Instructor Change

Scenario:

You have a class you regularly go to. You love the class, you love the instructor. One day there’s a sub. That’s okay, you still go, but it’s not the same. The sub is just as good a teacher, probably even better qualified for all you know, but she’s not YOUR instructor. Personalities are different. The feel of the class is different. Even the music is at a different volume. Boredom creeps up on you. Motivation is seriously lacking but you push yourself for as long as possible during the class until you can’t take it anymore. 30 minutes out of an hour is still a respectable workout. You’ve worked enough to be plenty sore the next day.

The original teacher has to leave for awhile and there’s no sub available so the class is temporarily cancelled. NOOOO!!!!

Months later you see there’s a new sub so you check it out again. SURPRISE!!! They’re funny and motivational and the room’s energy is beyond awesome. You start coming again…only to arrive one day and find yet another sub who’ll be taking over. Your energy plummets. Everything is dull again. 30 minutes later you’re out the door just as before. This new awesome sub will not be coming back not because of any issues but because that was the time agreed upon behind scenes.

You’re left in the same situation as before except with tons more muscle and a much deeper feeling of disappointment because you don’t want to lose that hard-won strength but neither do you want to struggle through an hour of boredom 2x/wk.

What do you do??

This is the dilemma I’m currently facing with BodyPUMP. Let me be clear that it is NOT the instructor’s fault. I’ve experienced 6 different BodyPUMP instructors and they ALL rocked. They knew their stuff, their form was on target, they were all nice and friendly and energetic. I don’t know what it is about an instructor that makes me want to take their class. I can go to a boring class but if I click with the instructor, I’ll keep going. Likewise, I can go to an awesome class but if I don’t click with that instructor, I won’t keep going.

I considered getting certified in it and teaching the darn thing myself cuz I always have awesome fun teaching fitness classes. It’s like a win/win – I get moving (sometimes I get worked seriously hard too), I motivate others to exercise and be healthy, and I get paid for it! Learning the choreo etc wouldn’t be all that difficult. I mean, it would take a lot of time, but it’s totally doable. It’s the training itself that’s not doable. A couple days of intense training and it’s not guaranteed that people pass that workshop to even get to their eval videos.

Unfortunately, I’m not physically strong enough to do that. I’m tons stronger than I used to be, but I’m not yet strong enough to tackle that monster. But it is a certification I’d like to get at some point because the class can be super fun and it works soooo well.

I’m not the type of person to push myself through an hour of fitness boredom (part of the reason I stop my workout plans so often) so I won’t be going to BodyPUMP class anymore. However, that doesn’t mean I’m s.o.l. Here’s my tentative schedule to make up for this loss:

• M – Walk/Jog Intervals // Tone It Up
• Tu – SilverSneakers Cardio Circuit // POP Pilates
• W – HIIT or PIIT
• Th – SilverSneakers Cardio Circuit // POP Pilates
• F – Walk/Jog Intervals // BodyPUMP??
• Sa – HIIT or PIIT
• Su – Rest

That schedule is subject to change on any given day but it’s the basic idea of what I’m currently planning on. My doctor said I shouldn’t be running at all because I have mild arthritis in my knees. However, I’ve been reading articles about it. They all differ of course but most seem to concur that osteoarthritis isn’t a 100% game breaker for running. If I was an athlete whose job was running etc then, yes, I’d be done. But there’s a possibility that cross-training and keeping it mild etc along with RICE blah blah blah…Maybe I could start running again. Nothing big, but maybe I’d be able to do 5k races again with the proper precautions?

I’m probably grasping at straws here, but I miss it so much. My legs are much stronger than they were too…I’ll have to talk to the doctor about it. He might relent and point me to a physical therapist or personal trainer who could help.

Anyway, so in lieu of BodyPUMP classes, I’ve made a new schedule. That’s what I do when I lose classes or instructors I really enjoy. I’m excited about starting this new schedule too. I love changing up my workouts! Except now my son’s school is out for the summer so I’ll have a mini-me in tow wherever I go. Oh joy. Oh rapture. At least he’s being a good sport about going to all of my classes etc and so well-behaved when we’re there! I’m lucky I’m in a gym where I can legally do that for the most part.

New May Challenge

Happy May Day! First day of a new month and the month is spring! In my part of the world, April ended in a blast of cold, wind, rain, and snow. Ick. Good riddance to April. It was such a nice month until the end. Winter gave one last swing to knock us flat. But it’s May now and that won’t happen anymore! Right? Right?? Fingers crossed.

New Month = New Blogilates Calendar

Normally I don’t announce this because Cassey Ho always comes out with a new calendar for each month, but this one is different.

Usually Cassey has us doing about 5 videos 6 days a week (not counting the Beginner’s 2.0 Calendar). You might balk at that number of videos but they’re pretty short – she aims for around 60 minutes total for the day. This month, however, she’s getting us prepped for PIIT28 and the workouts have been zapped down to 30 minutes (not including warm-up and cooldown).

