My muscles and throat ache. Ironically the best I felt all weekend was when I was out running 13 km this morning. Boyfriend attempted to stop me from going as I have been sick, but I stubbornly told him to mind his own beeswax. Sunday’s run is sacred. It is my church – my time to think and digest all that happened in the week, the good and the bad. 

What I always neglect to do after most runs is stretching. I tend to rely on my one yoga class per week to keep me limber, but today I felt that I needed to stretch. As I didn’t feel like popping out for a full yoga class I decided to do a workout from Booty Camp’s DVD – Seaside Serenity Stretch.

The 26 minute stretching segment on the DVD was good and definitely stretched out parts of my body. The location was beautiful and the voiceover soothing. The one thing I would say is that if you have no knowledge of yoga you should watch the segment before doing it (as many of the moves are yoga inspired), so that you understand what the moves are and how to do them. 

After wrapping up the serenity stretch I took a peek at the Booty Booster workout (15 minutes) and after watching a minute or two I decided to do that one as well. A little bit of a backwards workout – stretching followed by a glute workout. Oh well. Loved this one and mid-way though was muttering all sorts of unmentionable words at the TV. But I know my booty will thank me in about a month when I slink my way into a great pair of jeans. Definitely motivating. Only question is how often do I have to do this to have this happen!? 

PS: Thanks to Lisa @BootyCampFit for sending me a copy! Much appreciated!

For other Booty Camp  DVD reviews check out:

Embracing Balance

Life, Health and Fitness

I finally took the plunge and signed up for an 8 week Pilates boot camp at Core Studio. Parting with $200 last night was a bit sad, but when you break it down $25 per 70 minute class is pretty reasonable for a reformer based Pilates class. The class size is also really small (5 people), so that means extra attention to me and my abs! Trust me they do need some attention… even after an 8 week boot camp.

The two main reasons that I’m doing this:

• I really do love Core Studio and whenever I go to another studio I always leave wishing I was at Core.
• I need a new challenge

The two superficial reasons why I signed up:

• I cannot be allowed to go home directly after work. Why? If I go home after work I end up snacking like crazy and this is not a good thing.
• My mother’s latest comment to me – when she saw me in DC during September this is what she said:

  “Your legs look really muscular from all that running. Too muscular. Once you stop all that marathon running (she isn’t a fan) you can focus on other things like Pilates.”

  Some of you may think “how cruel”, but sadly she is right. I need to do some lengthening and toning exercises that don’t focus on bulking up my muscles. Hopefully this will do the trick. For the record, though, I’m not giving up on running!

Highlight of my first class: the Jumpboard. Super fun and made me feel like a kid again.

If you haven’t been to Core go now. You won’t be disappointed.

Two months ago I started my Booty Camp Fitness journey and over the last 8 weeks I have lost some inches and gained some self-confidence. I have kept track of my journey most weeks via this blog, so if you have been reading you know that I have been enjoying being a part of the the Booty Camp family. I, unfortunately, can’t share with you my 8 week results today as I have to confess that I missed the Wednesday class – after running the Marine Corps marathon on Sunday I just felt tired and decided to take a well deserved break. The good news is that my journey won’t necessarily be stopping here as the instructor is continuing to offer some pay-as-you-go classes and then in January it begins again! Hopefully, I’ll be keeping the fitness momentum going!

Here are my top 5 highlights of Booty Camp:

1. The people - the instructor and the other women throughout the entire camp were fantastic and surprisingly normal. Basically if you sign up for a booty camp class you are going to be surrounded by people who are both encouraging, there for the right reasons (improving their fitness levels) and not clad in size zero Lululemons.

2. Non-competitive atmosphere - As I mentioned before everyone is at Booty Camp to improve their own fitness levels, so people aren’t there to showoff or to show the person next to them that they are better than them.

