Day 7:- Sunday 14th June 2020
Legs, Bums and Core with Katrina.
A new instructor that I haven’t met before so I have to explain about my dodgy knees and she says about all the lunges that we have to do and alternatives that I can do if it becomes too much. Hurrah no step in this class… Mind you… it’s not because I don’t like the step just that it hurts so much!
And we are off….. nice and slow with squats and then we speed it up….. double time… down 2 up 2… Then down for 3 up for one… dig the heels in, push knees in line with toes… change in temp of music and down and pulse. Then it is down up down and courtesy lunge , down, up and switch. All exercise start slow and then they quickly get quicker. All the time you are squeezing your glutes and engaging the core.
Star jumps…. landing nice and soft or at least as soft as you can be (to protect the joints).
There is another change in music… Yes it’s slower and we are now working on balance to work on now… 4 points… It’s a bit like ballet now… . turn toes out slightly and then the leg goes out to the side front side back. It is quite quick… I think Katrina called these ‘ tendu’. We switch legs. Then we progress into ‘glissade’ which is a little lift off… Then ‘grand battement’.
I shouldn’t have been fooled by the change in tempo… This section was also hard. Hands on hips, shoulders down. And 1,2,3,4 and change, side, front, back and side and switch. Point the toes and you can feel the glutes being activated. We move into a hamstring curl. Up and slowing down. Controlling the move and change of legs. Up, up, down, down. Up quick slow down. Big squeeze of the hamstring. Then a side lateral lift. Change sides. slowly does it and lift and lower. Other side and go bigger. Up, up and ooowww I don’t think my leg wants to lift up, and change sides, and then back legs goes behind and switch and 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Oh oh oh…..
Oh now.. we stay with it and into a wide squat and arms crossed for posture and down and up… driving the knees out over the toes. Then slow and pulse pulse pulse. Stand up and down again… pulse pulse pulse. Then single squats and down squat and heel lift. Tripple extension through ankle, knee and hip… then just heel lifts back to squat and lift. Quickly move onto lateral lunges. Ouch ouch ouch… I am on fire! Then the dreaded pulse, hips as low as you can and further back and change sides and pulse…. Change and with an added heel lift. OK….. when can we move onto the core…. ??
Oh gosh we continue to the end, squat, lateral squat, squat… working the adductors… OMG… Katrina said at least I didn’t add in a weight… we will work our way up to that!!
Yes, Yes yes a water break…. but we have two more standing ones!! Moving in a diagonal angle, lift the glutes, point the toes you will feel more activation. Up, down, up down. Bend the knee combo, down, up, bend, down and up lift. Then down lift and pulse. No wonder ballerinas are so fit. I am absolutely loving this class. The sweat is pouring off me but I don’t care. I am struggling so much with some of these moves but I am trying to stick with it as much as I can.
Last standing one…… I am so ready to drop to the mat… Now it is reverse lunge, alternating then a static one and then a combo!! And wahoo we can to move to the mat and of course the plank!! Slow stepping lunge here we go… Nope…. legs are not wanting to play anymore… I don’t stop though… I just make up my own moves!! I re-join what we are supposed to be doing but I can’t remember what it is but I am sure there was probably a lunge, curtsey, lunge and in and quick change of leg. Then other leg goes back and 2,2. then 3 down 1 up. I can’t manage these for long, lift the chest and brace the core… but to my own moves for a bit!! I do them static instead and wahoooo that’s it. Give the legs a bit of a shake out and a quick drink.
Down onto the mat, glute bridges slow then pulses….. Change it into a hip drop one side and then the other side, then drop drop hold… so you get a longer squeeze each side. Pull the belly in and squeeze the glutes.
Roll over to your front and into the plank. Rolling rolling side to side. Drop drop hold. The music is great… Sometimes I don’t like the music but I am loving it.
About 15 minutes left and we are now doing slow toe taps.. engage the core at all times. Down, down, up and up. Try not to let the hips move… Stay with it.. Option to add in both feet….. Ouch ouch. I stay with it for a bit. Oh OK we are now into the next one. So up and twist. And toe taps…. moving to full legs out…… slow bicycles crunches and the full bicycle crunches.
Onto knees and hands….. for fire hydrants…. Knee is lifting laterally out to the side avoiding leaning into it and collapsing, then a combo, plank. It is short and sweet! Yeah as if it is!! The combo is lift and then out straight. I can’t remember where else it went but it was a killer.
Wahoo and we are done… Silly me…. she meant just that set! We are still going…. We have fitted in soooo much into a short period of time. I can’t remember what we did but I remember using my abs so much.
Pilates with Lizzie
I am so glad I had a break before this class. We start the session with a posture check using our invisible wall and the piece of sting out the top of the head. It is so nice to do this class after a really hard class. By the way… don’t think that for one minute that I find this class easy! It is just nice and calm especially at the start. Inhaling and exhaling and moving with the out breath. The usual warm-up… Oh check me out pretending that I am a regular!! We have worked our sides, shoulder mobility, then opening up the chest and squeezing back the shoulder blades pretending a golf ball is between the blades. This move is great to improve posture!
