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! 

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....

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.........

Improved flexibility

So in body balance on Saturday I was in a Hindi squat and then instructed to sit back on the mat behind me, and I have to admit I misjudged this slightly and landed with a bit of a bump. This caused the instructor to add 'délicatement avec grâce et finesse.' and smile at me. Bastard...

I enjoy body balance. In the dark, murky past I used to do Ashtanga yoga and Pilates and used to be very flexible and strong. I used to be a real flexigirl. The Ashtanga was very dynamic and was hard!

At the gym that I used to go to in the UK the guys on the gym floor were very good at telling all the 'muscle men' to do stretching and advising them to go to stretch classes. So every now and then one of them would appear in a yoga class, looking slightly nervous but at the same time confident that they would find a stretch class easy peasy. A few of them made it beyond the sun salutations, some even made the first half hour. I only remember 1 of them sticking with it and returning week after week.

My gym now doesn't do yoga but does body balance (a mix of tai chi, yoga and pilates) and stretch classes - imaginatively titled Le Stretch.

I've been working away at these and have got most of my flexibility back, isn't muscle memory is amazing. I do feel a lot better after each class, it's good to feel all stretched out. The only thing I have trouble with is my hips, I can do forward bends, and my back bends are pretty good, but my hips.... They always have been difficult, I have never been able to a lotus position for example.

The latest couple of releases have had some tough hip openers, and I began to notice a gradual change, which has been good. Then for the last 3 Sundays the instructors have again concentrated on doing hip opening exercises, and boy have my hips been painful. It has payed off and though painful, I can reach deeper into stretches and feel really pleased. Finally the hard work is playing off.

Still can't do the lotus position though....

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.

Friday weigh-in!

Standing on the scales went well this morning and I've released another half kilo.

At first I was a teensy bit disappointed but then realised that back in my weightwatchers days I would be pleased with half lb and this is a whole lb and a teeny bit.

It's interesting the psychology of having a different unit of measurement. When I was in the UK using units of stones and lbs seemed normal but in terms of a goal weight everyone seemed to be focused on a round number of a stone or half stone.
In the US people again seem to want a round number - a coaching colleague was talking about reaching 180lbs as his goal.
Now I'm in kilos I'm not sure where I'll end up, will the psychology of whole numbers apply? 65 seems to heavy for me and I think I'd have to stave myself to get to 60, so do I end up with a number in the middle?

I am hoping that I get to a point when I look at myself and think 'Yep, that's great!' and decide that that will be my ideal weight. the scales are important to help give me the motivation to get there, but I don't want them to be the be all and end all. My muscle mass is greater than last time I lost weight, so it's a whole new experience this time.

(French) Women Don't Sweat!

I had been about to write a funny piece about how a lot of the women in the gym don't put any effort into what they are doing and I really do wonder why they bother going there at all.

Then I read this article and realised that it may be true of a lot more woman than I thought and not just French ones and it made me feel quite sad.
To be sure, at the gym I used to go to in the UK there were a few woman who would turn up, put in minimum effort and leave again, but here it is a huge number.

One girl just wafts around in the Zumba class and rushes to the changing rooms during a water stop to check her eye make up hasn't smudged. Another woman does the entire body pump class without a barbell or weights (the squats/lunges and abs I can understand - but the other exercises are designed to be used with weights, it's surely a waste of her time?) Her friend also seems to be reducing the amount of weights she uses each week, rather than increasing them. Women on the cardio machines, reading books and never looking out of breath and not a drop of sweat between them.

Actually a large number of women in body pump have stayed at the lightest weights possible and not increased them at all over the last 18 months I have been there. I know everyone is different and has different reasons and perhaps problems but there seem to be an awful lot of them!
In the UK we were actively encouraged to increase the weights and work harder, most of the women in the classes were pumping quite heavy weights but here a couple of the instructors actually dictate what the maximum weight a woman should have on the bar - which is pretty light and most of the women seem quite happy with that.

Reading the article about how young women wanted to be thin and were afraid of bulking up made me feel sad. There is a lot of ignorance out there about exercise and it's benefits. Sports at school are being cut back as they are not considered essential, but also what else is not being taught? I remember learning about the body in biology and learning the difference between anaerobic and aerobic exercise in terms of muscle strength and heart strength and also how hormones played a part and that is why it is incredibly difficult for women to have bulky muscles like a man's.

So it is not only frustrating but also depressing to see so many woman pretending to exercise. Spending money on gym membership and clothes and yet not actually getting much from it.
Thank goodness for those that do make the effort, for the instructors who do encourage us to try a little harder and for the motivation to take it babystep by babystep.

During last Summer's Olympic Games it was refreshing to see so many fit and healthy looking women on TV. These women should be our new role models for young girls, not the anorexic looking, thin, airbrushed models on magazine covers. Looks that are impossible for the average 'normal' person to achieve without taking extreme measures.

Healthy is the new thin. That is easy for anyone, whatever their shape or size to achieve. Anyone else with me on that?

Pet Peeves

I was slightly late to the body pump class today so wasn't in my normal spot and instead was at the back of the class amongst 'les experts' - the people who put loads of weights on the bar and generally try to look impressive and intimidating. Ok, I exaggerate, but they do put loads of weights on the bar, which leads to one of my pet peeves....

They have so much weight that they cannot do the moves properly!!!!!

What's the point in doing a squat, if the bar is so heavy on your back that you are only doing half a squat, or missing out parts of the routine??? Even worse - doing both???
I was about to ask if it was some sort of macho thing, as it's normally guys that do it, but today there was a girly doing it.

Despite the instructor really going into detail about how the moves should be, they just ignore him and do their own thing. It can't be good for the muscles and probably is a stepping stone to injury. They are straining to lift the weights,  contorting their whole bodies to do bicep curls, instead of just using the arms etc. Just drop a couple of kilos and do the exercise properly! It's far better to work up the weights slowly and steadily.

However at the other end of the scale are those who put no effort in whatsoever and never break into a sweat. They use the lowest weights possible and don't seem to have progressed at all over the last year or so.

Not sure which I find more annoying, I'll get back to you on that...