Body Pump class was bananas and boy am I feeling it today!

I decided to go to Zumba yesterday and I'm glad that I did because it was awesome. The instructor was actually a substitute for the regular instructor who went to Brazil for the entire month of January. Upon the regular instructor's return, she( the sub) was able to switch gyms with another instructor who didn't want to drive that far so she now has her own class on Tuesdays. The funny thing is that I attended the regular instructors class regularly before she went on vacation but when I tried her class after she returned from her trip, I found that I actually prefer the sub so I think I'll stick with Tuesdays from now on.

Anyway, I was pouring down with sweat during and after class. So much so that had I tried to, I'm sure that I could've wrung water out of my shirt. Its funny because sweat is dripping off of me and there are a lot of people in the class who do not even break a sweat at all. I don't know if it is because they are more in shape than I am or they just aren't working out as hard but sometimes it bothers me. Guess I'm just a sweater when it comes to working out.


The Zumba instructor also teaches a "BodyPump" class immediately after Zumba. I figured why not try it out since I can't seem to manage to pick up a weight at home. I want to preface this by saying that I have taken body sculpt classes at other gyms and ended up leaving the class( in favor of my Cathe workout tapes) because I didn't find it challenging enough for me. That was NOT the case with this class.

I grabbed a pair of 5 lb dumbbells and a pair of 7.5 lb dumbbells. She asked if this was anyone's first time and myself and 2 other people said yes, she suggested we start off with 2.5 lbs weights to which I laughed inwardly because I'm used to weight lifting, besides 5lbs are the lightest weight that I have at home so I'm pretty used to them. Needless to say she had us doing a bajillion squats, lunges( with and without dumbbell presses) curls, rows, dead lifts etc. I not only ended up getting the 2.5 lb dumbbells but I also ended up doing a lot of the workout with no weight at all. When I say this workout was rep heavy, I mean it was rep HEAVY.

After she made our legs scream for mercy from all of the squats and lunges(I think we did 50 or more on each leg for each exercise, back to back with no breaks...OMG!!!) she then had us do various leg lifts and donkey kicks( I think that is the name of the exercise) to work the glutes all the while taunting us about how summer is almost here ..we only have 3 more months until May lol. Truth is that I most likely would have walked out had she not said that about summer, but since I want to have lost a good amount of weight by then, I stuck it out. After that came abs and all I can say is UUUGH! Then we finished off with pushups... 75 reps. Of course I didn't or couldn't do all the required reps but I did do what I could. I left there thinking "That's it for me, I must have been crazy taking this class" then I vowed to never set foot in BodyPump again but I thought about it some more and I think that I may stick with it.. Even though I am definitely feeling it today(sore and stiff) I can only improve right?


Getting it right,

Posted in: Strength Training