A Class
My gym is having a period where it's free to try the group classes, so I went to one last night, called BodyPump. It lasted an hour and consisted of a lot of standard lifts, the difference being that you used light weights with a lot of repetition, and variations in speed and position. I can definitely feel this morning that I worked a lot of different muscles, but it's a different feel than I get from overdoing it with too much weight (so far).
I appeared to be using more weight than most of the people in the class (there was a guy in front using more), but I managed to mostly keep up. My weak points were the lunges, which hurt my left knee, and the squats, ditto but not as much. My left kness is always the weak one, but it seems to come and go. I need to be more careful with it, I think. I also couldn't do these side-plank things, though I can do a regular plank. I needed lighter dumbbells for the pectoral section; I didn't realize that's what the dumbbells would be for, so I chose 8 pound ones, and that was too much for some of the lifts. (I use 15 pound ones at home; luckily the guy I mentioned was getting weights at the beginning when I did, and had told me it was best to use less than normal for this class, so I chose the 8s rather than 10s. I probably should have had 5s or even less.)
Things I liked: being pushed further than was comfortable without having to push myself. The instructor was pleasant, and asked my name at the end of class when I had questions. I got a different workout.
Things I didn't like: the little mats are way too thin and hurt my knees; not a huge thing. I had trouble following what some of the instructions and counting meant; I mostly just watched the instructor, but I couldn't do that when on my back doing presses.
I'm still not sure if I want to buy a class pass for the rest of the semester; plan to try at least one more class. I need to figure out how often I think I will attend to see if the cost is worth it to me.
I appeared to be using more weight than most of the people in the class (there was a guy in front using more), but I managed to mostly keep up. My weak points were the lunges, which hurt my left knee, and the squats, ditto but not as much. My left kness is always the weak one, but it seems to come and go. I need to be more careful with it, I think. I also couldn't do these side-plank things, though I can do a regular plank. I needed lighter dumbbells for the pectoral section; I didn't realize that's what the dumbbells would be for, so I chose 8 pound ones, and that was too much for some of the lifts. (I use 15 pound ones at home; luckily the guy I mentioned was getting weights at the beginning when I did, and had told me it was best to use less than normal for this class, so I chose the 8s rather than 10s. I probably should have had 5s or even less.)
Things I liked: being pushed further than was comfortable without having to push myself. The instructor was pleasant, and asked my name at the end of class when I had questions. I got a different workout.
Things I didn't like: the little mats are way too thin and hurt my knees; not a huge thing. I had trouble following what some of the instructions and counting meant; I mostly just watched the instructor, but I couldn't do that when on my back doing presses.
I'm still not sure if I want to buy a class pass for the rest of the semester; plan to try at least one more class. I need to figure out how often I think I will attend to see if the cost is worth it to me.