First time at a Muay Thai gym

 Besides my short tenure of using the stepping machines and swimming pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Chattanooga almost a decade ago, I've never set foot in a gym, before.  I promise you, finding this gym, walking inside it, introducing myself, and trying to start Muay Thai as a fifty year old man was pretty daunting.  When I got to the front door the first time, I took a couple of deep breaths, assured myself that this was what I wanted to do and walked in.  The place was huge.  Three quarters of the place was covered in mats and, on one wall as well as throughout the center, were punching bags of about half a dozen varieties.  In the far corner of the room was a boxing ring.  Nobody was in the building except for two people kicking the shit out of each other in that ring, and there was no way I was going to bother those two.  I just kind of awkwardly stood at the counter for a few minutes, hoping something would happen.  

Nothing did.

     I went home and thought I'd try again the next day and see if my luck changed.  I double checked their website, saw that they were open and walked over.  Almost the same situation, except there was an older man in weirdass hotpants that walked over to me, and in broken English, kindly asked what I needed.  I told him I was interested in trying out Muay Thai.  He handed me a sheet of paper that had a few prices on it, but not much of it made sense.  Although he was quite friendly, he let me know that he wasn't able to give me any more information and advised I call the number on a business card he handed me.

I went home and did that.  Nobody answered and there was no way to leave a message.

     The next day, I got back on their site and emailed them.  I absolutely didn't want to call any extra attention to myself, or make it seem like the staff was unhelpful.  As I said, the guy at the gym was pretty kind.  I immediately got a text back from the owner of the gym.  We texted back and forth a bit and she advised I get their app and see the schedules and pricing.  I gave her the lowdown on my age, complete lack of experience, and asked which classes were for beginners, as the app was a little confusing (although I'm much better than I was a few years ago, I'm not what you would call tech savvy).  She said not to worry, and that a beginners class wasn't necessary, and I should just jump right in to any Muay Thai class.  (Most gyms offer a free class to see if it's to your liking)  I saw one on the site that was far enough away so I wouldn't freak out and cancel, and close enough to get me really excited. For the next few days, I watched a handful of videos about what to expect at my first class.  They were super helpful, but looking back, all I really learned from those videos was that I'd be getting my ass handed to me by doing alien punching/kicking drills, doing a lot of jumping rope and shadowboxing, and that I should have a light healthy snack (VERY LIGHT) about an hour beforehand.  Oh, and just since internet algorithms throw BJJ videos alongside a lot of the Muay Thai ones, I learned to trim the nails of my fingers and toes beforehand.

     The day of my first class was approaching, and my stomach was getting tied up in knots.  I think a lot of people try to trick themselves into getting into "pre-workout" shape.  You know, before they get to the gym, they want to get into better shape, so they don't look like such a wimp in front of all the hard bro's.  Not me, nope.  Hell no.  I was play-doh, ready to be molded.  I obviously wasn't going to do it on my own, not with a perfectly good couch and TV lulling me into my own personal comfort cocoon on a daily basis.  Nope...this gym was going to have to accept the real me.  Skinny-yet-flabby, easily out of breath, socially awkward as hell, gray hair, bad knees, half deaf from decades of punk, half blind from decades of reading xeroxed hand typed zines under candlelight, achy back and all.  I won't lie, I was pretty fucking scared.