Mel - back to participant

In Balance, when we do bridge pose, on the videos it always explicitly explains that we must squeeze our buttocks while lifting up.

However I once had a PT client that used to do pilates who said to me that they explicitly state to NOT squeeze the buttocks.

Yesterday I participated in a pilates class where the instructor also said not to squeeze the buttocks in bridge pose and to try and relax the muscles.

So my question is, why is this taught differently between the 2 programs?

The next round of workshops are coming up again and I’m finally going this time!

Up until my pregnancy I had a track record of never missing a single workshop. But then I finally had to miss one, with the Adelaide workshop falling 1 week after I gave birth. Following this I was in the Netherlands and I battled the Dutch beaurocracy and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to attend workshops, despite being a fully qualified International Les Mills instructor (although once they “needed” me I found myself teaching classes totally unqualified like Pilates, but that’s a whole ‘nother story!). So, a few workshops missed, a few workshops attended in the Netherlands, a couple more workshops missed in Australia and now FINALLY……….

I put my registration in tonight - 29th August…….woooo

To all people trying to get fit and lose weight and the uphill struggle that it is, I want to share some motivational words. People used to think as an instructor the fitness and staying in shape was easy, but it was never just handed to me. Now, 2.5 years later, after a pregnancy and a tough time in the Netherlands I’m going that uphill battle again. But I’m determined. Despite my limitations at the moment, every time I find myself starting to slip I remind myself that I’m craving lollies etc BECAUSE I’M TIRED…..not because I’m hungry. Fitting in a lifestyle of healthy eating and fitness around a husband and a child is challenging to say the least, but I WILL get there…

…and YOU will too!

Well, so I finally got back to my first BODYCOMBAT class in Australia. Taking it carefully so as not to injure myself I did all low impact and wore my heart rate monitor. OMG, with all the low impact moves my heart rate still went up to 179 and averaged 165!!! When I was still teaching I would have been hard pressed to push myself to get that even in attack!

Well, the slow journey to restoring fitness……..is slow. But I am determined!

I can’t believe “You’re Shining” is in the latest combat! That breaks my heart, since I recommended that song ages ago and was dying for that to be in combat or attack.

I’ve been so out of it when it comes to all the latest Les Mills stuff. A few weeks ago I finally purchased the latest releases for combat, pump and balance. I hadn’t bothered, since I haven’t been teaching much and only doing the occasional balance here and there. Last night I finally extracted all my songs to itunes so I could listen to new music on the way to work (I have an hour drive). When I first got in the car, I initially put on the warmup for combat 44, but then changed my mind and started searching for the latest balance. For some reason I didn’t feel in the mood for combat. But while I was looking for the balance tracks the first notes of the combat warmup really struck me. I couldn’t turn it off! so I stayed with combat, and the music sounds awesome! I haven’t done combat properly since combat 35, when I was pregnant. I did teach BC41 a few times in the netherlands, but apart from that I’m really missing out on a lot.

So after listening to the whole combat, man I wanna do it again! I can’t believe the feelings the music gave me, that buzz and motivation! It’s a pity everyone is mixing now and I’ve missed it

I’ve been taking my fitness slowly and doing pump and balance, maybe a low impact combat class will be on the cards soon?

• 2L chicken stock (salt reduced)
• 600 g (approx.) sliced chicken
• 2x onions
• 4x carrots
• 1x large zuccinni
• 3x sticks celery
• 1x clove garlic (pressed)
• Salt & Pepper
• Large handful Egg noodles
• Chopped Parsley

Bring stock to boil. Add all ingredient (minus parsley and noodles). Turn down to simmer. Simmer for approx. ½ hour. Add noodles 5mins prior to serving, Add parsley 2mins prior to serving.

Help me add to the map at www.groupfitness.org

View PPCA Free gyms in a larger map

Ok so it’s only been 1 class a week, and not getting to do much else, but this weekend pump WAS much easier. I saw my chiro on Thursday for the first time in ages and that has made a HUGE difference. I could nearly do lunges all the way through, except when I do them with my right leg back, I have some problems with my right ankle. Seems to be an issue that started back in the Netherlands and my chiro has also been working on my ankle.

The Saturday morning instructor is away next week, so if she can’t get anyone else, I might be doing the class! With baby weights I’m not going to be at my best, but if the alternative is to cancel the class then I’m sure the participants won’t mind. Stay tuned…

The news of the copyright tribunal decision is hitting the fitness industry, and Fernwood are another gym that are going all PPCA free music as of June 1st (or rather “gone”). I haven’t purchased any of the new releases as yet, since I’m currently not teaching and I’m working full time, so yesterday morning I did BODYPUMP with all PPCA free music.

I’ve heard lots of complaints and compliments about the other programs and so I was keenly interested to see what the music experience would be like as a participant. Let’s just say, I was pretty tuned in half of the time to the music, the other half the time I was in pain. I was pleasantly surprised and I didn’t think the music was too bad and there was only about 2 tracks (when I was noticing) that I kinda cringed and could tell that it was a cover. Some of the tracks were really bloody well done!

I think the main point I want to make here, is that if I wasn’t really paying attention to the music, I would never have noticed. The instructor did make a mention of the music being covers, and at one well known track a participant said “is this not the original?” I think there’s only going to be real problems if they cover the current top 40 music. I was never really keen on Les Mills using the latest top 40 music anyway, because we hear it all the time on the radio and then hammer it over and over in our classes. In light of the problem with covering these well known songs (because participants WILL notice these) I think Les Mills would be wise to do away with or steer away from using this type of music.

I’m 100% in support of going PPCA free since what the PPCA has done is ridiculous and greedy. I can’t see any gym going ahead and paying the fees. Why do we have to pay 3 times for the music anyway? First Les Mills pays for the licence to use the music, then we have to pay ARPA to be able to play music in businesses and then again to the PPCA. Imagine if BMW demanded fees for every time you take their car out and drove it on the road?

