Day 199: Getting that Brazillian Booty!

Tim Ferriss, lifestyle designer extraordinaire, writer of the 4-Hour Workweek and the 4-Hour Body once said about Kettlebells were the secret to a Brazillain booty. Okay, so I may be paraphrasing.

Ferriss has a whole philosophy about doing things that return the biggest value in the shortest amount of time (indicated also in the titles of his books). Ferriss's body slimming, weight work-out of choice? Kettlebells. With only 25-30 minutes of properly executed swinging and moving (surprisingly technical exercises) you can tone and slim your arms, back, abs, legs, hips and, obviously, your booty.

It just so happened that one of the yoga studios I'm visiting on my jaunt invited me to come to their Kettlebells class, and I was happy to oblige.

The class ended up with just me and one other woman, who had clearly done this Kettlebell thing before. I learned the "Get Up" which is pretty much a full-body dance with the Kettlebell, from lying down in the fetal position to standing up. It sounds pretty easy and looks pretty easy, but remembering exactly where your knee goes in line with your wrist and what angles to hold the bell at while you're doing it is pretty challenging. Apparently I caught on pretty well (according to my jacked Fabio-esque teacher), but I was moving pretty slow and not feeling very much.

Then we went on to do the traditional kettlebell swings. Basically you just stand with your feet wide, squat down, pick up the bell, swing it about the height of your neck and swing it back between your legs. And you keep swinging. I wasn't feeling very much...until I stood up from this squat. There I realized that this thing wasn't all about the arms or shoulders, but that I had just gotten a tremendous workout in my inner thighs that I have never ever gotten before.

I can definitely say that I looooved the kettlebell workouts, and if they work as effectively as people say the do, and if I could learn how to actually do a whole workout in 20 minutes, I'd surely get a set myself and start swinging!

Has anyone else here ever tried kettlebell exercises?

Day 190: A Yoga-ing We Go...

Holy Moly Batman, am I behind or what??

The answer to that question is obviously yes, I am unbelievably behind on this blog, although believe you me, I am doing New Things up to my eyeballs. So many New Things I can't even blog about them all.

This little post is about to turn into a life update, because that's what I do. Okay, so, where to start. Ummm...yes, Thursday is where I left off. Right now, I'm diving DEEP into the Atlanta Yoga Scene thing, and I am on a month-long yoga studio binge. There are about 50 studios that I know of, and I've made it my mission to visit half of them within the next 4-6 weeks. I feel like I've gotta get out and meet the people I'm talking about all the time and to take my own medicine--trying new styles, new teachers, new classes, workshops and more. I've gotten a lot of offers for free classes all around town (this little thing is paying for itself in free classes!) and am having a ball visiting them all.

But with that comes BUSY BUSY BUSY.

I've got a boyfriend, a new puppy, a 9-5 job, Atlanta Yoga Scene stuff (website-ing, classes, calling people, oy my!), calling the insurance people (got in a teeny tiny, un-noticeable fender bender (New Thing number oh-why-are-we-counting is that I damaged the first car I ever bought by myself)) and my sanity to keep juggling, and, I'm afraid, this past week's blogging has taken a back seat.

But the New Things have not!!

On Day 190 (sweet baby Jesus, I've got 175 days left!): I went to Oni Fitness in Vinings for a free Candlelight yoga class.


I didn't necessarily love it and I wouldn't have it on my schedule if I had a yoga studio, but the Oni people were very generous in letting me come to check it out.

Funny story came from that though--I realized that explaining AYS is REALLY hard to do for people who aren't immediately familiar with blogging. I talked to this one woman, and our conversation went like this:

Me: Hi I'm Leah, I run a webiste called Atlanta Yoga Scene that's got all the teachers, classes and events going on in Atlanta, it's pretty cool.

Girl: Oh wow, so you're an editor?

Me: No, I write the content.

Girl: Wow, so you wrote Oni's website?

Me: No, it's my own website, I put it together and it's a blog for what's going on in yoga in Atlanta.

Girl: *quizzical look* What do you write about?

Me: Things happening in Atlanta yoga, you know, events, classes I like, teachers doing cool things, studios opening, that kind of stuff...

Girl: Oh *another quizzical look* why?

Me: Because I thought people might use it and like it and maybe one day, if it ever becomes profitable, I could do it full time.

Girl: Ah, I get it, you teach yoga in Atlanta!!

Me: *face palm* I...tell...people...what's...going...on...in...yoga...in...Atlanta...andthenIwriteaboutit!!

*fume a little*

*recognize I'm fuming*

*deep cleansing, yogic breaths*



I don't think she joined my Facebook group.

