Trying a new class and loving it

A few weeks ago I got an email from Patti, the manager of Royal Roads Recreation Centre letting me know that Kelly would be teaching the Cardio Strength class that they have on Monday and Wednesday from 12:00pm-1:00pm. I was happy to hear that because when I was going to the RRU bootcamp she had filled in before for the instructor. I liked the way she instructed and her as a person. I hadn’t been to this class before but because Kelly was going to teach it I knew I would get a good workout and wanted to go.

Kelly started teaching the class on February 25 but the first class that I could go to was yesterday because work commitments had made it that I couldn’t go to the previous classes. I got changed in my office and ran to the gym. It isn’t a far distance but it gives me a little warm up. Also didn’t hurt that it was raining so running made more sense.

I arrived at the gym and went to the aerobics room where the class is taught. When I got there I saw Jessica and not Kelly. Jessica is a personal trainer who I have worked with once before when I was a member at VI Fitness. She now does personal training at RRU and yesterday was filling in for Kelly. I knew I would still be getting a good workout with Jessica teaching the class.

I walked around the room taking a look at the various stations she had set up. There were mats, bosu balls, swiss balls and free weights. Beside each of the stations she had pieces of paper with each of the 11 exercises we were going to do. Some of the exercises were box jumps, up and down plank on a bosu ball, one leg dead lift with weight, skull crusher on the swiss ball, swiss ball roll outs and more. She went through each exercise and showed us the modifications we could do it depending on your ability and fitness level. We were then told that we would do each station for a minute and then there would be one minute of cardio in between each station. The cardio would be randomly selected by us. Jessica had a piece of paper with 11 different cardio exercises and she would ask each one of us to pick a number. Some of the exercises were running knees, skaters, bum kicks, burpees, mountain climbers and others.

There were all different fitness levels in the class and it was nice to see some people that I know from various departments at Royal Roads. There were also people who didn’t work at Royal Roads who were there as well. As we went through the exercises we were working hard but we were also talking and laughing a bit when there were breaks. I came back from the class to my office feeling good and happy for taking part in a new class.

I have the Bazan Bay 5k race on Sunday and this week is my taper week. When I went to the class I thought it was going to be mostly core work and that my core would be tired and that I wouldn’t be doing much leg work. Last night I had my run club with Frontrunners Westshore and I found  my legs were feeling a bit tired but made it through the workout with the help of Beth pushing me along. This morning I have some soreness in my legs and butt but I like it and makes me feel like it will be good for me to keep this new class as part of my workout schedule. I will get to push myself but also meet new people and see others who work at RRU that I don’t get see very often. It may make tonight’s class with the TC 10K Learn to Run Group a bit hard but will be good recovery for me. 

Lately I am feeling like I am going through the motions with my workouts and am needing something new. When was the last time you tried a new class or challenged yourself to do something new?