Well, a lot has happened since my last post.  I spent the weekend with my most gorgeous friends in the Big Apple eating everything in sight, but also checking out some new workout classes.  I hit up Physique 57 and SoulCycle.

Physique 57 is a barre type class that focuses on exhausting one muscle group at a time through a series of moves using different your own body weight and different props ie. a kickball, bands, weights.  The room is bright and small and there is a spot on the barre for each participant.  You start in the middle of the room and do some arm exercises until you can’t feel your shoulders anymore and then move to the barre to place a kickball of doom between your legs to exhaust those beyond reasonable imagination.  All in all, I liked the class fine, but I wouldn’t seek it out again.  I didn’t really sweat all that much at all and, although I know I definitely got a workout, I felt like it could have gone harder.  I’m a person who likes to sweat it out when I workout and this had me feeling like I easily could skip a shower after.  Kudos to the teacher, however, for continually checking form and for having a firm knowledge about all of the different muscle groups in the body.

SoulCycle was a whole different story.  Now, I’ve been to SoulCycle once in the past, so when my friend asked me if we could go while I was visiting, there was no way I was turning it down.  I hate spinning classes.  I never get in to them, the room is dark, the bikes are uncomfortable, and time stands still and doesn’t pass no matter how hard I pedal.  SoulCycle is the exact opposite of this.  The music is all familiar, the beats are great, and the instructor almost treats it like more of a dance class than a spinning class.  You do push-ups on the handle bars to the beat of the latest top-40 hits, kick your resistance way up as they dim the lights and walk around with candles, and then there’s the arm portion where you take these tiny little 3lb weights and absolutely annihilate your arms.  I love it.  You literally blink and it’s over, but you feel accomplished because it looks like you just got caught in a monsoon because you’ve sweat out of pores you didn’t even know you had.  Cheers to you SoulCycle.  Cheers to you.

After averaging 25,000 steps a day, I was in desperate need of a rest day coming home.  Unfortunately, my rest day turned out to be just as step filled and I pushed through with the rest of my week’s workout plan as scheduled.

That was an interesting choice on my part.  My legs were 50 shades of dead after I completed BBG Week 11 Legs and remained that way for the subsequent two days following.  Even today, walking is a struggle.  My hip has also been recently causing me pain, but I’m just focusing on stretching it out and doing some yoga to get back in tip-top shape.

Today was burpee central with a workout consisting of broad-jump burpees, drop down push-ups (aka burpees without the hop), and weighted burpees.  If I don’t see a burpee for awhile, I think I’ll be okay with it.

I rounded it all out with some low and slow LISS aiming to keep my heartrate in the 50-70% zone.  It’s so hard and I get so bored, but I know it will be worth it.  Tomorrow’s workout is looking like a run and some HIIT, but if this hip keeps acting up, I might need to cool it.  For now, I’m just going to foam roll and stretch and foam roll and stretch…and eat the new lemon oreos I just picked up from the store.  Curing the pain with some well-earned pleasure food.

-sj