I have read a lot about body pump before, without actually working out WHAT body pump is. All I have gathered was that it was a weights class where you did squats and lunges- no biggie right. Wrong.
A couple of weeks ago, I dragged my colleague, Monaz, to use some of my Fitness First free class passes and to try out Body Pump. I was too much of a wuss to try it on my own and in exchange I have promised to attend a Zumba class with her (at some point, hopefully in the distant future).
It started with a really hectic queue to join the class sign-up sheet, and some very unhelpful staff who didn’t know about the class passes, and were very reluctant to let us sign up! We eventually grabbed a class ticket and made our way to the studio, after somehow being coerced into joining a 15min abs class in the smelliest corner of the gym. I had a very sweet partner who told us we should hotfoot it to the Body Pump class as space is tight.
He wasn’t wrong. We got to the class and people had set up their equipment all over the room, in no obvious rows/lines. We checked out what others had picked up and tried to assemble our own equipment. Despite looking like total newbies, NO-ONE helped us at all!
The class kicked off, and we were thrown into the deep end- the instructor didn’t even ask if anyone was new! We followed as best we could, but found that at times we were choosing far too heavy weights and at others we didn’t have heavy enough ones. We finished the class shaking with muscle fatigue, and having enjoyed it somewhat.
I liked the concept of doing a weights class, just not the execution of that particular one, so when I discovered that the gym close to work holds lunchtime Body Pump classes, we signed up.
Unfortunately we were slightly late to our first class there, so we had the mad dash to collect the equipment- but this time at least we knew to go heavy on legs, low on arms! I enjoyed this class a lot more than the first one and went back to the office feeling energised (and starving!)
Since then, Monaz and I have done a further two classes at the local gym, and had brilliant, encouraging teachers who make sure you have the right weight, push you to add more and ensure that your technique is right. I love that each class is different and I can really feel my whole body working. Being in a class environment makes me push myself further and means that I don’t allow myself to give up before I finish a set. I’m also learning new weights exercises that I can incorporate into my own gym routines.
Whilst training for the marathon, I was scared to do too many leg weights as I didn’t want my muscles to be fatigued for my training runs. Now I can see that actually I should have been doing more leg weights to strengthen my legs/knees/hips and ensure that they were strong enough to keep me running!!
I teach BodyPUMP, and I am so sorry that the teacher didn’t help you out at first. That probably was super frustrating!
But I am SO glad you tried it again! BP has been a huge part of my life, and has made me stronger, fitter, and faster. LOVE it!
YAY! Glad I found ya 🙂
EnjoyYourHealthyLife.com
Thanks, I LOVE BodyPUMP now, and am actually testing out a BP class at a new gym next week before I sign up. Hope its as good as my weekly class at the moment!