…with Rico Suave serving as the Guatemalan Billy Blanks.

In the beginning, I was guarding my left knee and trying to be careful on it, but once you got salsa and merengue music blaring at the loudest volume (unfortunately the louder the better in Guate...), and Guatemalan Billy shouting “mas rapido”, I was flailing my legs and arms just trying to keep up.  I recall Billy Blank’s “double time,” but here, the pace seemed to be at quadruple speed. The music was so fast it sounded like the Chipmunks on steroids.

Low and behold, I survived my first Guatemalan group exercise class. I hobbled back home, not sure if it was because my knee is inflamed, or the difficulties of walking on the cobble-stoned streets (plus without street lights), but then I thought of that lady, and how she mastered walking on the streets, and taking salsa class in those heels. We’ll see if I am able ‘shake a bon bon’ in the salsa class (with Nikes on) at my next gym visit…