Now, if you have no desire to do PIIT28, that’s not a problem. This is free, PIIT28 is not – totally understandable if you’d rather steer clear of it. You can stick with these videos or use the free PIIT videos that are on her Youtube channel – Blogilates.

If you’ve tried PIIT28 or the PIIT videos on Cassey’s Youtube channel, you already know how difficult those workouts are. For a lot of people, they’re not really doable because the cardio is filled with high impact moves that can seriously jar the joints. While I was able to complete PIIT28 1.0 when it first came out in March 2016, my knees have prevented me from doing so a second time without serious modifications. I was just doing the program in April as a matter of fact. No, I didn’t finish it because I got bored and it became a chore. When a workout becomes a chore for me and I no longer feel accomplished or productive doing it (when it’s accompanied by boredom or dread in fact), I don’t see any point in doing it any longer.

I finished the first half which was going through all 11 workouts. Already with just that and eating cleaner than I had been, I lost a few pounds (which I gained back, of course, when Easter hit and there was my favorite candy right at my fingertips), lost about 1/2″ off my waist and saw an increase of muscle in my arms and legs. Add to this the increases I felt rather than saw – butt strength, happiness, self-confidence, energy…I was perfectly content to stop at the halfway mark.

Every BodyPUMP class I marvel at how deep my squats are now. Changing PIIT’s high impact cardio to low impact gave me lots of squats and my butt has become so strong. The muscles around my knees must be getting stronger too because my lunges are so much better (usually with less pain too but that depends on the day really).

It was good that I ditched the last half of the program though. My butt had gotten used to everything and had ceased to be sore so gradually that I didn’t even realize it. I had also really wanted to start Cassey’s new 6-Week Bootcamp. The first video she released was a booty workout so I did that last Monday…and was SO SORE for the rest of the week!!! That’s when I realized my butt had stopped being sore from PIIT28 1.0. And this new video just KILLED my poor tush.

Cassey listened to everyone’s pleas (and complaints) and made the cardio for this new program low impact. Even if you live in a 2nd+ floor apartment, you can still do these moves without annoying your downstairs neighbors. Unless you have your music, you know, turned up really loud in which case that’s on you.

This low impact bootcamp is designed for everyone. It continues in the PIIT style with 45 seconds for a move followed by 15 seconds of rest on and on for 7 moves. That’s Round 1. You get an extra 10 seconds of rest between rounds and repeat for a total of 4 rounds. Her videos only show 1 round so if you want to follow along with her, you’ll have to start the video over each time. If you do the moves during Round 1 and you’d prefer not to listen to her anymore, you can continue on your own.

The bootcamp itself calls for 1 video done at least 1x the first week, 2 videos done at least 1x the 2nd week, 3 the 3rd week, etc for 6 weeks. By the end of 6 weeks, you should feel a lot stronger (unless you’re sitting on your butt watching the videos, anyone should feel stronger after doing any kind of exercise for 6 weeks) and maybe you’ll be ready for PIIT28 1.0 (unless you have injuries or medical difficulties in which case you can still modify the high impact moves in PIIT28).

The calendar is a bit different. Not all of the bootcamp videos are out so Cassey has filled in the extra days with similar workouts. So we’ve got the Fat Burning and the Booty videos from the bootcamp this week while the rest of the week has some of the free PIIT videos as well as the Snowbunny Blast and some stretching for the rest day. Next week will have 4 of the bootcamp videos along with 2 PIIT videos and some stretching. Etc for the rest of the month.

Despite the fact that I’ll be unable to really complete the last week of the calendar due to personal stuff, I’m still super psyched about doing this. This is probably the first Blogilates calendar in a long time that has piqued my interest enough to work it into my schedule.

One last thing! As you see on the calendar, there is a $15 off coupon code for the PIIT28 Transformation Pack. Here’s what’s included in that pack:

• PIIT28 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
• 28 Day Reset (meal plan – reg or vegan)

If you got each of those individually, it would cost $186. Yikes! If you get all of it in the Transformation Pack, you pay $99. This coupon code takes off $15 so you’d get it for $84. Best. Deal. EVER! True, it’s a lot of money but not nearly as much as $186. You’re saving $102! And the program works so well if you put in the work and effort.

Even my doing a low impact version of PIIT28 gave me results. OMG! And pair it with BodyPUMP and the muscle gains are AMAZING! Remember I stopped after only 2 weeks and was impressed with my muscle gain. I watch my arms in the mirror and marvel at how much better they look. My back as well. Yeah, I ogle myself and I admit it to people. I actually invited my friends in class one day to look at my butt.

Aaaaanyyyyywaaaaaaay!

If you’re interested in getting the PIIT28 Transformation Pack, click on the below picture. Don’t forget to use your coupon code at checkout to get $15 off!

$15 OFF CODE: “sweaty15”

PIIT28 Transformation Pack – $15 off code: “sweaty15” – expires May 31, 2017