30 day challenge update

Well, the challenge is going, not as smoothly as I had hoped but is still going!
I seemed to have swapped a couple of the rest days around to fit in more with my life, I hope that's allowed!

Press-ups - these are going well and feel a big improvement. Up to 10 at a time now.

Squats - Have reached 90 in a session, I find them useful as a warm up.

Core workout - found the planks very difficult to do but am now up to 58 seconds on each one. The scissors are difficult, I find them hard on my back, as for the others, they are getting easier so I am actually adding more reps in each exercise.

The bikini still remains a motivating force!

Did anyone else try any of these? How are you finding them?

The 30 day core challenge

A girl at work mentioned that she was going to start the 30 day squat challenge and I was intrigued, so googled it as soon as I got home and found this -

I thought about it and as I do squats in body pump with 17 kg on my shoulders, it seems easy. Though to be fair, to someone who doesn't do squats, I can see this is a challenge.
Today during the class I counted how many squats we did and throughout the whole class (including the warm-up, squat & lunge tracks) it came to 178 'normal squats' and 32 'jumping onto a step' squats (which I hate doing). I do have to say that squats do work and I have seen great improvements in my bum since restarting body pump and am very happy with the results, but felt I wanted to do more than just the squat challenge.

The thing I do want to work on more are my abs and core muscles, as mentioned in previous posts, so out of interest I googled that and found (among others) this

So I'm going to give it a go!

I have taken my hip and waist measurements and did my first session today. I found the planks hard (could only mange 45 seconds on each) and was feeling it in some of the other moves - it was difficult to move after the Russian twists, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. 

As my motivation is a bikini in July, I decided to add the squats as well, as I would like to get back up to 20 kg on the bar for those, - and just for fun, there is a press up challenge too! My press ups are not my strong point, I am quite good when doing 3/4 length ones but am reluctant to get up on my toes, so this will help with that!  The idea seems to be to do the exercises for 3 days then have a rest day. I will also be doing my usual gym stuff and think this will be a good way of upping things a bit. 

If anyone wants to join me on any of the challenges, then please let me know and we can help motivate each other to continue and celebrate our achievements! 

Bon courage! 

The Cougars

Time to introduce to more people from the gym.

This group of women I call the Cougars, I encounter them on a Friday lunchtime and occasional weekends, you'll see why it's occasional in a moment.

They are middle aged and have a great time gossiping in the changing rooms, however they do differ from the Coven in several ways. This lot are quite friendly and more inclusive and do seem to meet up outside of the gym occasionally. They will also arrange impromptu birthday apero's and the like, having drinks and snacks after a workout - always a good idea.

Like the Coven they do seem to subscribe to the fact that women don't sweat when they exercise, they do use more than the minimum weights in body pump but never seem to increase the and push themselves harder. They get together at the beginning of class and have a chat and need to be told to stop, though often they are flirting with the instructors. At times the flirting is embarrassing to watch.
Unlike the Coven, the Cougars do appear to work and we seem to have lost the company of one of them on a Friday lunchtime since she got a new job.  They also rarely go swimming and don't hog the sauna for drying themselves off after a shower...

The reason they got their name (well I started calling them that in my head) is because they only ever go to Hot Guy's and the Cute One's classes. These are the younger and somewhat better looking instructors and the Cougars follow them around like a harem. At times is a little irritating but on the whole harmless. I also have to say that the two instructors concerned are better than the others in explaining the classes, correcting bad posture, looking after newcomers etc, so who can blame the Cougars for following them around?
I now only come across them on Friday lunchtimes and Monday evenings but spotted them following the instructors around when I first joined the gym and tried a few classes before settling on the ones that best fitted my work schedule.

I mentioned before that the instructors take turns at the weekends and they will suddenly turn up on a Sunday morning when Hot Guy is leading the class and occasionally when the Cute One is leading, but never on the other weekends! They then take over the front row, displacing the Sunday Morning Regulars and making a busy class even more crowded. Fortunately (probably because they are too busy arranging bar-b-q's or aperos) they never come to the steam room or pool, so the Regulars get to have some space to themselves.

Crow poses, backbends and other stuff!

The latest body balance has been introduced at the gym and I've done it a couple of times now and am enjoying it, a new set of challenges and poses that I have 3 months to learn and get used to.

I always find the first couple of weeks quite hard and then it gets easier as my body adapts to the positions. The balance track is fun and has a real challenge towards the end, which I could do on my right side but not the left (3 months...) I always find the balance track amusing as the trick is to stare at one spot and also to use your stomach muscles, but if the class is quite full and we're all squashed in it can be hard to focus on one fixed spot and not be distracted by the people around you wobbling. If one person topples then a few will follow!

This time we also seem to have an extra balance track where there is just the crow pose

and the firefly pose.

I have never found these poses easy and in fact today I was attempting the firefly and had my hands on the floor and was thinking to myself 'I must have the balance wrong because there is absolutely no way that I can lift my feet off the floor.' Still it was fun watching everyone else try.

