Memorial Day

We had a low key Memorial Day.  I taught BodyPump in the morning while TJ took Carol and Brena up to hike the Cascades.  They were successful this time - yay!  Then we went over to the Smithfield Plantation on the Virginia Tech Campus.  The kids have been to the plantation multiple times on school trips, but TJ and I have never gone.  Carol wanted to go to so we headed out.  It was a very cool place!  Learned a lot of history of the area I didn't know.  Bristol was a pain in the neck and TJ took her out not long after we had started the tour.  She just couldn't handle it.

 My cute girls!  And this is what Bristol does when you tell her to smile - haha!

One of my BodyPump class members told me this was her last day of BodyPump until September and wanted to get a picture together.  She hardly ever missed a class and she was always right on the front row smiling away at me.  I love teaching group fitness!  I love meeting new people and inspiring them to get fitter!  I will miss you Goral!

This is some yummy Indian chicken Goral brought to me a few weeks ago.  Another reason I love teaching group fitness - people bring me food :)

New Launches!

We launched BodyPump 91 and BodyCombat 61 at the gym.  As always it was a lot of fun.  I LOVE teaching group fitness.  I would like to get certified in other classes as well, but I've promised TJ no more for awhile...it's a lot of work!

LesMills Launch!

Every quarter LesMills comes out with new releases.  We always have a big launch party to debut the new releases.  We decided to do this one on July 4th.  It was awesome!  We had so many people.  What a great way to get the 4th started - getting our sweat on!  BodyCombat 60 was up first!

Then BodyPump 90!

BodyPump 89 Release!

Our Monday morning BodyPump instructor moved and asked me to take over his class!  I was so excited!  Monday morning is the best time to teach, I think.  I love it.  We launched the new release this morning and I asked if anyone wanted to dress up as superheroes with me.  We had a blast.  We tried to get our members to dress up.  Only one girl did - she wore a Batman shirt.  Everyone told us they loved the costumes.
Our signs to get everyone excited!

 Me, Jon, Laura, Martha and Sarah

 Triceps!

 Biceps!

 Flex Break!

BodyPump Groundworks

A couple other instructors from the gym and I decided to attend a Les Mills Groundworks training for BodyPump.  Laurie and I presented in BodyPump and Jon presented in BodyStep.  The day started early, we had about an hour drive ahead of us.  Check-in was at 8:30, and we wanted to be there in plenty of time.  It was held at the Roanoke Athletic Club - it was huge!  Our little gym in Blacksburg is so small.  We walked into the room and all the steps were already set up for us.  I was impressed there was a table off to the side with snacks!  Cliff Bars, bananas, trail mix, waters, and granola bars.  I've only been to one Les Mills training before, and there were no snacks there.  So, this was a nice surprise!  The day started off with BodyPump. We did the express class with the master trainer.  He was amazing of course.  Then we spent a lot of time looking in the mirror while he told us what position we were to be perfecting.  Lots of practice on squat position, dead rows, bicep rows, and more.  It was great to go through all of that again with a master trainer!  Then the presentations started.  There were 5 of us presenting in BodyPump.  I was last.  I did BP89 squats.  We knew from signing up that we would not teach the entire track, and that the feedback was given in front of everyone.  So you had to be ok with that if you wanted to present.  I didn't mind - I wanted feedback!  I need to work on my coaching layers.  I have been spending hours on that this last week trying to script and put things where they need to be.  It's tough!  After BodyPump we did BodyStep.  I am not certified in that, so I just took the master class and then sat out the rest of it.  After that we had a mini lesson on how to become better instructors.  It was great, I learned a lot.  My favorite part was the description of how when we came in this morning, we didn't know we were doing things wrong, now we were aware that we were and it might sting a bit.  I guess I feel kind of like I'm going through some growing pains with my instructing.  I know now what to practice on to be better, but it's stings a little.  It was nice to know that everyone had things to work on!  After the lesson, it was BodyAttack time.  The trainer for attack was amazing!  I wish we had Attack at our gym.  I am not certified to teach it either, so I sat out after the master class.  Last class of the day was BodyJam.  Now, I am NO dancer.  I have no rhythm, at all.  I was planning on just sitting this entire thing out.  But, the trainer wouldn't allow that - oh no!  He made me get up and participate.  Ugh, I hated the entire thing.  I hid in the back and looked like a complete idiot.  Oh well.  It was a great day.  I wish there were more trainings to attend!

