Bootcamp, pilates, kickboxing - oh my!

Thursday Review

Thursday was, well, a typical Thursday. I dragged myself about of bed after 4 hours of sleep in order to make my morning bootcamp class. As I predicted the day before, it was far more challenging than with my usual instructor. Or rather, they have different styles. Catherine is all about go-go-go, no rest. Which is good. She incorporates more cardio and jumping. Katie is more structured and really cuts everyone a lot of slack. Catherine does everything with us, so really you have no excuse for slacking. Whereas Katie demonstrates how to get started and otherwise chats with us while we workout. I do love Katie's classes - but I think the fact that Catherine doesn't entirely compromise the workout in order to accomodate people who aren't fit is better. In my opinion, everyone should be pushed hard and if they can't take it, then on an individual level they can rest. The entire class shouldn't have to reduce the quality of their workout for the few who can't keep up. She should go full force and everyone completes it at their own level - but that the maximum is demonstrated, to aim for.

Anyway, I did some burst intervals on the stationary bike before class. Class was 45 minutes. I then tackled my upperbody with the remaining time before work - biceps, triceps and rows on the cable machine; lat pull-downs and shoulder press on the weight machines; assisted pull-ups on the Gravitron at 75lb assistance. Sadly, after the work in bootcamp, I ended up doing three sets of 10-8-6. I suppose if I could handle three 12-rep sets, it would be time to drop even more anyway. So I'll work at 75lb assistance for now and hopefully get down another five by the end of the month. I'm now pulling more than half my body weight though!

Speaking of which, I've been bad and weighing daily. I'm at 160 which wavers up to 162 by the end of the day. I'm hoping that I'll drop into the 150s next week. Fingers crossed. Hopefully I'll have a good/healthy eating weekend. I have big running plans, since the snow kept me indoors all week. I've been doing my little cardio bursts, since I can't stand the tedium of treadmill running, but nothing is a substitute for a good long run. I'm excited for the spring and warmer weather to be here. It means clear roads and sidewalks.

Alright, I went back to the gym on Thursday night for Muscle Conditioning class, again with Catherine. I used a combo of lighter and heavier weights since I didn't want to overtrain certain muscles that I'd already worked in the morning. Our abs and leg work were the same moves that we did in the morning, so I modified them slightly and/or skipped the weight versions. I admit that I was a little tired. It was good to get some extra work in though. Even today I feel the work I did on my abs yesterday.

Friday

Now I managed to catch up on sleep last night. A full 9 hours! However, given that I'm still up, I'm not really sticking to that. Utilizing this improvement in my schedule. Today was an easy day at the gym. I took Beginner Pilates with Marie. While the class is far easier, one aspect that I really like is that fact that she spend so much time talking and explaining things that I'm stuck in these positions for extended periods of time. It takes a lot of strength to keep my upperbody lifted and my legs out straight at 45 degree angle while she talks for a minute straight, and after all that do the exercise.

After class I asked her about some of the more advanced workouts that I was seeing only. For example, a version of scissors that looks like a cross between scissors and a rollover. You rest on your shoulders with your torso vertical, arm on you lower back for support, and then execture scissors. She was dismissive of it, it was neither Stott nor Power pilates she said. She said that Windsor pilates, which it may have been, is a mutation on the originals developed by a woman in LA that wanted to be able to make money off the move, so she modified things pointlessly for the sake of making it unique. Interesting take. Anyway, she had us stretch for 20 minutes after class. I wanted to work out some more, but I had to meet some people for drinks and by the time we were done stretching, it was late and I didn't have time. I feel so rude bypassing the stretch, but since I'm going to just continue exercising and stretch afterwards, I technically don't need to stretch twice. At least not that extensively.

Tonight I was talking with the boyfriend of an old coworker. They both teach at a local Tae Kwon Do school, which happens to offer a kickboxing class. They run at 6:3op Monday, 6:30p Wednesday and 6p Friday. He said that they sell packages or sessions, the next one starting on April 1st. I can do a trial class for free. They also sell packages that can drop price down to around $10/class. The session is $150, which is unlimited classes for three months. I'm putting a lot of consideration into this because I'm not getting what I want from my gym classes lately. If I could ad cardio three times per week in the form of kickboxing - wow. The thing is the cost. That's $50/month. The cost of my gym membership. That's not really cash I have laying around. So I'm going to have to give this some thought. I really want to get back into kickboxing though - and a class taught by TKD black belts is reassuring on the instruction front. I have the rest of the month of March at least to think about this all.