My Weekend of Power

I don’t know if it’s because I’m starting to freak out in my 39^th year, or if opportunities are just randomly presenting themselves, but I seem to be crossing things off my bucket list at an alarming rate. (And by alarming rate, I mean twice within the last 5 months.) This past weekend, I had the chance to take the BTS Group Power instructor training class and now I can cross that one of the ol’ list.

For three days (THREE FULL DAYS), a dozen of us occupied the big group fitmess studio at the Reh-fit and were put through our paces by a deceptively nice BTS trainer, who came all the way from Massachusetts and had exactly 72 hours to whip us into shape (literally).

Our trainer, Laura 

It was probably one of the hardest and funnest things that I have ever done. I am used to taking the Group Power class twice a week and on Friday alone, I did it 3 full times *plus* coaching exercises. In a nutshell, here’s how the weekend played out:

Friday: Of the 16 people signed up for the class, I knew (or at least recognized) about half. I was mostly excited to see my fave spin instructor, KK, amongst the faces in the room. I’m used to her kicking my ass in the mornings, so I knew that I could count on her to keep me going when the going got tough. (Or at least be there to gossip with me at lunch.)

After a full day (12 – 8:30) of lifting, learning and listening, we had homework: learn a whole track to teach to the class first thing on Saturday. I was given “shoulders” and spent about 2 hours working on it in the living room, between wolfing down dinner and hitting the sack. Unfortunately (or not), the mascot didn’t want to learn it with me and left me to it.

Saturday: We started right at 9am with a nerve-addled run-through. Nerve_addled because not only were we teaching, but we were being videotaped for review. Gah! I think I did ok, considering that I had never taught a fitness class EVER, but after seeing myself on the tape, I knew that I had a lot to work on. Of course, there was plenty of time for that later because we were going to be taped AGAIN later in the day.

The rest of the day went well… lots of book-learnin’ and technique practice. Again, we ran through the whole class 3 times (or, roughly what I would do in 1.5 weeks). The group was really beginning to get to know each other, though, and that provided all sorts of fodder for KK and I. Like I said, it was hard, but it was fun. ;-) Before we went home, we did another group-taught class and video review. We were all relieved to see big improvements all-around.

I had a little dinner party to go to in the evening, which gave me a nice break, but I had another song to learn for Sunday morning, so I was right back at it on the way home. (Interesting fact: it takes exactly 2.5 “Jessie’s Girl”s to drive from River Park South to my house.) Thankfully, Saturday’s homework went much faster than Friday’s and I went to bed with a much clearer mind.

Sunday: When they said “bright and early”, they meant it. We started at 7:30am and got right to it. We did another full run-through and video review and then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon doing both book work and technique “refinement”. Our instructor had to be out of the facility by 3pm, so we had to cram a lot of info into a very short day. There were a few things that we ran though quickly because, god forbid, we should miss the chance to do “team training”.

For the uninitiated, team training is training (with me so far?) that is done in (you know it) teams of two. It started with a 12 minute run or walk (I ran), followed by lifting super-duper heavy weights in 12 minute sets, each team alternating between “doer” and “spotter”. We did chest press, dead rows, clean & press, lunges, bicep curls and tricep extensions. With the exception of the very last few curls and extensions, I think I personal-bested just about everything. By that time, though, I was congratulating myself for still being alive and I cut myself some slack. But just a little.

My GPeeps - Reh-fit Centre - Nov 6, 2011

My attitude throughout the entire weekend was less “let’s get this over with” and more “let’s do this!” I knew that it would be hard work, so I showed up to work hard. There were a few people in my group who seemed to be surprised at how much we had to do, but I think that by the end of the three days we were all on the same page. Now all we have to do is practice, practice, practice and teach as much as possible to get ready for our certification videos. I’ll be interested to see how many of us take it all the way to the end. I’ll be back with updates as they happen…

...and funny that my last post was about cake and this one is about working out. ;-)