Power ReMAZING

And the lucky fitness class that was graced by my presence this week was *drumroll please*...

Power Remix! 

Ever since I've arrived, I've heard the buzz about a mysterious class called Power Remix. My Sho-Time mentors both gave dazzling reviews, suggesting everyone in our group go at least once. They described it as a Zumba class to modern pop music. I'm always down to go dancing, and the fact that the dancing is an actual workout makes it a win-win situation! 

Sadly this week my roomie couldn't come on my fitness adventure with me, but luckily I met up with a couple girls from my floor. They had both gone to Power Remix before and were super excited that this would be my first time, promising me that I'd love it. 

We got to the gym about 15 minutes before the actual class started, and we joined the line of about 10 girls who were already waiting in line. We filed into the gym and went through the typical process of having our IDs swiped and signing our initials. A couple girls immediately started to line up in the front and center of the huge gym we were in, marking their territory. Gradually more people began to pick their spots. A couple were even stretching their hamstrings and calves which made me a bit nervous about how intense this class would be. As I took a look around the gym, the two girls I was with excitedly gestured toward the instructor. A tall blonde guy stood at the front of the gym with a sweatband pulling his hair back and out of his face. Yes, you read that right, A GUY! He wore his "Instructor" shirt proudly, preparing his music with a smile. Every time I've gone to a fitness class, I've seen no guys in attendance (you're all missing out), so seeing a guy instructor was a pleasant surprise. 

Our instructor started out the class with a couple simple steps to an upbeat remix to get our heart rates up and our muscles warm. The microphone he used was super spotty, so I didn't catch his name, but we'll just say it was Marvin. He was clearly enjoying himself, smiling as he gave each move his all. The music and his mood got me super pumped for the rest of class. We continued on through his playlist which was composed of fun and motivational songs like "Love Myself" by Hailee Steinfeld and "Salute" by Little Mix. We even danced to "Watch Me" by Silento. Each song had choreography that fit very well to the theme and the beat of the music. The choreography also included exercises such as squats and lunges and arm motions to work both our legs and arms in addition to the cardio. Marvin was great as well, giving us friendly reminders to keep our shoulders back and also to keep smiling and push through the class. He constantly moved around the gym in order to give everyone a good view of what he was doing.

When Marvin stated that we would be starting the last song, I was immediately saddened that the class was ending. After the last song, Marvin led us in a relaxing stretching session focused on all the muscles we had just worked out. I left the class with a smile stuck on my face, which is saying a lot because Tuesday nights are designated to moping around about the Chem lab I have from 6:30-10:30. RIP Tuesday nights.

In conclusion, Power Remix definitely lives up to the hype. I ended up sweating just as much as I did for Calorie Killer (go read my first post if you haven't already!!) and although I didn't end up waddling like an obese duck afterwards, my legs and arms were definitely a little sore the day after. I suggest that you show up at least 10 minutes early, since the class is popular and you don't want to be stuck in the back. Also, don't forget your water bottle! And most importantly, make sure you commit to the class and go all out. Go big or go home, right?

If you guys have any suggestions about what fitness class I should try out next, be sure to comment them down below!!

Until next week,
Hali 

Barre-ly in Pain

I've come to realize that the most important thing to master in college is the art of time management. And I'll be the first to admit that I definitely haven't mastered it yet. After meeting with my academic adviser, and realizing I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with my life yet, I made my way back to my dorm, soaking in the sun and enjoying the lovely weather. Halfway back, I got a call from my roommate, asking when I planned on getting back and telling me that she was already at the gym. After a moment of confusion, it finally clicked and I remembered that I was planning on going to the Barre Fitness class at 6. After looking at the clock and seeing that it was already 5:55, I picked up the pace and half-speedwalked half-jogged my way back to my dorm. Let the record show that I speedwalked and jogged for you guys, I think that shows my dedication. 

I quickly ran up the three flights of stairs to get to my room, changed, grabbed a water bottle and made my way to the gym. I managed to make it to the class only three minutes late, and jumped right in. Looking around, I noticed that everyone had their shoes off so I took mine off too and joined a blonde girl at her barre. I did my best not to disturb the class, but the girl I was sharing the barre with was definitely not having it, giving me a stink eye and refusing to make room for me at the barre. In response, I just smiled at her whenever we made awkward eye contact, hoping to make her feel uncomfortable. 

Anyways, back to the actual fitness class. We started off with plies and releves at the barre to the remix of a pop song. The instructor said that we should be feeling the exercises in our calves, but my calves were completely fine. I should note that this might be a biased opinion since I used to dance throughout high school. The instructor, whose name I didn't catch-- I'll just call her Berenice, seemed inexperienced, which made the class atmosphere very cold and unpassionate. She was super focused on doing the exercises herself, and her occasional motivational phrases seemed very half-hearted. After the first song ended, Berenice instructed us to pick up a small exercise ball. She then told us to place that small exercise ball between our thighs and continue with the plies. Hearing these instructions made me react a bit like this:

Being in a room full of girls doing plies with exercise balls placed between their thighs was just too much, and I couldn't help but giggle. I also felt ridiculous. In fact, I felt like a hen laying an egg, which is not something I've ever experienced. 

