U-Jam - U-don't without shoes (June 5, 2015)

I am terrible at packing a gym bag.  Really, I am terrible at packing any bag. I notoriously under pack, which doesn't bother me, but sometimes results in me wearing the same thing for a few days and almost always asking a hotel for a toothbrush.  For example - I did 8 days in Europe...in the winter...with a carry-on bag (I wore that outfit to the right almost the entire time).  This lifestyle seems totally reasonable to me - probably because my mother never packs anything.  She is like MacGyver.  She just throws random objects into a bag and survives for days (though usually her keys fail to make it into said bag).

With that preface, as you can imagine, I often forget to pack staple items in my gym bag.  This is annoying, but I can purchase the occasional hair tie.  I have even purchased a sports bra from a workout studio, which I hated because as a small-chested woman I am particular about my sports bras (buxom women are probably also particular, but I do not know that burden).   Anyhow, I digress.

The night that I was supposed to take U-Jam, I forgot shoes.  Unfortunately, shoes are too expensive to purchase on a whim if forgotten, and even if they were cheap, I have never seen them for sale in a gym.  It was Friday after work, and I knew that if I went home there was going to be no working out, so I made the executive decision that U-Jam was not a workout that required shoes (I based this confident decision on nothing).

U-Jam is described online as an "intense cardiovascular workout [that] takes you around the world from hip-hop to Bollywood as you dance and move to high-energy music."  I figured that U-Jam was probably a typical dance class, and I could dance without shoes.  People do it all the time at weddings, right?

I wandered barefoot through the gym (which I am sure was incredibly unsanitary) and up to the group fitness studio.

I notice there were a ton of gentlemen in the class, which was a little unusual.  In my experience, you don't see a ton of men in those types of aerobic dance classes.  Then the instructor walked in, and I suddenly understood the unique class demographic.  She was gorgeous and wearing well-painted in spandex.  The dots instantly connected, and I wondered if she had any idea that her fan base might not be focusing on the calorie burn or the beats.

I decided that I should let hot stuff know my situation instead of just looking like a barefoot random in the back of the exercise room.  I walked up to her and said, "I forgot my shoes.  Can I take this class barefoot?"  In hindsight, that was probably a weirder question than I realized at the time.  The instructor just looked at me a little surprised and goes, "No.  Probably not...but you are welcome to stay?"  That is not a typographical error.  Her response was said with a questioning tone. Understandable.
Well, I was not prepared for her response.  I was prepared for, "yes, of course you can workout and pioneer the new concept of barefoot U-Jam." I was delusional because I was determined to workout.  Fortunately for me, the instructor technically gave me the "welcome to stay," so in a truly awkward fashion that is exactly what I did.


The class started.  I thought to myself "this isn't so bad."  The moves were pretty low impact.  Traditional dance moves, a little Zumba-ish, and a little air grinding (the instructor's fan club was extremely happy).  Then, the instructor added the jumping.  I guess that was part of our rhythmic world journey? They incorporate jumping into a lot of the dancing in other countries...and in our American hip-hop.  As a non-dancer, I was unaware of all the hopping involved in choreography. The jumping is where things quickly deteriorated for this shoe-less idiot.

I lasted a total of 35 minutes into the one-hour class because the lack of ankle support and jumping made me think my Achilles were going to snap.  The workout seemed like it would be great.  I was expecting it to be a knockoff of Zumba, or some other dance class, but it really had its own feel and the music was awesome.  Please, please, check it out if it is something that your gym offers.  Just remember to wear shoes.  I will definitely give it another shot...next time I will bring proper footwear (and probably forget a shirt).

Kudos to the instructor for great music, what seemed to be a great workout, and a high tolerance for both the awkward, barefoot attendees and the creepy, oogling attendees.

Note - I didn't have any pictures of this class, so I just Goolged "awesome shoes" and have sprinkled images that came up for your viewing pleasure.