It's time to clean up the pitch a little...

Day 127: Road Runner

On Day 127, I began training for the Chattahoochee Road Runner's 10K, which I am using to get a qualifying spot for the Peachtree Road Race 10K, from which I will springboard into the Thanksgiving Day Half-Marathon 2011. If nothing goes horribly wrong.

If you read my goals post, you would see that I had planned to run a half-marathon before my birthday this year, but I'm a girlfriend, blogger extraordinaire, entrepreneur-in-the-making, yogi, and 9-5 office drone. Cut me a couple months slack.

Why am I doing this? I'm not sure exactly. I just feel like I need to be celebrating what my young body can do. If I ever run a marathon, I will do it only once, and only to say I did it. And, my gorgeous, ambitious, novice runner friend Katie Bahran is just killing it up in New York with her running goals and I'm jealous.

My workout was pretty easy, but I hadn't run since attempting the Peachtree last year. Mark some how smuggled me into Gym of Buckhead (uh...she forgot her keys...uh..she's under my name...uh...she's a guest looking to join the gym! (last excuse worked). I got on the treadmill and walked a half mile, ran a whole mile, walked another half, ran another whole mile, and walked another half mile. I could have run for another mile, except for the fact that Mark had been ripping up the treadmill on full speed during this time and was ready to peace out (rightfully so).

So yes, Day 1 of training was nothing to write home about, but I've started yet another "thing" (heaven help me!) and I'm sticking to it.

You can sleep when you die, right?

Day 123: "REAL" Yoga

Confession: I am a big ol' scardy cat when it comes to trying some New Things--even when I'm pretty sure I'm going to like doing them.

One such example is a type of yoga I've been scared of.

For those who have never done any kind of yoga before, there are so many varieties and styles that they can't even all be named in this post. There's hatha yoga, power yoga, hot yoga, Bikram yoga, Anusara yoga, Astanga yoga, restorative yoga, and even weirder styles like laughter yoga.

Not all yoga is created equal, and although many styles are based on similar poses, there can be music, more focus on breath, a longer hold in each pose, a sequence flowing through many poses like a dance, chanting, various levels of heat, etc. etc. (And for this reason, I honestly think there is a type of yoga for every body, regardless of your fitness level and experience!)

For most of my experience in yoga, I've done power yoga (hot, sweaty, fast-moving, emphasis on breath), Anusara (slower moving, heart-opening, emphasis on alignment) and Hatha yoga (music, some flow, emphasis on feeling good over working out).

I've liked all of these, but I've always had the feeling that I haven't been doing REAL yoga--like the kind the masters in India do; the kind the crazy hippies did in the sixties.

For this, I needed to try Astanga (Ash-tonga) yoga. This type of yoga is a sequences of poses and flow that build upon itself, so that you are always progressing at your own pace. You learn the one primary sequence, and practice solo until your teacher offers you new poses to master. It's very traditional, and the descendents of it's founder run an institute in India where serious yogis take pilgrimage. It's REAL yoga.

So with an open mind and heart, I went to one of the few studios in Atlanta with these classes and hoped for the best. Now see, I've been doing yoga a preeeetty long time now, but I still get nervous every time I try a new studio or style (Can I possibly be good at every style of yoga in the world? Hardly!)

I selected an All Levels class, hoping I wouldn't be the only one who didn't know the sequence. I was doing pretty well, sweating nicely, building up some heat and managing myself pretty well for the first part of the class. Then we came upon this series of "jump throughs," which look like this:



I cannot do those. That is not at all an "All Levels" move! And oh, we did about, I dunno, what felt like a couple hundred in between twisting ourselves into various pretzel-shapes, one that looked like this...

Now, I'm flexible, I can do a lot of yogic things, but only managed to finagle myself into this pose after the teacher popped my shoulder into submission. Although the popping didn't hurt, I'm pretty sure it was not natural.

I liked to always tell people that no yoga pose actually "twists you into a pretzel," but I was wrong until I tried Astanga.

Class went on, jump throughs, pretzel twisting, headstands, back bends, and all, the rest of which I was able to keep pace with, albeit with increasingly shaky muscles.

In all, however, I really enjoyed the class because it presented new challenges to master. I hope to go back soon and get more comfortable, so that I can get myself into other crazy poses that come, like this:

Day 98: Maybe I'm not so fit after all

On day 98, I was invited to attend a Tweet and Tone event at Exhale MindBody Spa, which by the way, is unbelievable. It is the definition of an "urban oasis," where it's located in a high rise, but when you walk in, it feels like you could be anywhere. It is the most serene and upscale gym/spa/healing center I've ever seen and I loved it.

