Body Pump damn near killed me.

Yes, and this is not an exaggeration.

So yesterday I took my first Body Pump class after hearing about it from all these wonderful middle-aged personal trainer bloggers with kids and houses who 100% look like they have their lives together.

I wanna be like that, I thought.

I'll try Body Pump, I thought.

My friend and ex-coworker teaches this class up in Enfield so my boyfriend drove me 40 minutes north to have my ass handed to me on a silver platter.

The class began with a full body barbell warm-up that had me thinking "what the hell did I get myself into"

Followed by six minutes of squats. 

Followed by doubting whether or not I'm actually in any kind of shape at all.

With a sprinkle of muscles burning in a way they never have before.

And a dash of a shoulder track that I LITERALLY COULD NOT FINISH. There were grandmothers in there absolutely slaying and I couldn't even lift 5 lb. hand weights above my head. I wish I was kidding.

This was all accompanied by me scrambling with my barbell in between tracks trying to add weight and then take it off because LOLZ I have no muscle strength apparently.

Lunges for a whole, entire song. 5 seconds of rest in between sets. That's sufficient. (no it's not).

It was a full body barbell workout that lasted an HOUR with a killer set of abs thrown in at the end. Just for fun. Or actually to make you cry. You choose.

All jokes aside though, this was honestly one of the best group classes I've ever done. It was super high intensity, high reps, and low weight (even though they ended up feeling like a billion pounds after a four minute song with no rest time).

Each major muscle group gets a full song (or more) of work with minimal rest and short active recovery.

Maybe it's because I mostly just do cardio endurance focused exercise now with my Spinning class obsession and being a Spin instructor, but omfg, did this class make me realize how depleted my muscles are.

I will 100% be taking this class again.

It was hard core and awesome. 

Group fitness class - Legs & Abs

On Monday there's a small group training class that takes place the hour after I get out of work at the gym and some Mondays I bravely decide to take it! The trainers name is Emily and she's kind of obsessed with working legs, so that's why I say "bravely". Legs are my least favorite thing to work out, mostly because I never have. I always assumed that being a dancer was enough of a legs workout, but since I'm not dancing nearly as much as I used to... alas. Gotta work those legs.

This is the workout that Emily gave us. We did a circuit of legs with an abs exercise, then a circuit of core with a legs exercise. Pretty neat stuff! For each circuit we did 3 sets of either 10 or 15 reps with short rest period to keep the cardio up. I try to aim for 15 reps because I try to be an overachiever. Lolz. 

The hardest part for me is during the ab exercises on the decline bench, to try and keep my back from popping off. This is really important, both for your lower back safety, and the efficiency of the exercise. Your ab muscles are what are gluing your back to that bench. So you get the most effective workout for your abs, especially your lower abs, when your back remains neutral on that bench! 

Starting Monday off right, amirite?! I sneakily convinced my friend Shawn to do this with me, and here you can see him demonstrating those deadlifts with an easy curl bar. Mwahahaha. This morning I am sore, but just the right amount of sore. I think it has to do with the fact that I spent some quality time with a foam roller yesterday afternoon, almost directly after I got home from this workout. Foam rollers are LIFE.

Did you do a Monday workout? If so, what muscle groups did you work and are you sore at all today? 

Monday consistently sets the tone of the rest of my week for me, so I'm super satisfied!