Stretching out the deltoid… arms out behind to work the pecs and then stretch the shoulder… right ear to right shoulder by just moving the head to get the stretch. Into torso twist, pull the belly button into spine, exhale to turn and inhale to return. Warming up the thoracic vertebrae. Remember keep the hips forward then the arms are introduced. I feel as though I am getting more of a twist. Bottom tucked in. Engage the core.
I so can’t wait for tomorrow as I am 100% sure there will be a loss for my waist! Reach up and bend over to the side. Inhale to lengthen and exhale to bend. Then another add on.
Although there are so many instructors they appear to be easier to follow. I like the reminders as to when I am supposed to inhale and exhale as I would be holding my breath throughout the movements.
Roll-down… tuck the chin in to chest, suck in the belly button to the spine and then you know the drill one vertebrae at a time and roll down and hang, exhale , lift the pelvic floor, scoop up and gradually peel up.
Moving down onto the mat…. add balance as we roll down. Roll up into a tuck-tuck ball. Exhale, lift pelvic floor, suck stomach in, tuck tailbone under. Press base of spine towards the mat…. but stay tucked up! Relax arms. Slower unroll using the core to go down. This was really hard today. I think I was using my neck rather than my abs even though I couldn’t feel it pulling in my neck… just that my abs were not killing me as normal!
Lots of ab work lifting up and back down. Exhale to go up and inhale to go back down. Then straight legs out and lifting upper body. Lower abdominals are working harder and lengthening the hamstrings. Oh yes… we get to build it up…. double legs! starting in tuck-tuck position, shoulders down, suck that stomach in. This is such hard work. Make it harder add the arms…. not for me today!! I went to add them but nope they didn’t want to play.
On our backs….. inhale knees one way and head the other way. Oh yes…… I love this. This feels great. Now in heels into bottom and into a shoulder bridge…. keeping bottom tucked in the whole time. These remind me of my physio sessions at Stanmore Hospital with Ian…. thank goodness I am not being tied up with a belt! At least I am not activating my hamstrings like I used to!! Remember to keep your alignment. Glute squeeze, ribs tucked in. You open up your hips as well as working through the spine. Then hold it at the top, bottom tucked under, no drop from the hips, core engaged. Don’t drop your water and walk the foot away from you…. You should feel the hamstring working, glutes and stretching the front of your hip… Oh yes I can feel all of that working!! This is quite hard… Oh no I want to drop my hips… come on… concentrate, you don’t want to drop that water!! Mind you… it could be quite refreshing!
Now I am a swan which we gradually build up into a ‘Swan Dive”…. Oh I like this one. I feel such a kid when I am going into the Dive part!!
There are loads more exercises but I am a bit late with writing my blog today as I had an evening snooze after tennis!!
I loved loved this class as well. Mind you I can’t really say that there isn’t one class that I haven’t enjoyed yet!
Sunday Tennis Doubles with Sam, Sharon and Theresa.
We played just over two hours and 15 minutes. The weather was so different from last week as we played in the rain and I had to take my glasses off so that I could see! Today, we are playing in the glorious sunshine.
Sam and I team up for the first set and we take on Sharon and Theresa. I am rubbish keeping score but I remember Sam saying we have gone to 4-2 up to 4-4. The practicing of my serve is starting to pay off today as I won quite a few rallies with just my serve.. Wahooo. Thank you YouTube! When I am fitter and I can afford it… I am definitely going to book some tennis lesson as I really do want to improve so that I can actually play tennis shots rather than squash shots on a tennis court! Sam has really improved her game with her coaching that she has with Steve and you can see that she has really taken onboard what he has taught her.
Theresa and I are terrible for concentrating as when we look at each other we start to giggle and the she has to go for the cross-legged bend!! This move makes me giggle even more.
Oh oh oh before we know it we are playing a tie-break… None of us really know the rules for this but we all agree on our version that we are going to play and Sam and I come out winners…. but only just!!
We mix the pairs around and it is Sharon and myself that are paired together. Again, we have another amazing game. There are some really long rallies…. Sharon you are doing really well!! Yours Sharon, Yours… oh and that one too… hahaha… Ooopps mine and double oops straight into the net.. Sorry!!!
There was one game where Sharon must have had about 30 serves! The game was never ending but wahooo we won it ( or at least I think we did!)
Sam made me laugh as she made a comment about being totally in the game without a care in the world and only thinking about the game… this made me giggle as I had just started to think about what I was going to have for dinner! But to be fair I have been out of the house since about 11:20am and I forgot to take a snack with me!
It is so nice to play tennis with the girls. I can’t wait for when we can all play together and then sit and relax with a coffee or glass of wine.
Back to the game…. oh no… I can smell a BBQ…. Come on focus. Yeah Sharon and I won… No idea what the score is… and do I care? No not really as I have had such an amazing afternoon and I am going to head home to have my steak wrap, bath and probably have a nap (which I did have and it was great!)
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