This is my first post and boy am I excited!
So on Wednesday I went in for my first day at o2MAX. It was pretty cool. Everyone I met was nice and pretty chill so I enjoyed myself up until about 5 o’clock that day.
You may be wondering to yourself, “why 5 o’clock Rahel?” and to answer your inquiry, it’s because that’s when I had my butt handed to me.
Shirley asked me if I would like to work out, and I figure why pass up such a good opportunity, I’ve been trying to work out more lately anyway (You know, summertime, bathing suits, and I’m going to start my senior year in September so I gotta look good!). So I accept, innocently enough, not knowing what I was getting into.
Going from not working out in a whole year to having Shirley whip me into shape in an hour with a series of push-ups, sit-ups, cycling, and a whole bunch of other wonderful work outs was a huge jump for me.
After the work out my legs felt like spaghetti!! But I sucked it up and made it home, showered and rested.
The next morning I attempted (I say attempted because it took a few tries) to get up and felt as though I had ridden horseback, with no saddle for 3 hours. I’ve never ridden a horse but I imagined that was how cowboys in the olden days felt after long journeys on horseback. Despite the pain I took Shirley’s advice to drink lots of water and keep moving. I tried my best to walk normally around campus, luckily no one noticed =. Walking wasn’t so bad, but sitting was horrible! I had to stifle my yelps and ouch’s in class.
Other than that my body was okay, until the next day (Friday). It felt like all the pain from my legs moved up to my abs. It even hurt to laugh! Which sucks because I love to laugh. Shirley told me about something called DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). So I did a little research and found out that DOMS is common among people who work out (no matter what their fitness level). It is your body’s response to increase exertion and the introduction of unfamiliar activities (which explains my soreness). The pain usually peaks a day or two after exercising and resolves within three days. There’s no definite treatment for it, but some suggestions are to warm-up before you workout, stretch, and take nutritional supplements. Wikipedia says,”Some research claims that DOMS is not caused by the pain from damaged muscle cells, but from the reinforcement process. The muscle responds to training by reinforcing itself up to and above its previous strength by increasing the size of muscle fibers (muscle hypertrophy). This reinforcement process causes the cells to swell in their compartment and put pressure on nerves and arteries producing pain.” It all makes sense now! That year of not working out came back 10 fold! Had I kept up with my physical activities, I probably wouldn’t have fallen victim to DOMS.
Even though I was a bit sore (and still am), I still felt really good, you know? Refreshed. Rejuvenated. I will definitely be working out with Shirley again!

-Rahel Abebe