The Tweet and Tone event was set up to show bloggers and journalists the amenities, where they could take pictures and Tweet their way through the area, and at the end, we would be treated (slash cruelly subjected) to one of their signature Core Fusion classes. I don't have a smart phone, so their effort was largely lost on my presence, but I made my mark and did some awesome networking so it was a personal success.

Now, the amenities are TO DIE FOR. I could legitimately live in the bathroom. It was all marble-y and modern and smelled amazing and had gorgeous wooden lockers, etc. I thought it would be inappropriate to take a picture of the bathroom while there were people changing in it, so there's nothing to show, but honestly, TO DIE FOR.

The gym area was clean, non-smelly, and decked out with the newest and best equipment, the nail salon was all wooden and felt like a modern Buddhist sanctuary, and there wasn't a sight of those spine-breaking vibrating chairs anywhere. They showed us the hand salts, cooling fragrances that at were a far cry from asphyxiating nail polish smell. With Butter London nail polish, what's not to love?

After being taken away by the serenity and beauty of this place, I was then asked to join the other attendees in the Core Fusion class. Core Fusion is an Exhale signature, that combines yoga, Pilates, ballet, weight training, and bits of the Lott Berk method. It focuses on small movements with typically unused muscles so that in an hour, my legs shaking more than I had ever shook in my life. Watch this video to get a picture of the style. It's hard to describe here.


The beginning of the class was hard, with some intense non-stop arm weights, and core exercises, and while it was definitely a challenge, I have been doing yoga pretty consistently and I wasn't dying. We went to the ballet bar to do some legs and butt stuff, and I was crapping out faster than a slug when you put salt on him. Ho-Lee-Mo-Lee. I don't know if I've ever really, truly, felt a burn  in a muscle group before. Not that I haven't been very sore and been very physically challenged before, but pulsing my leg for to a 45 degree angle behind my butt while tilting my torso in that direction made me think that my ass, in fact, was on fire. Add to that that this exercise was followed up by fast-pumping grand plies and enough calf work to make a ballet dancer cringe. But that, of course is not where our story ends.

From there, we got on the floor and the teacher asked us to sit on our butts with our legs upwards at a 45 degree angle, and our hands holding on to the ballet barre to create a V. I have NEVER had a problem doing this, but after all of this work, my legs were shaking so bad that I couldn't straighten them. Shaking...soo....bad. Upon finishing these brutal exercises, I couldn't walk back to my Core mat without my knees giving out twice in ten steps.

After class, I told the teacher that I think she hates people.

She laughed.

For the past two days, I haven't been able to feel my thighs, although the rest of me is pretty okay.

I didn't think that I had it in me to feel this sore in my legs after dancing for 18 years and actively doing yoga for two. Maybe I'm not so fit after all.

Okay, truth: it was probably good I didn't have a smart phone because I might have been saying very mean things at the time. But I'd definitely go back.

Day 76: I'm All Shook Up

After picking my dad up from getting his car tuned up, I ended up at my parents house for the first time in months. For today's New Thing, I had intended to go riding on my dad's motorcycle, but it was dark, rainy and cold--not the best conditions for motorcycling. However, to my delight, upon entering the living room, I found a Shake Weight.

Bingo!

My mom said that the equipment came with an instructional video, to which I had to oblige, making Day 76's New Thing that I worked out with the Shake Weight instructional video.



I was making fun of this pretty bad when mom showed me how to use it for real. She had to use a similar product in physical therapy for a shoulder injury, so she knew how each exercise was supposed to be performed. In reality, if you really put your mind to the proper form, it can be a pretty solid workout to shake that thing for the whole six minutes of the instructional video.

But I still can't help laughing...

Day 63: Circus Freak

"Oh, [s]he floats through the air
With the greatest of ease,
This daring young [wo]man
On the flying trapeze!"

 On Day 63, I attended a circus class at the Circus Arts Institute. As in the case of my helicopter flight, I found this deal on Living Social and it was just kooky enough and cheap enough to lure me in.

I had originally anticipated that my friend Marlena would come with me, as we had the "OMG Let's DO it!" conversation on Facebook, but for various reasons, she didn't get the deal. Looks like I had to go this one alone. That fact became especially sad when I arrived in the scary, graffitied downtown Atlanta neighborhood, by my onesies, and got even worse when I walked in and all 30 attendees were with a buddy. I was tired on Day 63 anyway, and if it hadn't have been rush hour, I seriously might have gone home.

