Bootcamp Day 17

Well, there it was — my first cardio-kickboxing class, and I have to say it was much more intense than I expected. I guess I’d seen a Billy Blanks video before and expected it to be all karate moves for cardio, but it wasn’t at all. We did about 10 minute of warm-up cardio… jumping jacks, jump-rope, mountain climbers, mountain climber-jacks, tire-run, under-the-rope, and lots of squats. Then we spent about 3 minutes learning “the moves”, couple of punches, couple of kicks, with Lauren clearly saying that getting the move right wasn’t all-important. If you were concerned about how to punch correctly, take one of the karate classes. In the cardio class, we’re just here to move, mostly, so just move and you’ll be on track.

I have to say, those stand-alone heavy-bags, for how hard they are to move out into position, sure can get knocked all over the place pretty easily. I felt like I was chasing mine all over the place… kept having to roll it back into position (conveniently dodging a few seconds of cardio while I did it).

The routine with the bags was 20 seconds of some kind of combination, which she would quickly show us. It was mostly just counts … 3 punches, a front kick and a back kick, for example, as fast as you could do it, then 20 seconds of cardio knees up jogging, or these weird squat, squat, jump, jump things that I don’t know the name of, then 20 more seconds of the combo, this time with more power, then 20 seconds of cardio, then the combo again with full power and not worrying about speed. In between these combo-cardio drills, we’d do… you guessed it… more cardio and a bit of strength training for arms with some stretchy bands. When I gave them my feedback about bootcamp I mentioned I didn’t feel I was getting the arm workout I was expecting, but they certainly bumped that up here. Good lord, it was tough to raise my arms up to keyboard level just to type this.

All in all the class was intense and fun… and I sweat my ASS off the whole time. Lauren, who I think is the Director of Operations for Bootcamp is the 6am class instructor and she is just an incredible tiny bundle of energy. I think I mentioned that Bootcamp has a special offer for a 3-month deal if I wanted to do three months, but I’ve been a little back-of-the-mind concerned that even that early in the morning that the temperature in the summer is going to make it even tougher. The Bootcamp deal works out to just over $200 a month, for a total of 22 workouts and 30 days of accountability (with the homework). Bootcamp is still what they recommend for people still trying to reach their fitness goals, as it is the most intense.

They are, however, running a deal with AtlantaKick for $85 a month, any three fitness classes a week, any time, any day, no set schedule. They call this their “fitness maintenance” plan. The kickboxing is, of course, indoors, no jogging, no shoes, even, and three flexible days a week sounds pretty sweet. I guess I’m still debating things. I really have the urge to just commit to another three months of bootcamp first, because well… I wanted to say that compared to Bootcamp that the cardio class was like “a walk in the park”, but with Bootcamp in the park….. Bootcamp leaves me floored, knowing I’ve pushed myself farther than I would any other time. CardioKB was just, well, a fast-paced class.

Call me crazy.

Oh, and one ankle, the left one, seems to still have some lingering pain, so I worked out on it wrapped today. It’s not feeling like it’s going to swell, which is good, because I don’t think I have time to ice it properly today and get up to Alpharetta for an extra long day of appointments. Our max-to-date has been 4. Today and tomorrow, we’re trying to fit in 5 a day. I plan to be exhausted and in need of a vacation by Friday. Good thing Friday is my vacation! =)

PS. I love my encouragement flowers! So much nicer than “encouragement” pushups!