Day 6:- Saturday 13th June 2020
Bootcamp Becomes Blaze!!
What have I let myself in for?? Start off with jogging up and down the court. There are only two of us in the class. I’m jogging and the other person is walking as she needs to pee. I sound like a herd of elephants but the good news is…… I’m jogging without thinking and my knees are holding up really well.
Wahoo we have music. So hopefully this may make it easier and the sun is shining. Not sure I want it sunny though as I have a funny feeling this class is going to be just as hard as BootCamp!!
Side shuffles up and down. Over and over again.
Gemma the instructor tells us to squat whilst she explains what is in store. I’m not sure if I want to hear about everything as I can already hear my body saying….. why can’t you just have a lie in??
So we are starting with one minute of ‘Jumping Jacks’….. we are in the ‘cardio section’…. we aren’t really supposed to be able to chat during this section…..
Lateral Knees next. Get those legs higher. Breathe out and work. Should get a bit of an oblique stretch as well. Gemma is a lie to talk freely. Not me.
Yeah mountain climbers. Knees towards the chest. Work work work. There is an option to step it out…. I’m not very to take it down to that level yet. Tip tap tip tap. Ok we are going to do it together for 20. I’m guessing Gemma is wanting us to work faster as all of a sudden my pace has quickened.
There is no chance for a breather as we are straight into ‘Strength’.
Press-up and straight into a pike up x 5. Then quickly grab a weight and step it into alternating back lunges x 5 but two is counted as one!!
Holy moly this is hard. Straight onto backs and into bicycle curls and add a little twist.
Straight into Press-ups and pike-ups…..try and keep the arms in. Believe it or not. I am actually trying to keep them in but they naturally want to fall-out.
Continue with the set for 3 minutes in total.
Come on keep going. Time for the lunges. The music says can you feel me tonight? No as I will be fast asleep but I can feel my legs and arms.
Combat time. For 3 minutes……. yes. She can’t remember what we are doing so she needs to look it up. Yes yes yes. I get a sneaky opportunity to try and recover a little before the combat starts.
I can’t remember the first lot of punches that we had to do.
Then set of 10 burpees…….. yeah. Wahoo I so love burpees. Yeah as if. How can you talk?? Stop asking me questions……. I can’t answer you. Oh no squat before you go into the burpee.
Bravo. That’s the end of the first round. Grab a quick drink.
Cardio is the same……. and we are off. Jacks….. yeah I did 10 really quick. Damn totally forgot we are here for 1 minute for each movement. Lateral knees. Breathe out on the work. 1 minute done. Down onto the floor for mountain climbers. The dreaded words came again….. are you ready for a countdown. We well do 20 together……
Then new moves for ‘Strength’. Kick backs with the arms X 5. Single leg squats. Back leg doesn’t do much. It’s just the support. Oh no. I think my back leg has left my body as I’m wobbling all over the place. Think I will get rid off the weight for the time-being. This will be something to work on.
Then go through them all again. Oh my gawd. I can’t breathe. I obviously have my pain face on as Gemma says I can feel your pain girl. If only you could then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much but there is no way I’m quitting.
Shake it out. Have a little
Down to a plank
10 upper cuts; 10 body shots with a little run and then 5 surfer pops or hops.
And time to go…. let’s go. Try and get your chest to the ground… well that was the easier part but trying to pop up again…. well that is a different matter altogether.
Damn….. I’ve been spotted! There is no hiding when there are only two of us in the class.
1 minute left and then we have completed the end of round two. Oh dear….. it’s happening all over again. A little bit of sick is starting to come up. Fight it down whilst through oh the punches.
And round…. cardio is the same….. I can hear by breathing so much…… second round of mountain climbers…. Gemma is going to do it with us. I had no idea she had already started it as you can’t hear her feet move… unlike mine.
Strength…… power lunges and then single arm snatches (remember lead with your elbow and keep it quite close) and straight into cross overs.
Power lunges were way too much for me so yeah we went for a low impact ‘deadlift’ instead. Still working hard but this isn’t as demanding on my knees. 30 seconds left. How are you feeling? I don’t think you want to know!! Sick as a dog.
Fight zone…… jab, hook, step body step jab body. I have no idea where I’m supposed to be throwing these punches. So I’m going for the eyes, eyes, ears, ears, body, body approach.
Then into 5 jump squats. They aren’t happening!! So squat and raise onto your toes. Get your elbows to your thighs as a nice little target.
I so don’t think I would manage this as an indoor class as the fresh air seems to be making it a lot easier. Maybe when the classes do open indoors I will try the ‘Blaze Taster Session’ as I am really enjoying it believe it or not.
Wahooooo that final beep beep beep. Grab yourself a drink and into stretches.
