Fitness Friday: Twerk with Zoe McNulty

Sorry guys for not meeting my promise of getting a WIAW post up about the food at Fitness Fiesta – you’ll have to wait until next week.

But into my first class review.  I’ll start with our first class.

If you read my posts from Feb/March Fitness Fiesta, you will know that we did a class taught by Zoe McNulty last time – I think Ben came away with a bit of a crush. So, what’s a wife to do? I approved of his choice, so I told him he had to come with me to Twerk.

He was the lone male in a class full of women. We arrived late, and in an effort to be less conspicuous we settled in the back of the room. Now, while I say we were less conspicuous, Ben was still head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the room. He didn’t get picked out, and for that we were both relieved.

Fitness Friday: Sports Therapy

Sometimes fitness is about more than just exercise.

Some months ago I hurt my shoulder.  Of all the exercises I do, how did I hurt it?  Yoga!  It wasn’t even a difficult pose, I was doing the bug sequence and suddenly my shoulder blade wasn’t where it was supposed to be during an arm extension.

Crikey it hurt.

I stopped the exercise, and went gentle on my shoulder for the rest of the class.  However, it still hurt the next day when I was running for my train (late again).  It eased off, but I have been aware of the weakness ever since.

HG Sports Therapy

I was hearing great things about our Sports Therapist at the gym, Hannah Groombridge of H.G. Sports Therapy.  Did I make the appointment? No.

Then my friend started to nag me.  She had an injury that got worse, and she persuaded me that it is better to get it checked out now, before I do some major damage.

Sometimes fitness is about more than just exercise.  Sometimes it’s about taking care of your body, and treating it right.

Fitness Friday: Synrgy

I decided to sign up for a month’s summer membership at the gym at work.  I’ve always said I can’t justify running two memberships.  I;ve always stuck with the gym at home because my friends are at my home gym, and it’s so convenient being right next door.

But, the work gym has a good range of classes that I don’t get at my home gym.  They offered a one month’s summer membership – no need to cancel – so I thought I would give it a go.

I started with an early morning (7.30am) Synrgy class.  I didn’t know what to expect, other than the class description:

Fast and furious, Synrgy provides a full throttle fitness blast.

Using the unique multi-station apparatus, Synrgy turns the gym into a 30 minute fitness disco. Motivational music, count down timers and Synrgy’s own lighting rig will help you power through as you lift, squat, press, dip and move your way to functional muscle strength.

Synrgy 360

Fitness Friday…fitness while travelling

It’s Fitness Friday.  I was racking my brains for a topic for today’s Fitness Friday post.  I’ve focussed on so classes I tried out when I went to Fitness Fiesta.  I’ve written about a couple of classes that I take part in regularly here and here.  I could detail my usual weekly fitness routine.  Or how I like to change things up in the gym.

But those topics will have to wait.  Because this week, with June around the corner and holiday season coming, I’m thinking about fitness while travelling.

You can’t rely on having a fully equipped gym when you go away.

Now I appreciate that exercise and holidays don’t necessarily fit together for everyone.  Some people are happy with a bit of holiday-indulgence.  After all, if you can’t relax and enjoy yourself when you are on holiday – when can you??

But, I for one want to keep on top of my healthy eating and fitness even when I am away.  So how does that fit into holidays and travelling?

Fitness Friday: Pilates Barre

Our second to last class on the Saturday of Fitness Fiesta was Pilates Barre.  I knew ‘Barre’ meant ballet, and I’ve done pilates in the past, so I kinda had an idea of what was involved.

Ben had just done Outdoor Military Fitness with the British Military Fitness Team, so he was expecting a chilled and relaxed class.  He had been to the odd Rejuventaion yoga class with me, soI think he was expecting something similiar.

However, he was to be disappointed.

Fitness Friday: Insanity®

Hello, it’s Fitness Friday – or, I’m just glad it’s Friday!

This week I am reviewing the Insanity® class that we took part in during our Fitness Fiesta.  I wrote about the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) last week. They call Insanity ‘Max Interval Training’ because you are working to your maximum – pushing yourself to your limits.

A quick recap on HIIT:

The intensity kicks your body into hyperdrive so you burn more fat and calories (than a steady pace run) in the 24 hours after a HIIT workout just to recover!  In that vein, HIIT stimulates production of your human growth hormone (HGH) during the 24 hours after you finish your workout. This is great because HGH increases caloric burn and (supposedly) also slows down the aging process, making you younger both inside and out! (source).

I got thinking and wondered if, in fact, it is down to a depletion of glycogen which results in the extra calorie burn.  If you body can only store 350g of glycogen (used for energy) in the liver, and you are burning through that at a faster rate while working at high intensity – perhaps the body is just using what you then take in as stores – just a thought???  Let me know what you think.

 

I saw the effects of tabata training at the gym this week.  As you know, I love my Polar Heart Monitor.  I took a lunchtime gym session recently where I incorportated a couple of sessions of tababta intervals.  I worked myself hard.  In the evening I went to my usual yogalates class, and I burned a third more calories than I normally do, doing much the same routine as always! The only thing I could think to put it down to was the ‘afterburn’ effect of my lunchtime training!

So to Insanity®.  Here’s what we were told about it:

Insanity® creates insane results in just 60 days. But are you brave enough to try it or crazy enough to enjoy 60 minutes of muscle searing exercise. Is Insanity® hard? Yes, it‟s totally crazy…but it‟s going to get you crazy-good results.

Fitness Friday: Fame and Cheerobics®

Yay – It’s Friday, and you know what that means – it’s almost the weekend! Gimme a whoop! It also means it’s Fitness Friday, and I’m continuing my theme of Reviews from Fitness Fiesta.

This week I am reviewing a couple of aerobics style classes: Fame with Zoe McNulty and Cheerobics® with Jo Cooper

Cheerobics with Jo Cooper

A shameless ‘selfie’ before the class kicked off 🙂

Fitness Friday: Polar FT4

Oh yeah, I bought myself a new toy.

Polar FT4

I was inspired by my lovely friend with a fab name 🙂 and finally justified the purchase to myself.  It comes in a number of colours, but I fell in love with the bronze/orange.