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....

The Staff 2

Time to introduce some more of the staff!

First up is the Chief Guy.
Now he is a true example of French employment logic. He is the eldest and therefore the boss of the instructors, even though he is the worst instructor ever. He never asks if there is anyone new in the class, he never demonstrates the moves correctly (which can be quite dangerous when you're asking people to lift heavy weights) and - this is the worst bit, he can't even do some of the moves.
Cute Guy moaned once about a difficult, optional move in body balance that he didn't like but said he'd been told to include the move by Chief. The funny thing about this is the Chief doesn't include the move in his class!
I eventually have decided that he has a problem with his knees as he can't do squats properly and always uses light weights. In body balance he can't do a Hindi Squat or a Swan pose. Now this is fine in itself, lots of people have problems with their bodies when they are reaching their late 50's but I just wish he would say so, rather than just do the moves incorrectly and have a class full of people copying him and potentially damaging their joints. Just saying.
He is also the worst at singing along to English lyrics, badly. Very badly. Always gets the lyrics wrong (in case you think I'm being judgmental - I never sing along to any song French or English, unless I know the words!) At the moment we have the joy of Flo Rida's 'Whistle' for our ab track in body pump, which is a song about blow jobs. Having Chief singing 'Can you blow my whistle baby?' is just not good. Seriously.
This week he has taken to wearing his baseball cap backwards.....

Fortunately I can avoid most of his classes except on the rotating weekends and he also alternates a Tuesday body pump with Chatty Girl, and she is lovely.

In fact, I wish she did more classes, she was brought in when another instructor (who didn't do the Les Mills classes) left and so got put on her schedule of sculpt, aqua, step etc - but I think she is the most qualified instructor in the gym, so they now let her do these alternating classes on a Tuesday, which is a little frustrating as she is really good.
She's funny and chatty but not in an obnoxious way. She also challenges you and encourages you to do more (no wonder the Coven all disappear when it's her turn to lead the class as they don't want to lift more than 5kg!) Her sculpt classes are a real challenge!
I think she's worked abroad as her English seems very good (well she gets the lyrics right when she sings the songs and her accent is good!), in fact I must ask her one day, but she's never in the changing room long enough for a chat.

So there you are, two more of our instructors. I guess like most gyms, there are those you like and you tend to gravitate towards their classes when you can and those you don't and you try and have as little to do with them as possible.

Oh, in case you're wondering - Leotard Woman wasn't wearing her leotard today, but I'll keep you updated on any more sightings!

Why?

Why, why, why, why, oh why did I think it was a good idea to raise the weights for the squat track in body pump today.........

Pride commeth before a sore bum!

So after posting the moan the other day about the lack of effort some of the women put in at the gym, it seems that actually I could have been putting more effort in too!

Shortly after publishing that post, I sauntered into my usual body pump class and thought to myself that I needed to up the weights for the squats - so I put two more kilos on the bar and was feeling dead proud of myself when I completed the track with no major incidents.
Then we got to the tricep track and Hot Guy told C (another female who uses similar levels of weights as me) and I to go to 10 kilos. I start shaking my head slowly at him and he nods slowly back saying "Ah yes, Charlotte". As C did, I had to too!
I survived, though the last few chest presses were a little wobbly.

Then Hot Guy tells us to use the 5 kilo weights for the first part of the shoulder track, this was actually quite easy to do and I had been thinking about it being the next set of weights that I increased.

 When I increase the weights I normally put them up for one set of muscles, then see how it goes for a couple of weeks, then when I'm comfortable with that, will think about increasing the weights for another set of muscles. So uping the weights in three sets of muscles on one day was a big a thing.

Two days later, on the Sunday, I amble into the class thinking to myself "It's Petite Girly today, so I'll try the new weights but if I get tired, I'll go back to my normal weights for the shoulder tracks."

But to my surprise Hot Guy is there instead of PG, so I can't wimp down can I?
Then he gives us the 'option' to increase the weights for the back muscles - and calls out my name as one of 'Les Experts' who he expects to see with increased weights.

I ached all week, finally feeling better after a good stretch in body balance on Saturday.

Then yesterday, just as my friend and I are gossiping before the class starts, Cute Guy announces that he changing the running order of the body pump class to make it more challenging. Not what I wanted to hear.
He put the lunges straight after the squats (no time for the legs to recover) Then strung all of the upper body ones together (again no time to recover) and had a new, tougher tricep track. It was a challenge.

Despite a session in the steam room, I ached all afternoon, especially my arms and as for my bum.... I raided my medicine drawer and though I didn't have any ibuprofen, found relief in some paracetamol and codeine tablets (really can't remember what I was given them for.)

Despite all the bitching and the achy body, it does feel achy in a good way - I know that I've worked hard and tested my muscles. However I would like to keep these weights for a little while before any more 'challenges' arrive.