When I told my mom that I was taking strength and conditioning last spring, she laughed at me. Since I had never touched a set of weights before, she couldn’t believe that her daughter – a dancer and an actress – wanted to take a weightlifting class. 

At first, I worried she was right. On the first day of school, I was completely freaking out and felt like I was in way over my head. What did I know about being a “gym bro?” Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was going in completely blind. 

In hindsight, I was probably being dramatic. I wasn’t going into the class to get shredded or get a new PR. I got into it because I was frustrated with ballet and wanted a change. 

I have done ballet since I was about eight years old. I had always really enjoyed it, but it became less pleasant as I got older. One focus of ballet is on looking a certain way and having a “correct” body type, which gets stricter as you acquire more experience. When I was younger, I fit this frame, but I started to grow out of it as I got older. 

I was sick of going to ballet and being expected to be strong, but also being expected to not appear muscular. It simply wasn’t super realistic for me, so I wanted to use Strength and Conditioning to feel stronger and better about myself. 

Strength and Conditioning teacher Mr. Chuck Spagnoli made sure that everyone knew what they were doing and that music was playing. Occasionally, he would “pass me a bone” and play Taylor Swift if he noticed that I was losing some energy. 

Junior Meghan Pierce and I started to gain real enthusiasm for the class, much to my surprise. In a weird, twisted way, I started looking forward to Trivia Abs (a game where if someone answers a trivia question right, the class doesn’t have to do 10 sit-ups) and trying to lift a heavier weight. 

By the end of the class, I felt exponentially better about myself compared to when I started. I enjoyed feeling strong and being able to feel more capable and confident. In ballet, I was able to focus on how strong I looked from Strength and Conditioning as opposed to how frustrated I was from not looking like a prima ballerina. 

When the semester came to an end, I actually found myself sad to be leaving the class. It was a welcome distraction during the day to lift weights, ride a bike, or even do sit-ups. I know that I can go into almost any gym in the world now and know how to use the equipment relatively confidently. 

Pierce feels the same way. She and I went into the class together absolutely terrified and left it feeling sad that it was over. 

“Originally, I thought it would be like any other gym class but that was not the case,” Pierce said. “It became a community where I felt comfortable pushing myself out of my comfort zone.”