After the weird plies with the exercise balls, we did a sequence of leg exercises. We did leg lifts to the side, and then leg kicks where we started with our toes touching our knee and then flicked our leg out to the side, and finished it off with leg lifts to the back. Berenice had us perform this sequence of leg lifts for one leg and then for the other. This definitely placed a strain on my hip since all my weight was placed on one side for so long. So definitely be wary if you have hip problems. 

After the leg exercises, Berenice switched off with another instructor, Kelly, who led us through some typical arm, ab, and glute exercises. Kelly also seemed inexperienced, once again creating a cold atmosphere as she taught the class. After we finished with the exercises, she led us through some stretching to end the class. She only held each stretch for about 10 seconds, which definitely was not enough time to fully stretch my muscles. 

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with my experience at Barre Fitness. I left the class without a bead of sweat on my body, and with some pain in my hips. As I was leaving, I heard the instructors talking about their training, which explained why they seemed so inexperienced. I would rate this class a 4/10, and suggest that you try it out later in the year, when the instructors are more experienced. 

Calorie Killer? More like Calorie Kill-Me

On one somber Monday night, I made a decision that would change my life forever. And by forever I mean a couple of days. After having spent my whole day catching up on chem work, I was so relieved when it was finally time for me to return to my ever welcoming bed. Caught up in the moment, and feeling ever so productive, I stupidly asked my roomie if she wanted to go to a fitness class with me the next morning. What I didn't know was the only class we could both go to was called Calorie Killer. Now, I'm not completely unfit. I swam and played tennis in high school, but over the summer I didn't keep up with either of these sports and slowly but surely I became more and more out of shape. I should also mention that my roomie is an amazingly in shape dancer and runner who can probably lift a car and run with it if she had to.

When my alarm went off the next morning, I realized the terrible mistake I had made and immediately regretted it. I slowly rolled out of bed and reluctantly put on some clothes for the gym. With a name like Calorie Killer, who wouldn't be scared? The whole way to the gym I imagined the different ways this class could end. Would I be sprawled out on the floor at the end of the class? Would the class actually be a breeze? As I walked into the room, I was met by a group of about 10 girls and a peppy instructor. Judging by her bright smile and the glint in her eye, and the fact that she voluntarily taught a 10 AM Tuesday morning class, she was definitely a morning person. 

The instructor quickly introduced herself as Paige, and then asked if we were ready to start the class. Justin Bieber's "Where are U Now" blasted out of the speakers as we started our warm up with some easy zumba moves. At this point I was feeling totally comfortable and internally laughing at how hard I thought the class was going to be. Little did I know, the worst was yet to come. 

After the first song, Paige told us that we were done our warm up and that we would be starting our first cardio set. When she said cardio I thought of some nice running in place, maybe some jumping jacks, but nothing too extreme. Boy was I wrong. She started demonstrating the "frog jump" which is when you bend and touch the floor and then jump up with your arms up in the air. You repeat this jumping motion in a square. At first, this exercise seemed completely doable. But then Paige explained that we would be doing this exercise for a minute, and then we'd switch and do a plank for 30 seconds. Then we would do the frog jumps again for 30 seconds, and a plank for 15 seconds. And then the frog jumps for 15 seconds, and finish it off with a minute long plank. After the first 30 seconds, I could definitely feel the burn in my thighs. And actually, I'm still feeling the burn in my thighs, two whole days after the class. Every step that I take reminds me of how sore my muscles are. I sincerely hope that no one has noticed my weird walking lately, because I feel like I look like an obese duck, slowly waddling from place to place. Anyways, this first cardio set was absolute torture. My legs felt like there were on fire the entire time. And it was only the FIRST set. 

Next, we moved on to some muscle toning. Paige instructed us to grab some weighted bars from the back of the room. The muscle toning wasn't as intense as the first cardio set. We just did several sets of squats, deadlifts, and bicep curls. But soon we were starting our next set of cardio. This set of cardio included us doing sprints across the gym room. Once again we followed the structure of the last cardio set. Except this time we alternated between sprints across the room and wall sits. Paige referred to the wall sits as "active recovery" but let me tell you, I don't think an activity that makes my legs shake can be classified as recovery. After this set of cardio, we did another set of muscle toning, and we finished off the class with a final set of cardio. Our final set of cardio alternated between half burpee's and bear crawls which was just high knees with your opposite arm going up in the air while your knees are up. Throughout this class, I sweat more than I have ever sweat in my whole life, and that's saying a lot when I live on the fourth floor of Atherton (which has a tendency to get ridiculously hot). Our last exercise of the day was a minute long plank. At this point, everyone was  exhausted and dripping with sweat. In fact, my roomie pointed out the trail of sweat left on the floor underneath her after the plank. Paige finished off the class with a nice stretching session, and after collecting our things we all left. 

My body felt completely useless as I told myself to put one foot in front of the other so I could make it back to my room and collapse on to my bed. This hour long class was definitely the most difficult exercise class I have ever taken. However, it was an extremely effective class. Paige was a great instructor, helping all of us with our form and keeping us going with encouraging statements!

Overall, I would rate this class a 10/10, and give the difficulty level a 10/10 as well. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone who wants to get whipped into shape. Just know that you'll be sweating buckets, your muscles will probably be extremely sore, and you might be walking like this for a while

Until next time! (when I'll hopefully be walking normally again)

Hali