However, I drove almost a freaking hour to get to this place through gobs of city traffic, so I put my big girl panties on and stepped up to the challenge.

After a brief warm-up that mostly consisted of wiggling and stretching out our wrists, we got to play on the equipment.

I had the opportunity to swing on the flying trapeze, climb the Spanish Web, tightrope walk, balance on a balance board and juggle. Because we spent only a 15 minutes or so on each apparatus, I ended up having a lot of fun and not getting bored with anything. After lots of smiling and trying new things together, everyone was loosened up and I ended up chatting with some of the other ladies--making me feel less like a loner.

Playing on circus equipment was definitely fun and not too difficult. I especially liked the trapeze because as a novice you can do a lot on it. The teacher gave us a series of 8ish movements to try, so when I got up there, I felt like I was actually good at it.

I surprised myself on the Spanish Web in that I could actually climb the thing like a rope. My upper body strength has significantly improved since elementary school.

This is what a Spanish Web looks like, but I didn't do all of this crazy stuff, I just climbed it 7 feet in the air

 The tight rope was pretty fun, but definitely hurt my feet a little. It wasn't too intimidating because it was only a foot off the floor. I guess they can't risk life and limb at the circus school.

I was surprisingly good at the balance board, despite the fact that I can't skateboard at all and have never jumped up on one of those things before. I guess regular yoga classes keep my balance pretty solid.

At the end of class, the instructors did a couple routines on the trapeze and on the silks that proved how inadequate we intro class kids were, but served as a teaser of the wonderful things we could learn if we joined the circus. While it was a dashingly fun experience for one day, the place is simply too far from my apartment for me to go there on any regular basis.

Overall, I had a really good time, was surprised by what my body could do and got out of my rut of going solo. While I could definitely improve my upper body strength by going more often, I kind of just missed going to yoga class.

At the end of the day, yoga is the workout I prefer (although boxing is a close second!)

Day 56: "Watch Out Mark, She's Got a Good Left Hook"

Paul Delgado, king of kicking

my ass

Mark has been working out a couple times a week at Delgado Boxing for the last six months or so and has been seeing really great results. Today, I learned why.

When I say 'boxing studio' I don't just mean a room in a gym where they set up a couple of punching bags and give you some gloves. Delgado Boxing is run by Paul Delgado, a top-notch, 20 years in the making, certified U.S. Amateur Boxing coach. He himself gets in the ring on a regular basis and coaches international talent. Seriously. This is not your typical gym-class boxing.

I was nervous all day for this challenge. Mark and I had originally planned to go on Saturday, but Mark was sick and in no shape to hit the gym. I had been hyping this workout up for days now, so my nerves were getting the best of me. I went into this pretty sure I was sealing my imminent death.

May I remind you that I do yoga? Yoga classes and amateur boxing workouts share very few similarities.

When I arrived, I instantly noticed the smell of sweat and rubber, and saw nothing but very strong, tough-looking guys all around me, reminding me that I was in a war zone of fitness.

We started warming up with jumping ropes, lunges, weight training, etc. and I was pretty sure after 15 minutes that I was going to keel over and die from a lack of oxygen and quickly failing muscles. Paul let us have our first water break, and I was hoping we would calm down a little, but au contraire, this workout started strong and never let up.

Suck on that, flab.

After some high-impact cardio, we started with boxing technique where Paul took his time to explain to me how to move my hands and legs to get maximum impact on the bags. He was so patient throughout this whole class, spending enough time with me that I got the principles down, but not smothering me with instruction. My bag partner was also really patient, reinforcing all of the things Paul taught me and giving me the "You got it!" type encouragement when it was warranted.

I learned all about punches and there numbers ("give them the old 1-2 punch" actually means something!) and how to move my body to unleash my inner fighter. I was surprised by how much I got into it for my first class. I think it's because boxing reminds me a lot of dancing. The whole, "Move your arm here while twisting your torso that way," "Turn your shoulders this way when moving there." It's a language that without a doubt I could master on a workout level, and it inspires me to kick a little ass.

I mean, I definitely I had to slow my pace significantly at certain points throughout this workout and messed up the 1-2-6-7-3 punch almost every time I did it. What made it worth it however, was Paul telling me he was impressed with my left hook and my endurance, warning Mark of what terrors may befall him if he were to refuse me chocolate for a long enough period of time.

Lastly, I give huge props to the students in the class we all incredible athletes and people. They were all there to work hard (allowing the teacher to really push the limits) and had great attitudes throughout the class. A couple people even approached me about how I liked my first class, paying me compliments and encouraging me to keep coming back. I really can't as for much more than great students and an unbeatable workout.