Weekly Feature: What did you do?

[cereta]

I thought it might be fun to have a weekly post where people could comment with what strength training they did this week. It could be a fun way get ideas, cheer each other one, and help our members keep track of their own work.

I'm keeping the title completely neutral, because I want this to be as broad as possible. You can go into detail, you can talk about something new you did or an increase of some kind, or you can just report time or days or whatever makes you happy.

Comment away!

Comments

[tielan]

I've upped several of my class weights this week:

13kgs for quads
10kgs for chest/pecs
5kgs for shoulders

Weights resistance training for me is entirely based on gym classes. (Body Pump classes, 1 hour of assorted muscle groups in 5 min blocks, 3x a week.)

I considered posting about gym classes this week, but reading the comments, it looks as though few people here would benefit from it - most people seem to prefer freeform weights. I find the structure and the group encouragement of the class helps me keep going where my lazy ass gives up on freeform after a handful of reps.

[cereta]

I would love to hear about it!

[rydra_wong]

reading the comments, it looks as though few people here would benefit from it - most people seem to prefer freeform weights.

No, go for it! The community's so new; I don't think there's any kind of "majority opinion" or whatever (and even if there was, gym classes would still be relevant).

ETA: Also, yay for upping your weights!

[lyorn]

Are those the LesMills Body Pump classes? If so, are they worth getting up for early on Sunday mornings? (The only one of those where I have a chance to attend.) I dislike group things because I'm not well-coordinated, but it would be the only chance for me to do not-machines other than changing gyms.

[tielan]

Yes, they're the Les Mills series, and I find them worth getting up for (8:30am Saturday class sometimes), but my body clock wakes me up before 7am even on weekends unless I've been up really late.

They work for me because it's the exercises to music, with about 4-5 mins of reps, and I can adjust my weight to what I need.

Group classes are intimidating at first - the coordination aspect is a biggie for me, too - but I generally find that Pump is the class requiring the least co-ordination. The moves are simply the basic ones from freestyle weights, set to song, and timed over four beats of the music.

Ultimately, all the Les Mills classes require for "co-ordination" is familiarity. It's not that all the other people in the class are co-ordinated, it's that they've been doing this for a while and they know what to expect!

I'd say try it at least once a week for four weeks - you need to keep coming back to learn the moves and get the technique right - and see how it goes. (And start really light - because this isn't just a couple of sets of reps, but 5 minutes worth of them.)

[siljamus]

Oh, please post on the classes. I'd love to read about it.

[sophinisba]

I'm someone else who much prefers group classes to strength training on my own, so I'd love to see a post like that!