Muscle Fatigue, Thanks Les Mills!

This weekend was a crazy, crazy weekend. First, I turned even older on Friday. Yes, older than dirt. 


But once you turn a certain sophisticated age, you really don't get much choice on what you get to do and when. This weekend was Hollywood's Homecoming Extravaganza with the game on Friday and dance on Saturday.  

Here we are before the sweat commenced!

After she left for dinner Saturday night with her group of friends, I made my way to Rosemont where SCW Fitness was holding the Les Mills Midwest Quarterly. I've never been to a quarterly and was really excited to get to participate in as many of the Les Mills programs as I wanted. Does that sound crazy? Yes. Nine hours of working out can make a girl tired and sore, but more on that later. 


Since our small fitness center is new to the Les Mills Kool-Aid, we had all 3 (yes, count them 3) of our instructors going to quarterly as well as one of our best students. I had a wonderful plan....lots and lots of working out! Blood, sweat and tears and all of that stuff. We stayed in a hotel Saturday night so we could be nice and fresh for all of our ambitious classes on Sunday. 


The morning started with Body Pump at 8 am. Since our fitness center hasn't launched Pump 79 yet, this was our first chance to preview the choreography. I can already tell you that I have some work to do on the tricep dips as well as the side planks. Oh holy weak abs! I'm guessing approximately 150 people participated in the first class of the day. 

Body Pump 79

We planned to sit out Body Step, but since I have a whole library of The Firm DVDs in my basement I thought it would be fun to do the program as well. Let me tell you! The ladies who led the Body Step choreography are champs in my book. This is not your momma's workout program. This will kick your booty. As one of the trainers said, "Everyone knows Steppers have the best booties in the house." And it's definitely true!

Next (at 10:30 am) was Body Combat. Did I sit that one out? Oh heck no. You know better than that. Body Combat was led by an incredible trainer by the name of Sheldon McBee. Sheldon has presented on quite a few Les Mills DVDs I do believe and I can see why. He's quite inspirational and intense. Every time I did a forward kick I couldn't believe how much sweat I had beading on my shins! Oh my word! I loved Combat!!! My back is still feeling the pain today. 


Finally, we took a break, changed into dry clothes, got some lunch and I drank about 5 glasses of Diet Pepsi. Yes, I had water too, but come on! I needed the salt! At least, that was my lame excuse. After lunch we did some shopping at the expo. I was a little disappointed by the selection of Les Mills merchandise at the SCW Fitness booth, but I did get a Body Flow yoga mat for $9.99. Yawzah! That was a deal!


Finally, it was time to work out again. I wanted to check out Body Vive. Because Body Vive is a low impact program, I felt it could be an effective program in our fitness center. It will appeal to the older generation as well as the de-conditioned. The program is split into two segments: 1) a low impact aerobic workout followed by a 2) toning segment using bands. The band work was awesome. Remember my Crickety Old Knees which I mentioned last week? Well, the band moves in Body Vive really work on strengthening the hips. Perfect for me!


Up next was the new core program, CXWorks. I think the program is fantastic and works the entire core from your hips to your shoulders, but it's not a program which will appeal to many of our members. Next I tried Body Attack. Good Lord, what was I thinking? I knew I didn't want to do the high impact aerobics. I just don't have the fast twitch fibers needed anymore! But I tried it...for about 3 tracks and then said heck with it. What was I trying to prove? Remember the awesome trainers I mentioned earlier who led Body Step? Yep, it was them again. I don't know how their bodies can handle of that high impact, but maybe it's because they are probably 20 years younger than me and have much better knees!


Finally, it was time for Body Flow, my favorite. I was excited to go through meditation - without having to lead it! Body Flow 54! Awesome. I loved the sequence in the Sun Salutations track. It was definitely something a little bit different. 


After Flow, we were all ready to head on out. We made a quick change into dry clothes again and hit the road...only to come to a screeching hault. Giordano's was calling our names. OK, food was calling our names. A thin crust pizza for me - or I should say some of a pizza - and then we were hauling it home. By the time, I walked in the door about 10 p.m. I was definitely ready to just place my head on the pillow and call it a night!