This weekend was one of fear and excitement and fun and being holed up in a basement learning things…

But I’ll come to that!

Firstly Friday Day 329:

Friday was a low energy day, one of those sleepy, and vaguely apprehensive days when I was a) tired and 2) worrying about the weekend and being too tired to do anything other than make myself look like an idiot!

So Friday turned into a walking day.

 

It  was a lovely day and I headed out during my  lunch break  for a walk, I went for (as it turned out) 42 mins and 2.7km

It wasn’t the longest, but it was enjoyable. It was sunny and, active, and away from my desk!

and it was what I needed on Friday, as both an antidote to the crazy PT and many squats of Thursday and as preparation for the weekend ahead 🙂

The rest of the days activity was around climbing on scaffolding, a task that was harder than it had been previous;y as I was on my own this time, with no (tall) husband to assist me…

the main bulk of the problem was around getting the ladder down from the first level of scaffolding where it was stowed to stop random people just climbing up!

No…I am not random…it is my scaffolding!

In the end I solved the problem with some jumping, standing on the scaff bar intersections and hanging from the bottom of the ladder until it over balanced…after that the ascent to the roof was a piece of cake 🙂 (although I did not in fact get any cake!)

Day 230 (Saturday)

Saturday was the scary day, it was the day I thought (again) that I might show myself up and be judged as not fit to be doing the course I am doing…

I was or course wrong…again!

Saturday was my Circuit Training Training Workshop assessment! 😀

For this one I had to travel up to london, otherwise I would have had to wait for months!!

So, despite it being the weekend, I had to get up at 5:30 am to be able to catch the train!

it was, however worth it 🙂

We learned how to structure a class, what circuit training is, and what types there are available, we learned about sensible warm ups and cool downs and styles of teaching 😀

As well as the theory, in the morning, we did one whole class circuit training class set up by the trainer as an example. It was hard but not incapacitating!

In the afternoon, we were split into two groups and given a themed circuit training class to plan and teach. Our group got Ski-fit and the other group got boot-camp!

Of course, the one we weren’t teaching we had to do! So I did another circuit class in the afternoon, a boot-camp style circuit class!

which was hard…and more tiring than the first one!!

During the teaching, we had to do demos of the exercises, we had one each to demo and motivate, I got plank jacks…or should I say…I chose plank jacks because it was entirely my own fault!

which meant, as well as two full circuit training classes, I did many plank jacks… and planks… and the intermediate step where you walk your legs in and out 🙂

I also ran the post stretch part of the class as we all had to take a specific part so we could be assessed on our delivery 🙂

It was an excellent course, and it just served to reinforce my believe that circuit training is awesome, not just in specific circuits classes, but in many training situations 😀

I passed the course by the way (woohoo), so now all I have to do is find me a circuit class to teach 🙂

What would you do when you get home from a day like this?

Yep…thats right, squats!!
Day 17 squat challenge, 130 squats 🙂

Day 331 Sunday

Sunday was another early start, another train / tube journey to the centre of that London.

Another day of learning interesting fitness and exercise related stuff 🙂

This time the course was Core Training.

There was much more theory on this course, more about the core muscles and how they work and their functions, how important it is to train them and train them evenly!

Most people think of “core” as abs and getting a “6 pack” although I don’t know why a 6 pack is iportant…rectus abdominus (the main ab muscles that run down your front) is split into 8 segments…

anyway…

It is essential to train the front and back components of core muscles to keep things balanced.

I have also learned how bad for you sitting down is, you put something like  300% extra force through your lumbar spine when you are sitting, and even more if you are sitting unsupported!

There is no wonder there are so many lower back problems amongst the office workers of the world!

Well…the good news is a well trained core can help support your back and ease this sort of pain!!

During this first part when we talked about pressure on the spine and potential damage, I became moderately terrified and wanted to lie on the floor immediately…

I didn’t…

no of course I didn’t!

the rest of the day was spent learning to do and to teach many different types of core exercises.

did you know there are 18+ different levels of plank!? I didn’t!

Admittedly the first on is just laying on the floor while bracing your core…

One of the later levels was plank with hands on a medicine ball and feet on a fit ball…

I tried this, I don’t think I held it for more than about 0.5 seconds…

but then neither did most of the people in the class so I didn’t feel too bad about that!

we basically spent about 1.5 hours doing different variations on planks.

I mean, not constantly for 1.5 hours, that would be insane!

We also learned the core bracing technique which is taught in pilates and using it makes all core exercises more effective 🙂

after lunch we carried on learning different core training techniques, for the different planes of movement 🙂 there was a lot of core training going on, even though we only did a few reps of each, there were  lot of different exercises!!

The course its self was incredibly interesting, and useful! It was not a pass / fail sort of thing, but there was an optional exam at the end to turn it into a City and Guilds Qualification…which I took. I’ll let you know if I pass when I find out 🙂

And at the end of the day…what else but more squats (at home…I didn’t do them on the course…)
day 18 Squat challenge, 135 Plie squats!

Day 329 – 331 Complete 😀