Tag: les mills

Group Fit Guru

Three Steps I Take When Learning the Newest Body Jam. (#3 is the key)

I love BodyJam. Like…a lot. It’s part of my license plate. It’s part of my email address. It corners the market on 97.5% of my Facebook posts. I just love it.

Walking in to teach class is one of my favorite things to do every week.

Wait, let me correct that:

Walking into class prepared to teach is one of my favorite things to do each week.

I add “prepared” because showing up to class unprepared might be my very LEAST favorite thing to do. It’s terrifying. It’s an hour of eyes rolled up and back into my head desperately trying to remember what comes next. No connection with people. No connection with the music. Certainly no Fitness Magic. Just. Not. Fun. So I try to never put myself in that position. Because yuck.

I’ve been at this for ten years now, and yes, it’s gotten easier since the days of being absolutely unable to dance and speak at the same time (let alone instruct!) without passing out or wanting to throw up.

That’s the stage I’m in now with RPM. #humbling

As I’m sure many other instructors do, I get asked a lot about the process behind teaching classes. I thought I’d take a post to pull back the curtain a little and write about my experience preparing for launches. I’m sure every instructor has their own way of learning the latest release; it can be a pretty personal thing. So this is just how I prepare for a BodyJam launch. My prep for BodyCombat and now RPM were/are very different and maybe I’ll tackle that in another post.

Continue reading “Three Steps I Take When Learning the Newest Body Jam. (#3 is the key)” →

Group Fit Guru

Kate Finamore: Group Fit Guru
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Kate Finamore, Director of TRUE GRIT at TRUE Health and Wholeness in Arlington, VA.  CTF’s Group Fit Guru

I am so, so, so excited to introduce Kate Finamore, Director of TRUE GRIT at TRUE Health and Wholeness in Arlington (and also my sister), as our first contributor to CTF! Kate has 20+ years experience in the fitness biz but she is undoubtedly known for her expertise in all things GROUP FIT! She is, without question, a Group Fit Guru.

Kate approached me about borrowing a little space on CTF to blog about an experiment she is conducting where she will be taste-testing several fitness classes in the Alexandria, Arlington, and Falls Church, VA areas using a two week free membership to ClassPass; a service that, with membership, allows you entrance to a number of boutique fitness classes such barre or cycle classes without needing to “belong” to any one gym/studio.

I, of course, JUMPED at the opportunity to hear her thoughts on these classes and as we collaborated to get her first review up, we realized we could probably do better than just a two week trial series. So… Group Fit Guru was created. Kate will be the major contributor, but I’m likely to add my two cents occasionally as well.

Keep your eyes peeled for more services being added soon, including a phenomenal opportunity for fitness instructors to get direct feedback from Kate on their teaching. Until then, please enjoy Kate’s introductory post to The ClassPass Experiment.

Continue reading “Kate Finamore: Group Fit Guru” →

Taking a Knee

Taking a Knee: I Need a Plan

I’m a planner. Like, maybe, possibly, pathologically, a planner.

My friends know this. My husband finds this to be equal parts “super (insert expletive) annoying” and “good thing one of us is on top of things.”

If you’ve ever been invited to anything I am hosting, you know I give you a month’s notice (ahem…eyes open for a birthday invite….ahem) and while we’re pulling back the curtain, generally the invite has been ready for weeks before I send it, the menu has been planned and a to-do list created and divvied up.

I put myself in charge of all outreach programs at work because I was losing my mind having to throw events together with a week or less notice. Now we have the year planned out – dates for everything, responsibilities doled out and I can sleep at night.

So when I got to PT on Monday and realized very quickly that PT Greg, who was on vacation all week, had not left specific notes for PT Lindsay and the substitute PT I worked with on Wednesday, I was less than enthused.

Continue reading “Taking a Knee: I Need a Plan” →

Body Image, Food Stuff

Month One? Check.

 

Weight: 157.4 (0)
Pain: 4 out of 10
Cravings: 5 out of 10
Mood: Eh
Energy: 3 out of 10

ENola Virus

I’m just going to pretend Week 3 didn’t exist. Who’s with me? 
Fine, but you’re only getting the high (low) lights.

  • I returned from Les Mills Quarterly with the ENola virus. Thank you, PleatherB, for naming the plague that struck not only me, but many instructors upon our return from New Orleans. I think along with Fitness Magic, New Orleans delivered sore throats, sinus infections, coughs, colds, body aches and general malaise. Maybe they looooove Newton’s Third Law. Action:Reaction? That’s the only thing I can figure. In order to have THAT MUCH FUN, you must then be SO SO MISERABLE. 
  • Being that sick lead to cravings. Not just your average, “I could go for a piece of chocolate right now.” or ” “Man, I wish I had some ice cream.” cravings. No, no, no. I’m talking about Comfort Food Cravings (CFC). CFC’s are only one step above hangover cravings and one step below pregnancy cravings in the Cravings Hierarchy. All I wanted was Friendly’s Chicken Noodle Soup with 1000 Saltine crackers crumbled into it, my mom’s baked mac n’ cheese – specifically the edges with the crusty cheese bits, and raisin bran cereal with whole milk; 6-10 small bowls because everyone knows if you pour too much at a time it gets soggy and soggy cereal is gross. My amazing husband, Mark, and my partner in all things fun, Jaime, will disagree, but they are wrong. Don’t listen to them. DO eat your cereal quickly. Now, I did not eat any of those things. I did, however, INSIST that Jaime bring me UTZ Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. With ripples. This product lovingly referred to as crack in our home. Feel free to judge us for being insensitive to those with actual crack addictions but then also feel free stop taking things so seriously. I digress. We rarely have crack, but when we do….God it makes me happy. I know what you’re thinking. “But Elizabeth, sour cream? You’re dairy free!” Well this might just hand you the surprise of your life, but there is no actual sour cream in this product! There are potatoes, though. I checked.

Continue reading “Month One? Check.” →

Food Stuff

From NOVA to NOLA and Back!

 
Weight: 155 (-2.4)

Pain: 6 out of 10
Cravings: 1 out of 10
Mood: Tired but Happy
Energy: 3 out of 10

Hello, Week Two.

After such a successful week one, I expected  the beginning of week two, at the very least, to be a breeze. I was leaving for New Orleans on Thursday evening and well aware of the challenges the trip might pose but I thought Mon-Wed would be an easy continuation of my super productive Week One. And it might have been, had I gotten more than four hours of sleep a night between Sunday and Friday.  When you throw in a puppy with a broken leg, a super delayed flight landing at circa 3 AM and 8 fitness classes in two days, frankly, the whole week should have been a disaster.

Poor Sam Adams…

 

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Body Image, Food Stuff

Focus on THIS

Weight: 155.4 (-2.0)

Pain: 6 out of 10
Cravings: 1 out of 10
Mood: Thrilled
Energy: 7 out of 10

Week one is in the books. Seven days of gluten free, dairy free, and red and orange ALCAT column free eating have passed and my life has CHANGED! All is right with the world! I feel AMAZING!!

Just kidding.

BUT, in many ways, I did have a really good week. I have been asked, “How’s it going? Has it been hard?”, probably 30 times. The truth is, it really hasn’t been hard. Even Saturday, when we had friends over to watch the World Cup, I did just fine. There were so many temptations that are no longer “allowed” in the house regularly and I really didn’t have trouble staying away. I made sure there was plenty I could eat and after having such a positive week, the weekend was completely manageable.
Continue reading “Focus on THIS” →