Group Exercise Classes

I absolutely love my group classes that I take 5 days a week now! I couldn’t say enough about them if someone asked me for a recommendation. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays I take Zumba, and we all know how awesomely fun that is. And, if you don’t you better get your butt in gear and find out! Here is my review of Zumba from the first time I took it. On Tuesday and Thursday I take Body Combat, which is a high intensity cardio kick-boxing class! Yes, I said kick-boxing, and yes I can now kick your butt if you test me. Both these classes work some of the same areas of the body, but for the most part I get different results from the two classes.

So, what does my body combat class give me? The class uses several areas of martial arts, including karate, boxing, and muay thai (among others) to give a crazy workout that has fast pace music and about 7 tracks followed by an abs workout. In the class we strike, punch, lunge, side kick, and even squats. Of course there’s a lot more to it then just those, and the hour goes by so much faster then just using a machine for the same length of time. The instructors are also so amazing. I usually have the same instructors for the class, but occasionally we get a sub and they always work you in a slightly different way – which is great! This class has empowered me work hard, push through pain, and focus on my workout.

I am into almost 5 months of Zumba classes, and love it more ever day. I can’t say enough about what a great time I have in this class. I’ve made some great friends from the class, and have learned to shake my booty at the same time. Zumba is so much fun, and really works out the entire body. I think I lost most of my weight recently in my core because of Zumba, with its amazing rumba and Latin inspirited dance movies I get a whole body workout in an hour. In a week I will do a 2 hour Zumba party at the gym and can’t wait to dance the night away!

I will post some videos later on of each class for examples of the workouts!

Zumba!

Zumba was amazingly fun last night and challenging at the same time. If you don’t know what Zumba is then you are missing out. A fitness class choreographed around Latin inspired music and dance moves, Zumba is high intensity and easy to do (once you get the steps down). Some of the moves can be very exotic at times, and for the mostly house wives and moms in the class last night I can say that everyone was bust’n out their best moves. I myself was very thankful for the dance lessons I took with my husband before our wedding, where we learned many of the same dance steps that are utilized into Zumba. Overall, a great workout, with a great instructor, and an unintimidating group of people made for a great experience I will go back for again.

The class itself was an hour long and filled with about 50 people – an overwhelming portion of women of course with a couple of scattered men into the mix. The instructor was high energy and kept the pace at a steady; moderate level of difficulty, which I really liked. I’ve had aerobic-like classes before where it starts out super easy and you get over confident, and then all of a sudden the music changes and it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done! Nope, not this time. Of course there were times where I had to stop and watch her steps, but never did I feel that I was lacking in ability. There were a lot of side stepping, bouncing, arm movements up and down, and squatting. I was very impressed with how much of a full body workout this class is going to be. A full hour of high intensity cardio is just so thrilling to experience, especially when most of my days consisted of cleaning house, cooking food, whipping poppy butts, or sitting around playing with toys with my daughter! Don’t get me wrong, I love almost all of the activities (sans the poppy butt), but a full hour of time where I had to focus on nothing else but moving my body in the right ways really helped to clear my mind and focus my energy again.

So, what are the results from this class? Well, I looked up at Sparkpeople how many calories I may have burned and they had posted that there is no way to adequately calculate how many actual calories are being burned and there is no scientific study done to tell how many are being burned in Zumba. So, I hit the search engine on Google and ended up at ehow.com where they have posted this.
"Zumba workouts can vary in intensity, and calorie burn depends on an individual's weight, fitness level and muscle composition. During an hour long session you can burn anywhere from 500 to 800 calories. On average, a 150-lb. person can expect to burn 536 calories during an hour of Zumba. "
So, since I am not an average sized person I really have no clue how many calories I burned last night in Zumba class, but I can tell you this – I sweat like crazy when I workout hard and I went home with a wet head of hair and wet t-shirt. Zumba is an exhilarating, fast paced, total body workout and exactly what I was looking for!

A New Year = New Goals

Alright people, let’s hear it for 2010 and start off fresh with 2011. I’ve been making it to the gym this past week several times now, and have really missed it. With working part time during the holidays and all the other events going on I had no time left over for myself, let alone the gym. I am back in full force and will start a new adventure soon with The Biggest Loser Contest at my gym. This week I will register for the contest and the following week I will do my weigh in and body composition test. The results and winners are judged on highest % of weight loss and/or highest % of body fat lost in both a men and women's category. So, there will be 2 chances for me to win. I sure wish I had a financial sponsor for this, but I will have to lay down $99 for this whole thing. If I win, there’s no lose for me really, but it will put a burden on our finances this month. Jon and I are prepared to work around that. So, here’s a quick run down of my current weight, some thoughts on goals and workouts, and for the next week I will be re-posting some of my favorite posts from 2010 and then we will get into the contest!

My current weight is 266.6 and I can certainly tell you I am not excited about that number, but I am glad to see that by only indulging myself once in awhile during the past month I did alright about not gaining weight. My goals are large and will need a lot of focus from me to accomplish, but with some accountability partners (you readers), my family, and my drive I will do it!

Goal 1: Compete in the Biggest Loser contest at my gym. I would really like to put win as part of the goal, but would need to really size up the competition first. The contest runs into March, so this will be a good long term focus for me.

Goal 2: Complete 30 day Challenge on EA Active Wii Fit game. I started this again to see how well I do now that have lost weight and have a full year of exercise in my system. When I started this journey, the EA Active was all I had to get me started. I felt like it gave me a great starting point then, and it will give me another avenue of exercise this time around too. I began on the 1st and will finish the challenge in 30 days. The program consists of 2 days on and 1 day off of exercise, so some days I will do the Wii and the gym depending on what’s going on. So far I have really enjoyed the muscles that are being worked again – I had mostly been focusing on cardio lately and not strength building, so this is a nice variation to my workouts.

Goal 3: Zumba class! My gym is now offering Zumba fitness classes and I am interested in seeing how this class works. A lot of my friends have been working out with Zumba for awhile and have seen great results with it. They also say it’s challenging at first, but very rewarding and fun at the same time. The class is offered at 6:30-7:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays, so this will correspond with a lot of things and I will have to work out lives around trying to go to this class.

Goal 4: Lose 30 pounds by April 1! Wow, that’s a deadline that is looming close. I’m only giving myself 3 whole months to shed the weight. Why you ask, well that would be a couple of weeks after the biggest loser contest, but I really just want to have a deadline. I don’t want to keep telling people around spring time or early summer. It doesn’t give me a sense of urgency or keep me on track if I just throw out a time period that is ambiguous. So, that’s 10 pounds a month or 2.5 pounds a week. I can so do that!

Goal 5: Keep a daily food log, sometimes counting calories, but without obsessing over it. Last year at this time I began a head first focus on counting my calories, and it took up a good portion of time to calculate, input, and keep track of all the calories going in me. So, I’ve made my own little journal and will write down what I’m eating and the calories if I know them. If I can see when and what I am eating in front of me I think I will have a better perspective on anything that could be hampering my weight loss.

So, there are the goals and the hard work ahead of me. I hope you will continue to join me on my journey and send encouragement my way. I will do that same for your journeys and help lead you onto a new and healthy path for your life. Happy New Year and I mean it, make it a happy one!