BodyPump and Super Bowl

I team teach BodyPump with Laurie.  She is gracious enough to let me intrude on her class every Wednesday.  We have a lot of fun.  We wore football jerseys before the Super Bowl.  I don't own my own so I had to beg Tyler to let me wear his Broncos jersey.  All our class members loved it.

BodyPump Assessment

I sent my BodyPump video in on October 20.  The website kept saying I'd have my results by 11/4.  I couldn't resist checking every day though, just to see if it changed.  When I logged in on Friday, it changed to have my results by 11/14!  I was SO bummed!!  Then this morning, Tj was checking email and said "honey - guess what!"  My results were in - I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!  I am SO glad it's over!  It was so stressful, I'm glad to have that weight lifted off me!  I am so proud of myself for doing something like this and finishing it to the end - that's a big deal for me, I don't normally finish things!  Or maybe, I haven't ever really tried to start anything...hmmm.  I'll have to think about that one.

Teaching!

I've been teaching BodyPump at the gym for about a month now, but I've never actually taught the entire class (besides my filming) by myself with no other instructors present.  It was a little scary at first to think I was in charge!  But, I wasn't too nervous and it went well.  Except for my lunge track which I totally messed up the choreography on...oh well, I kept them moving, just not to the right beats :)

There's my name right there under Wednesday BodyPump!  Can't wait to teach more!!  For now I'm just a sub, hopefully soon there will be an open class I can take!

Bodypump 87 Training

I have taken bodypump for years - I love it.  I have never seen muscle definition in my body until I started doing bodypump.  I've wanted to be an instructor for a long time.  I was thinking about it a lot when Tj was last deployed, but it's an all weekend long thing and I didn't want to have to burden someone with the kids for that long.  When Tj came home I was looking into it, but then I found out I was pregnant.  I could have still gone through the training, but I just didn't feel well.  I was always so nauseous.   Well, finally I found a time that would work for me.  I signed up back in July for training the weekend of September 14 & 15.  I was so excited.  I would be training on BP 87!  About a week and a half before the training I received my release and the tracks I was to learn so I could teach them at training.  I had the chest and back tracks.  I looked at that stuff and thought - man, how am I supposed to learn this stuff?!  I thought it was so easy!  Well, it's not as easy as my instructors always make it look!  But, I studied, practiced, listened to the songs over and over, and over again and finally had it memorized.  I felt pretty good about it.  Training weekend came and I headed out early for training - it was about a 45 minute drive.  There were 15 people in my training - 13 women & 2 men.  Some had experience in being instructors in other programs already.  Some, like me, didn't.  It was a great weekend.  I learned so much.  It was hard!  We presented our first track on the first afternoon - I did the chest track first.  I did good - no mess ups at all.  I was a little nervous getting up there in front of everyone for the first time with the microphone on.  The second day we presented our track again, then presented our second track later in the day.  It went well too, I just rushed a little.  We had a small run, for about 15 minutes, then came back to the gym for a pump challenge.  It was so hard.  The trainer set up 8 stations we had to rotate through.  He set the weight for those stations - and it was A LOT of weight.  Way more then you would ever normally use.  It was just to show us how strong we really are and how much our bodies are really capable of.  I was with two other girls in my group - one was great.  The other drove me nuts.  She was one of those who didn't really try all that hard.  She would stand there doing nothing while the instructor was turned the other way, then work only when he was watching her.  She complained and complained and complained some more.  She drove me INSANE!  At the end of the second day we received our feedback and found out if we had passed or not.  There are three different kinds of passes - I got the highest pass - yay!  All that hard work paid off.  I was so happy.  The instructor winked at me and told me to get started on learning the rest of the release and get ready to film.  I have 60 days to send in my film to Les Mills so I can be fully qualified to teach by myself.  I've been working hard and have 5 of the 10 tracks learned now.  I'm hoping to have everything memorized and ready to film on Oct. 9...it's scary!

I've taught in my gym now about 6 times.  Again, I was really nervous the first time.  But, everyone is so nice and supportive, I'm no longer worried.  I even messed up the first time I taught I was so nervous, but I didn't tell anyone and I kept going like nothing was wrong.  No one but the other instructor knew.

Got my release!  Now to study, study, study!!!

 Off to training the first morning!

 YAY!  I PASSED!!!

 At the gym, with my name on a poster telling me I was TEACHING!

What a great experience! 

BodyPump and Pregnant

I have done BodyPump for about 4 years.  I didn't stop just because I was pregnant.  At the end of my 3rd trimester I did go down in my weight.  I did BodyPump up until the week I delivered.  I think it made delivery easier. 
39 weeks pregnant!