We have some killer hip openers that will be good for me and though I only did the 2nd class today, I could feel them stretching more easily than on Monday

At the moment I'm not finding the stomach track difficult despite the fact at one point we have to do a side plank with the top arm and leg raised and then pull them into a stomach crunch, so either it looks hard and isn't or (as of last week's entry) my abs have returned and are starting to earn their money!

The back track ends with a classic back bend and to my pleasant surprise I was able to lift myself into it really easily. Have not done one of those for many years, so well done my body!

Body balance always saves the most difficult pose till the end and I'm sure you'll all have great sympathy for me when I tell you that for the final track I had to hold this pose for a total of 6 mins and 52 seconds....

Abs

During the Olympics a male friend (who is not known for his sporting feats but is lovely in lots of other ways) updated his facebook status to claim that he was Jessica Ennis's stomach double. I really did 'lol' at that comment. It was one of those comments you wished you'd thought off first.

When I started back at the gym, I thought it would be fairly easy to pick things up again, after all - I had been a gym gerbil years ago and was relatively fit, wasn't I?

Big mistake.

I think the biggest difference was being 10 years older and that does take it's toll. What I have learnt is that perseverance pays off and I am now nearly as fit as I used to be.

However the one thing that seems to lacking is my abs (or abdos as the French call them).
Seriously, for the first few months at the gym I was convinced that I hadn't got any. That they had packed their bags and left when I wasn't looking.

I will admit that even at my skinniest I never had a 6 pack or even a 4 pack . This was despite Pilates and yoga as well as the occasional tums and bums class. However I knew they were there as I did a side plank with upper leg raised raised. I could feel the burn.
This time it really felt that they were not there at all. Not only did I struggle doing any form of ab work but I didn't feel them being worked at all. No pain, no nothing! Whereas I could see and feel improvements in all the other muscles of my body, the abs remained very quiet. I struggled to do mini planks, and if I was silly enough to attempt a plank on my toes - my back would start aching.

Fortunately 18 months later and a few tough stomach tracks later I can feel them kicking in. Despite the fact that my biceps make the occasional appearance and my legs are much more shapely, there is still no sign of a 6 pack emerging in the stomach area BUT they have definitely returned (even if I can't see them) as planks are now a lot easier and can do a full static plank and side rotations. Some of the more difficult moves and my back starts hurting (the strange moves we had in the last body balance for instance) but in the more familiar ones and I'm doing ok.

So although I still have a way to go before I really could be Jessica Ennis's stomach double, there is the chance it could happen one day....

The Geriatrics Update!

When writing about the geriatrics the other day I forgot to write about one of my favourites.

She has died her hair red and when she comes out of the shower and her hair is wet and all messed up, she looks exactly like a baby orangutan. Adorable and cute.

I hope she doesn't get upset by this post. 

The Geriatrics

This is quite a cute group of gym regulars and they always impress me as they show that you are never too old to benefit from exercise.

They tend to be seen in the early afternoons and rarely in the evenings - I guess they like the quieter times at the gym. There are quite a few of them and they all seem to have their own little quirks, so let me introduce you to a few of them.

Walking Stick Man - he shuffles onto the gym floor and tends to use the cardio equipment, though he once appeared at the back of the studio to take a weight, but I never saw what he used it for. He hangs or props his stick up on the machine he's going to use and slowly inches onto it, then off he goes - cycling or walking. Then when he's done, he collects his stick and shuffles off to the next piece of equipment.

Steam Room Woman - she comes in practically every afternoon, does a little bit of cardio then spends the rest of the time in the steam room and pool. She does go very slow in the pool (and unlike the coven) is aware of this and will make space if you want to swim laps. The other day someone called her 'Young', which she adored and she kept on saying 'She called me young! Me! I'm 92 and she called me young.' She's obviously got to that part of life where you stop lying about your age and start bragging.

Mr and Mrs - they arrive in the gym at ten minutes past four every Tuesday. He helps her through the new barriers and then they leave their bags by the door and go around and say hello to all the geri's - and this being France - by giving the double kiss. It doesn't matter what exercise the 'greetee' is doing, they have to stop and be kissed by this couple.

Miss Rambler - who wears an outfit that would be more suited to a cross country hike rather than a gym - long trousers that zip off into shorts, walking trainers and dark glasses. To her credit, she does the classes and has improved in each one.

Mrs Black Hair - who is off the age where jet black hair is fooling no one - and spends her time in the gym chatting or checking herself out in the mirror. If you thought it was only the young gym bunnies who constantly check themselves out in the mirror, then think again....

The Gym Douce Girls - they turn up for each and every 'easy' class - bodybalance, aqua, gym douce, le stretch etc like a crowd of starlings and do their bit, moaning and flirting but getting stuck in. Then afterwards they chat away in the changing rooms comparing grandchildren, hospital experiences, gynecological problems, hairdressing tips the works, then suddenly all disappear again.

They are there, week in, week out. Maybe the gym is some sort of social life for some of them but most of them do come to exercise and you can see that it is helping to keep the active and is benefiting them all, whatever their level of mobility and fitness. I hope I can be doing that when I'm 92 too.