Monthly Archives: January 2012

Last week was a couple of new routines and the word that sums it all up was “ouch”.  I had finally decided to try out one of the “P90X” routine since a friend had so kindly given me her DVD set.  While I am reluctant to adhere to the nutritional program (after all, the chances of peanut butter cookies & nachos on the menu is probably slim), I am keen to see what the workouts will do for me.  DVD #1 was the chest/back routine.  Since I don’t have a pull-up bar yet, I used resistance bands thrown around the beam across our ceiling for an anchor.  We all have to improvise sometimes!

I knew I was in trouble when the routine started off with push-ups and the instructor asked each of his groupies how many they were planning to do.  No one (including the woman) answered less than twenty.  Crap.  Well, my number was about 16, with half of those on my knees.  By the end of the hour, all my push-ups were on my knees.  The resistance bands also beat me up a bit and I can only imagine what actual pull-ups would do, assuming I could do more than two.  Somehow through all this there is quite a bit of core action going on, so I’m feeling a nice soreness all over, though I still had to follow it up with a brisk 3 miles of treadmill hills.  (I know, there is something kind of wrong with me.)

So – that was Monday.  Tuesday I returned to the spot I took my first Zumba class to try something else (it’s a Groupon deal for 5 classes).  I decided to give the “barre method” workout a try.  Of course, after Monday’s chest & back workout, what’s the first thing we do in this class?  Push-ups.  OUCH.  Then a few of those free weight moves that are somewhat deceiving:  the kind where you use very light weights but in ways that have your arms shaking within a minute.  Let’s just say I’m very glad that when the instructor told me to get a set of weights she steered me away from the 10lb ones.  The rest of the routine was a nice full-body mix and a lot of core focus.  By Tuesday night I could barely lift my arms high enough to wash my hair.

Wednesday I decided to take it easy and headed to the pool for a short swim.  Why do I always seem to forget how much your abs are involved in a flip turn?  GOOD GOSH OUCH OUCH OUCH!  I did manage about 2500 yards, and I have to say that the weightlessness of the swim helped, at least enough so that the barre method class on Thursday didn’t seem as bad.  I’ll give it a couple more of those (use up the Groupon) and perhaps then I might be in slightly better shape to take on the P90X monster again.  Just don’t take away my cookies.

As a runner, I have never found it to be a challenge to get in a workout when I travel.  After all, there’s really nothing very complicated about tying your shoes, picking a direction and just moving.  Of course a little research before never hurts – always check with a concierge or someone local about sketchy neighborhoods to avoid or decent bakeries for “carbo-loading”.

That being the case, I’ve hardly used hotel gyms, but this past weekend broke my years-long streak.  We were in Orlando for a quick visit and I was able to get in my endurance workout with a long swim on Friday before we left, so I felt fine taking the day off on Saturday.  Sunday was spent walking around the parks (Universal, we’re all about Harry Potter these days!).  I considered being on my feet for most of 12 hours & occasionally holding Sam was giving me enough of a workout for the day.  Monday was a travel day & since I’ve learned the flights *might* change I always try to get a workout in before leaving,  This meant being in the fitness room at 6am, which was fine.  The problem was to get to the fitness room at our hotel, you had to walk outside for a bit which allowed me to breathe in the crisp, easy-to-run-in air, and though it was still dark, there were at least 3 runners that went by in the minute I was outside.  As I checked into the fitness room and hit the “incline up” button on the treadmill I couldn’t help but wonder for a second how easy it would be to just jog around the lake a few times.  It’s not like someone I know would see me, right?

Then again, as karma goes, it was likely that I would run into someone.  And the little voice inside my head (you know, that pain in the ass know-it–all one?) kept saying “You’d only be cheating yourself…”  so I plodded away on my make believe hills and even hit the weight machines for a bit.  I then later discovered that if you really want to work your glutes, share one of those huge “boardwalk bikes” (the kind with a big bench seat  & canopy) with your kid who can’t reach the pedals.  See how those inclines treat you.

It has become apparent to me that not all Zumba is created equal.  Just as with yoga, you really need to find a routine and teacher that will suit you.  After last week’s post about my attempt (which included a comment about it not being strenuous enough), I got an invite from a friend to be a guest at the class she teaches at Lifetime Fitness.  She assured me it wasn’t so much about the dancing and since there were no mirrors in the gym I didn’t have to worry about how goofy I looked if I couldn’t see it myself.

The class is obviously popular since it filled the gym and I notice that like marathons, there are people of all ages, shapes & sizes participating.  Also like in marathons, you cannot judge someone’s ability by their size & shape.  This was no more obvious than when you see the woman in her 8th month of pregnancy moving along, or the little toddler up in front with her mom that has the perfect squat positon.

I *think* I kept the steps better this time; but let’s not forget without a mirror I may never know!  They seemed to be more about the movement and not as much hip shaking & chest shimmies, which suits me perfectly.  At any rate, what I did do had me sweating, breathing hard & actually enjoying myself.  While I wasn’t a BIG fan of the end-of-workout lunges, I do appreciate them & I’m sure I won’t be forgetting them over the next couple days.  Certainly an hour of good effort!

I would like to say that I successfully completed a Zumba class but I’m afraid that would be stretching it a bit.  While I did attend and participate for a full one hour of class, I’m sure I missed at least 30% of the steps.

There were a number of ways to try to follow along:

1 –   The teacher that kept moving about & turning therefor providing an extra challenge of trying keeping track of the whole left-right thing

2 – The students to my right, who were 3 twenty-somethings, one of whom mentioned her many years of tap which seemed to come in handy.  Neither of them were strangers to salsa dancing.

3 – The late 60s/early 70ish woman on my left that had no problems with the steps.  apparently, she & her daughter are “Zumba junkies” and tour the different classes.

4 – The most frightening: the mirror!!

It was seeing myself in comparison to the rest of the class that made me realize how great at physical comedy I’d be, if only was was doing it on purpose.  I’d manage to get the feet right after a couple repeats and then the move would change.  I would step left while everyone else went right, pivot a second too late and nearly backed into a tub of free weights.   There is a lot of that fancy little “chest shimmy” move that seems to make its way into all the Latin inspired “Dancing with the Stars” routines, you know that one that they ALL make look so damn easy?  I’m here to tell you, not all bodies move that way.   I tried, but all I could manage was a weird sort of shoulder shake that made it look like I had just discovered a tarantula crawling up my back.  I am the “Keystone Cop” of Zumba.

All in all, it was fun – I might even try another dance fitness class again, provided auditions aren’t required.

Let’s see, last time I posted I believe I was about to take my first Zumba class.  Shame to say, not much has changed!  The day I was to go to class, I was challenged with a car that wouldn’t start, so it turned into a nice walking day instead.  I am registered for the same class tomorrow, fingers crossed my transportation won’t let me down this time!  (In the good old days, I might have run to the class….)

Proud to say I seemed to make it through the holidays without weight gain or crazy mood swings (I don’t think Jeff would argue that….).  This is due in no small part to the support of my family in seeing that I got ample time at the pool, on the home workout machines, or walking, and also to the stealth location of my sister’s Christmas cookies.  I kept forgetting about the freezer in her garage!

My swims have been up to 8000 yards, but during the week I’m trying to relax a bit and keep them at 3000-4000 as a bonus workout.  Each day I’ve been mixing it up with fast inclined walking on the treadmill while holding free weights.  I’m far from scientific about it, in that I’ll wave them around like pom-poms during a good song until the muscles start to burn.  I guess it’s time to get serious and start in on those P90X dvds.  Just need to figure out how to use them.

So, once again, Zumba tomorrow.  Will whine about it here later.