Friday, January 7, 2011

First spin class + 4,000 calories burned

When I am taking care of myself - eating healthy foods and exercising I start to feel so good and forget that I am still 100 lbs overweight and am not ready to move mountains yet. This is what happened when I decided to go to my first spin class tonight.

And yes I can feel it! It was actually a combo spin + sculpt class. We started out doing lunges, squats, push ups, and planks, etc. It really made me realize I need to be doing more of this sort of thing in my regular work out. I can barely do a plank, and only attempted the side plank - sheesh that stuff is hard! Also, I hate doing that type of strength training. I think it's because I never do it, plus I'm really uncoordinated and that makes things like a side plank difficult. And bottom line: my fat gets in the way! I think after the half, my fitness goal is going to be to focus more on incorporating strength training into my workouts. I know I CAN do these things - it's just I need to practice.

Now onto the spin part - after doing all of those strength exercises, I was already sweaty and wore out. But to the spin cycles we went. After adjusting the bikes we hopped on and started peddling our hearts out. I was done for 5 minutes in. I'm used to walking. When I walk, I just start going and zone out. It's something I do because it is completely in my comfort zone. Bicycling, on the other hand, is not. I haven't been on a bike in probably 15+ years. And spinning is even more out of my comfort zone because you have all the the standing and all the resistance changing while cycling - I'm just not that coordinated!! It was hard. Maybe the hardest workout I've had in my life - not kidding. I'm not going to pretend I was able to keep up. I'd say I was about 75% with the instructor's prompts. I did much more sitting than standing and for probably the last 15 minutes I thought I may puke, so I did low resistance and just peddled at a moderate pace. So yes, it was hard - but more importantly I didn't hate it! If it was a regular offering to my work's employee gym classes, then I'd go!

I already feel a bit sore. It's mostly in my arms/shoulders and the back of my thighs where my legs meet my butt. I'm sure I will feel it worse tomorrow - and I secretly hope I do!! Everyone told me about the seat. Basically, the seat puts pressure on your lady parts/ass and makes you sore. I'm not saying it was comfortable, but that was the really the least of my worries - maybe I'll sing a different story tomorrow.

So there, I did it. I was anxious all week. I went outside of my comfort zone and I survived. I can't wait to find the next thing to bring me outside that comfort zone!

On another, but similar note: this is my report from Sparkpeople for this week (Sun-Sat) for the calories burned from exercise. And yes, it says over 4,000! I've hit the gym after work every day this week (except Monday, no work) and got in a couple extra workouts, combined with my 10 mile walk on Sunday - WOW! It feels great, however, I know this isn't typical but I'm going to try and keep up the 5x a week workouts since I seem to be on a roll...

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At some point this weekend, I'll be walking 8 miles. Most likely Sunday, but we'll see how I really feel in the morning. I hope everyone had a great first week of 2011!

1 comments:

KG said...

Proud of you! You get the hardcore award for the house this week.

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