The Body Is Learning Again
Returning to a step class at seventy and rediscovering capability.
The music starts, and I immediately realise I am behind. The YouTube instructor says “right lead,” and my feet hesitate. For the first time in forty years, I am in a step class.
My beloved Peloton bike is taking a back seat these days.
A hastily purchased Facebook Marketplace aerobic stepper sits in my office, allowing me to try this experiment in the privacy of my home rather than among young, lycra-clad bodies in a gym. Daggy gym gear is just fine in my class of one.
How hard can it be? I’ve done this before and loved it.
Here we go.
I get re-acquainted with the ‘mirror’ style of her instruction. How she tells us right and is using her left to make it easier for us amazes me. I watch her intently. The moves are basic. She signals the next move with her voice as well as using hand signals. However, for the first ten minutes of the Step class, my brain understands the instructions perfectly. My feet do not.
I have to stop and catch up numerous times, chuckling to myself, relieved that the only other person in the room is my reflection in the mirror. The rhythm clicks. On a roll now. Feeling mighty pleased with myself. But then I lose concentration and miss a beat or two. Focus Robyn. The moment my feet finally match the music is sublime.
Step classes look so simple when you watch them. I remember classes at my local gym way back when. I looked forward to those early morning starts and the endorphin rush of blaring music and synchronised movement. Back then, it didn’t take long to get the hang of the beat and the ever more challenging choreography, together with the step-up to one or even 2 risers under my step platform. I remember moving from hiding at the back of the room to bravely taking my place at the front within a very short time.
However, when you try to do a class after so many years away, it’s very different.
What fascinates me is not the difficulty. It is the conversation happening between my brain and my body. There’s a disconnect that wasn’t there before.
I realise I am watching something rare:
My body is learning again.
I started where my brain knew, but my body didn’t.
Coordination is slowly returning.
Each class, my body lines up with the music a little sooner.
What keeps me coming back is the sheer joy that returns the moment the rhythm clicks. I am discovering that learning physically feels different at 70.
My return to the stepper was driven by the need for more impact exercise as part of my Osteoporosis exercise pivot. I am fortunate that I already loved it and was willing to persevere rather than give up when it became difficult, which has been a pattern for me. I also recognise the cognitive benefit of this kind of movement.
Learning in the body is very different from learning in the mind, which has been my primary go-to for decades. I sense that the body does not lose its ability to learn.
It simply learns more slowly.
It makes me think that the greatest form of security in later life may not be wealth, but capability.
Favourite reads this week:
Everything I Eat in a Day as a Bioscientist Studying Aging by Ollie J. Whitby
I did a low impact cardio class last weekend and had the same experience. Just as I got the hang of my feet the instructor add in arms as well. I was lost and had a new found respect for dancers. Clearly Charlotte does not inherit her dance coordination from me.