3. Trying something new - One of Lululemon’s mantras is “do one thing a day that scares you” and Booty Camp has definitely helped me be able to do that. Doing declined pushups are definitely out of my comfort zone and although I might not be able to do them properly yet at least I tried to do them.

4. Being outside - I truthfully like exercising outdoors and run outside year-round, so I liked the idea of the camp taking place outdoors despite the sometimes chilly weather!

5. Strength - I just feel stronger and after running a marathon on Sunday I know that the strength I gained at Booty Camp is helping my running. I’m looking forward to my next race (Austin Half Marathon!) and seeing even better results!

For those of you that are thinking about joining a booty camp in January and are hesitating – sign up now for the January ‘09 sessions. I promise you that you will love it and feel better about yourself. The one thing I would say, though, is that if you are new to fitness and working out and thinking about joining a booty camp it may not be a bad idea to take a couple of personal training sessions with a trainer, so that you learn the proper form/techniques for doing some exercises like squats and lunges. In larger groups you aren’t going to get the one on one attention that is sometimes needed at the start of learning something new. By taking a couple of training sessions you’ll learn the right techniques and be good to go!

If anyone has any questions about my experience with booty camp please feel free to comment and ask your questions!

My awesome elite drill instructor

I have now officially reached my halfway point of my 8 week Booty Camp adventure. Week four was full of new moves and of course the dreaded measurement taking.

After a few days of digesting the mid-point results I have to say I am proud of my progress. The progress not being the inches I have lost, but rather the progress I have made in my own fitness levels.

I am now actually able to do things I never thought I could do. Prior to this experience I never even attempted a full push-up I always just dropped to my knees to do the “girl push-up”. Now I can do a few full push-ups before doing the modified versions. Another recent highlight is now being able to do something that resembles a burpee rather than my “hopefully they won’t notice that I’m not really doing a burpee” move.

The best bit about this whole experience for me is Oksana, the instructor. Her encouragement and dedication is truly impressive. Love her emails as well – is so nice and refreshing to receive an email that makes you feel awesome about yourself. Thank you Oksana!

Oh and for those of you who are wondering what my four week results are I am happy to share:

-2 inches of the booty
-3/4 inches of the waist
-3/4 inches of the hips
-Chest stayed the same
-1/4 inch off the upper arms
-1/4 inch gain in the thigh which according to Oksana is muscle…

As I said in a previous entry, the next four weeks will be focused on healthier eating and cutting out the alcohol…Thanksgiving may be a tad difficult.

Booty Camp in DC

This week I traveled to Washington DC, so I was on my own for one of this week’s group sessions (could make Monday but not Wednesday). I have to admit I did miss going to the park on Wednesday and meeting up with the other recruits. But sometimes life doesn’t always allow you to be where you need to be. 

Prior to traveling to DC I thought I really should bring my Booty Camp DVD with me, but while packing I had second thoughts and decided to leave it at home. Most hotel rooms I have stayed in never come equipped with a DVD player. Wrong. The rooms at the W Hotel in Washington all had a player in the rooms, so I actually could have done the workout.

But I was on my own.

Armed with 3 sessions worth of moves I headed down to the gym one night to sweat it out. I must admit I was proud of myself as I definitely tried to follow the same style of routines I had done with the group. 60 minutes after I started I was sweating and knew that I had challenged myself. My booty was also sore the next day which I think is a good sign!

Thoughts so far?

To be honest I am surprised at how much I am loving Booty Camp. It is still a lot of fun and I find myself looking forward to tomorrow night’s workout. The other thing that I have realized is that four weeks is not enough and I think I want to get on board for the 8 week program. Four weeks just gives you the taste of what you could accomplish and I want to keep on challenging myself to get in better shape (for me and for the clothes I just bought in DC!).

Lesson of the week?

You can actually get in a good Booty Camp workout while traveling! These moves can be done anywhere and with little equipment!

Week 3 brings two more Booty Camps and a make-up Booty Camp! I’m also going to try and convince another friend to sign up!