Time For Gentle Relaxation With Yoga
What an amazing day to be doing Yoga in the Spa Retreat Garden. We are so lucky to have loads of outdoor space at David Lloyd so that we can undertake outdoor classes. There are supposed to be 5 of us in the class as today was fully booked but only 3 of us have turned up. It is such a shame as the sun is shining and there is so much blue sky with a few fluffy clouds.
I am really looking forward to this session especially after such a hard workout with Blaze. Here goes….. what a great way to start the class with sitting down on a block…. taking in our breath and bringing our awareness into the breath. Kirsty is the instructor. She has a very relaxing voice and within seconds the music from other classes quickly disappear. We stay here for sometime and I could so easily fall off my block and fall asleep. Arms are introduced, inhaling exhaling following the thumb. I know I have said it before but this is so relaxing even though I always feel I have had a good workout. It is so different from Bootcamp and Blaze but certain parts of it is just as difficult.
Co-ordination, balance, strength, posture, relaxation, creating positive vibes/energy and not having a care in the world for the 45 minute class. It is a good place to be especially with the sun shining on my face.
A variety of exercises were completed whilst sitting on the block and then they were removed and we worked into our hips. Easing our shoulder blades back and breathing in through the ‘3rd eye’ and pressing the forehead down towards the floor.
Working through our ankles now. This is great…. I have noticed so much more flexibility in my ankle since I have been taking Yoga and Pilates classes. It is great as it relieves so much pressure from my knees. Balance is introduced my raising the arms by doing the ‘Superman’ pose…. I am guessing it probably isn’t called this during a Yoga class but I am sure you know what I mean! We work upon this as a building block, drawing the knee and elbow in together. I am so glad Kirsty continues to tell us when to inhale and exhale as it makes the movement so much easier.
At some point we move into the plank and exhale and at some point we move into a downward facing dog. Lift the right leg up… lift onto the left toes and bring the right knee into the right elbow, then into the nose and the third one all the way across to the left. Inhale, exhale…. get even between the hands and the toes and then do it on the opposite side.
I remember working my hips and quads and hamstrings but I have no idea what I did to get these stretches.
We then progressed to simple sun salutation…..Standing tall at the end of the mat. Hands at chest, inhale back bend, exhale fold , right foot back… keeping the knee over the ankle step into the plank. Lower down, glide through the hands, lips the chest, look to the sky, rolling back onto the toes. And I can’t remember the rest…. sorry if this doesn’t make any sense but I kind of know the movement now.
I think we did some harder sequence but you know it…. I have no idea what it was. I remember having to do Warrior 2 at some point. Oh oh and I was a ‘Dancing Warrior’.. at first I was more of a wibbly-wobbly warrior but keep the focus and wahooo I am that ‘Dancing Warrior’. Down dog, Tail of the dog, Warrior 1? Warrior 2, reverse warrior Chaturanga and upward dog and into down dog.
Some more balancing poses which involved stretching the quads and pushing into the hip bone. Spread out the toes. Rest the left foot in the left hand. Right arm out to counter-balance. I had trouble doing it that side but no problems on the opposite side.
Some exercises that help you work towards being able to do the splits… wahooo…. I can already do these but shhh don’t tell anyone! Then all of a sudden I am a pigeon! I try not to giggle at this point as I seemed to have drifted off and am thinking pigeon or statute…. this reminds me of an old work colleague and friend from our days in court. My pigeon becomes a Heron. To be fair I am not sure if it does or if there is a sequence that I did before I became a Heron.
On the inhale…. look towards the sun. So many things to remember! At some point…. I felt as though I was going to face plant into the floor…. Creating a diamond with my hands, elbows into my legs and then push forward onto my elbows with the feet off the floor… no chance! I have already smashed in my front teeth in Belgium on a squash holiday!
Yes….. I love this bit…. laying on my back, sun shining in my face, melting down into the floor/earth. Pick a bright coloured light… I have no idea what I chose now but it felt right all the same.
Tennis with Jorge.
I absolutely love Saturdays as I get to play tennis with Jorge. Jorge works so hard during the week; it’s great that he also gets the chance to relax and that we do it together by playing tennis.
We don’t play real games of tennis but we opt for Dennis Tennis!! This means that we basically make up the rules as we go along!! Not sure why but I always seem to win… hahaha. We opted to playing just half of the court to start the evening. I think Jorge thinks this was for his benefit… little did he know I was so tired… I didn’t actually want to run! But that didn’t stop me from making him from running. We play a game up to 21. Winner Gregory 1-0. We then progress to playing diagonally across the court…. Whoop whoop Gregory is on a roll… Winner 2-0. Then the other half of the court and it was a close one but Gregory wins again… 3-0. Then the other diagonal…. you have probably guessed who won this game too… Yes it would be me!! (so glad it is my blog and not Jorge’s!)
We then opt for a full-game of tennis but without any scoring and I am sure we also opted for a few extra bounces for the balls that were further away from us!
It was such a lovely evening and we had the club to ourselves. It was the perfect way to spend an hour together before dinner and date night.
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