Yesterday morning, bright and early at 6 am – I had the opportunity to take a free demo class of Les Mill’s newest offering – GRIT. (Just an FYI: Les Mills is the same company that offers Body Pump, Body Jam, Body Step, etc) GRIT is a high intensity interval training (HIIT) style workout. Fortunately for me, my Body Pump teacher’s husband just recently got certified to teach GRIT and his gym was hosting a few demo classes to get people interested in the program. Heather and I reported to Arlington Health and Wholeness around 5:45 am to meet up with the group and get started.
There are three styles of GRIT classes: cardio, plyometrics, and strength. In our 30 minute demo class, we did a cardio based workout – although there was plenty of plyometrics involved! We did a series of intervals involving various exercises – high-knees, push-ups, burpees, jumping squats, jumping lunges, and sprints in between. We finished off the class with an abs track. It was intense! During the class, I felt like I was going to pass out but in a “working really hard” way – and I felt great after class ended! I should have grabbed some pictures, but I was too busy working out! Although about half-way through the push-ups I had to drop to me knees (we did A LOT of push-ups) and I have some very bruised knees from doing push-ups on a basketball court floor.
They are seriously gross. And it definitely hurts to kneel.
Today I actually wore my calf compression sleeves to work under my dress pants because my calves are so sore. I was sort of hobbling around before I put them on. I think it was all the plyometric work that really got into my calf muscles – a muscle group that I think was seriously underworked before now!
For a quick look at what GRIT is all about – check out this video:
Speaking of push-ups, I mentioned in my Fitness Bucket List post that push-ups are sort of my nemesis and one of my goals is to do 10 full “real”, all the way down to 90 degree push-ups in a row – and I think I’m getting really close! Based on some recommendations, I downloaded the ‘Hundred Pushups’ app from iTunes and I started it this week. It’s a three day a week program that builds you up to doing a bunch of push-ups in a row. While I have no delusions about being able to do a hundred push-ups, I’m really excited to make working on them a weekly priority.
Finally, this past Sunday I had an amazing yoga class. It was only the second time I’ve been to yoga since I started my half-marathon training plan, and now that I’ve abandoned that idea, I’m so excited to get back to yoga. I’ve truly missed it. I was worried that I would have lost all the gains that I had built up going twice a week. Fortunately, I had a really spectacular class. I held Bird of Paradise (albeit with a bent leg), held Crow for a few seconds, and even got into full Wheel pose! I was so shocked. I remember being able to do this move (referred to as a back bend in my gymnastics class) when I was in middle school, so I was shocked when I started taking yoga and found I couldn’t push up into this position. This past Sunday, I just decided to go for it and I popped right up! It was such an amazing feeling. I think it’s really a testament to the strength I’ve built up in my shoulders and arms that I was able to pull it off. It reminds me of a quote I saw on Pinterest about falling in love: “You fall in love the way you fall asleep – slowly, and then all at once.” I think the same thing is true for yoga poses – you work and work on getting them, and then all of sudden you take a deep breath – and you’re there.