Friday Five - Body Pump

Yay, Friday!  This week has gone by pretty fast and I'm ready to dive into the weekend.  But first, quick update on the foot.  I rested and iced Monday and Tuesday.  I went to body pump and more icing Wednesday.  I started out on the elliptical yesterday and when that went ok, switched over to the treadmill for 20 minutes.  And no pain!  I'm going back to resting it today with more icing but fingers crossed that the couple days break as soon as I felt the pain made a difference.

And now, on to the Friday Five with Cynthia, Courtney and Mar.  This week, we're talking about fitness and I wanted to talk about Body Pump.  I hadn't been able to go to a body pump class for about a month, and then went on Wednesday and let's just say that my muscles won't let me forget it.  I'm definitely sore in multiple places so I'm going to embrace it and talk about 5 things I love about Body Pump!

 So before I talk about my 5 things, here is the official description of body pump:  "BODYPUMP^™ is for anyone looking to get lean, toned and fit – fast.  Using light to moderate weights with lots of repetition, BODYPUMP gives you a total body workout. Instructors will coach you through the scientifically proven moves and techniques pumping out encouragement, motivation and great music – helping you achieve much more than on your own! You’ll leave the class feeling challenged and motivated, ready to come back for more."

So here's my take on it.

1.  Energetic music - I really enjoy the music in the class.  It seems to be chosen really well to go with the moves and it always pumps me up.  It's loud, and fun, and changes up every once in a while to keep things fresh.

2. Camaraderie - I'm a fan of group fitness classes.  It's a large group and I don't really talk to many people in the class, but it's just a nice energy to have all those people working out together.  And even though I don't talk to a lot of people, you begin to recognize other regulars and greet each other.  And when I went back this week after a bit of an absence, it felt like people were happy to see me back.

3.  Choreography - It's not just ok, do squats now.  There are specific moves and they are timed to go with the music.  There are also different moves used each time and I can tell the variety is good for me.  When I strength train at home, I just re-use the same basic moves over and over again.  It's nice to have someone lead us through different moves without having to research and come up with them on my own.

4. Form - One of the reasons I don't like to try new strength training moves on my own is I'm worried about not doing them right and hurting myself.  I like that the instructor is there to give us tips on form and a description about how to do the move right.  It's not as good as having a personal instructor concentrating just on you, but it's a nice little safety net.  And I've definitely seen instructors go out into the group and correct form when they see someone doing something incorrectly.

5. Feeling like a bada$$! This is my favorite thing about the class :)  Most of it uses barbells and I feel strong when I'm doing that.  In reality, the weights on my barbell are low and the class is completely scalable to different levels.  I've even seen people using the bar without added weights.  Those days when I add on to my weights, I feel unstoppable!  Though I may pay for that later in the week :)

So that's my take on body pump.  I've really been enjoying the class and I do think it's helped me get stronger.  When I strength train at home, I just concentrate on things like my glutes, hamstrings, core and hips.  But body pump allows me to do a full body strength session in an hour, or 45 minutes if I do a body pump express class though that means one body part gets dropped.

Any classes you've taken recently that you've loved?  I'd love to hear about it since I still want to keep trying new things :)