I went to dance class today.

My doc said after 6 weeks I could return to normal activity; my six weeks were up yesterday. My body started complaining a couple days ago about wanting some exercise, I started getting achy -- amazing that it took that long. I ran down the block and back with my dog -- I can move again.

So this morning I knew from the aches and pains that I still needed more movement, to help get my energy flowing again. I went to a beginning modern dance class -- I've been studying modern dance since I was 5 so this wasn't something far-fetched. Anyway, as part of the warm-up we do some abdominal work, not sit-ups but lots of moving and stretching and small crunches and contractions. I got through that, taking a break for parts of it. Then we did footwork, brushes, tendus, degagés, passés (for those of you who have studied ballet or modern).

After about a half hour my fascia had enough stretching and was complaining so I stopped; my legs and arms and back were fine though perhaps a little weak. I've been kinda tired since, though I was run down before then as well -- I think it is my anemia from all my bleeding. I remembered how someone asked if they could do yoga a couple weeks ago, and how interesting it was to finally be the one getting to move again myself. My advice is take it slow, stretch a lot, listen to your body and stop if you need to. I'm going to keep up the exercise over the next few weeks and when I return from vacation I'll try to hit dance class again and I bet I'll be that much stronger.