Ridiculous?

Well, I’ve managed to teach a few balance classes since I’ve been back in Australia, but I had to give up my one permanent balance class when I started my new IT job in April. So apart from a couple of fill ins, and attempting to go for a walk and doing a couple of attack tracks in my lounge room, gym life for me has been pretty much non-existant.

But since doing more fill ins at Fernwood, I think I’m kinda on the books there, meaning the staff let me in to do a pump class this morning. And OMG, I’m not sure I really did it, but my legs are hardly moving right now!

It’s so frustrating, and despite being overweight and unfit, the instructor recognised that I knew what I was doing. I think it’s so much easier to join as a newbie participant oblivious to correct techniques, than to be forcing yourself proper technique and challenging yourself. Since my muscles need a proper sports massage (which I have to wait a few weeks to get in), I found I struggle too much with the leg tracks and can’t lift weight through the whole squat track and I didn’t risk doing all the lunges. All the same, I still can hardly walk!

Hopefully I can keep going to pump every Saturday and become a smart full time but FIT IT employee!

Well, last night was a fantastic night…….but to explain, a brief summary for those who don’t know the story.

I used to often hold BBQ’s at my house, those BBQ’s usually involved alcohol (like any), Les Mills music and a handful of Les Mills instructors.

That mix usually created a lot of amazing fun……..me trying to do drunken jam. Plyo lunges on concrete in bare feet and nearly hitting my head on the verandah during rear jump knees. All that fun has been a long distance memory though, after having a baby, going to the Netherlands with my dutch husband, a combination of the cold and falling down the stairs causing me so many back problems that I’ve lost fitness, put on weight and ended up in a miserable state of total unfitness.

And for those of you who remember sofie, I’ve been trying to drag her back onto the forum to post, but she’s not teaching LM anymore either following her car accident, and getting fit again is for her, also a struggle.

But last night, I had an inkling of a taste of what it all used to be for me. I’ve been losing complete passion for the programs, finding it so hard to remember what I loved. Last night I hosted a BBQ for a dear friend of mine’s 30th. Natty’s (who is also on this forum……..infrequently) husband didn’t have a location for his birthday, so we offered our backyard to celebrate. Jukebox, lots of alcohol and lots of non-fitness people….except for Alexander, Natty, Sofie and myself.

Now, sofie has never been a combat person, but Natty, Alexander and I went crazy when The Pretender came onto the juke box. For me it was like a drug……..I felt that buzz. People were watching, people were thinking we were nuts, and I through myself fully in moves that I knew I would regret the next day.

But I didn’t CARE!

and I had so much fun. The people at the party thought we were pretty crazy, and omg my body thought I was pretty crazy and I was heaving like a racehorse by the end of the track……..but omg, the buzz!

My chiro is amazing. There’s just nobody like him, I just have to say it. You’d think a knee injury would have nothing to do with my back, but after seeing my chiro and getting my hips straightened out again (it’s a process over a few weeks to get back to normal) my knee suddenly stops hurting. He also fixed up an ankle problem I’ve been having since I left Australia. I’ve had a muscle that was tight and sore down the front of the shin and if I ever tried to run or do any sort of impact, my heel would hurt. So while I was getting my treatment from the chiro, I asked him to have a look at my ankle. A very painful adjustment, but it feels MUCH better and I look forward to being able to do more impact again.

Yep my chiro is magic. I’ve seen a few now and none are like him.

I have finally just taught my first class back in Australia! It was so totally amazing to be on stage again and it was even better being able to be open and just freely be me. Where I felt I was a little shy in the Netherlands, I witnessed some of the crazy funness returning….and it felt good.

I started off with introducing myself to the peeps, said I’ve just returned from overseas. The class I was filling in was a chi-ball class, but chi-ball is difficult to find instructors. So all going well this would be replaced with balance.

One thing I totally did NOT expect, was to have any troubles reverting to teaching in English. I thought it would be natural, but low and behold, I found myself tongue tied and having to resist the urges to say things in Dutch! What the …? How can that be possible? Shortly into the intro I accidently said something in Dutch and quickly explained that I’ve been teaching in Dutch for the last 12 months. What was even more amusing was there was a Dutch lady in the class who was still 100% fluent in the language. So she was certainly amused at my little slips into Dutch, haha.

I found it weird too cuz I found myself translating Dutch phrases into English and they sound really plain and bland. I was trying to think “what did I used to say here?” ugh. I’m sure in a few classes those urges to say Dutch things will totally disappear. I know it took a good few weeks to get rid of doing U-turns the wrong way round while driving, haha

I’ve started getting much more motivated to get back into fitness since getting back to Oz, and since finding a wonderful park down the road Alex and I regularly take Connor down there to play and I do some mini fitness sessions for myself. I’ve been getting motivated to do intervals, jogging up the hill and walking down, lunges and a few pushups and stuff on the benches etc. I think I’m getting inspired to start doing some private PT outdoor sessions again like I did when I was pregnant. At least, I would be able to do some of these while the weather holds out. So in the meantime I’m getting all my paperwork together to register and insure again with Fitness Australia again, and once that is done I may start taking on clients on a casual basic, possibly in a child friendly atmosphere but that idea I need to explore.

Alex and I have even decided to program a fitness schedule to make it to the City To Bay fun run in October this year. I was 5 weeks pregnant when I did the last one in 2007, and before I decided to actually move to the Netherlands it had been my plan to get fit again for the next one in 2008. That never happened of course, and after suffering from falls on the stairs and bad medical care, I never really got back again. Now I’m back with my trusty chiro again and progress is now ready to go up!

The only downside is, with all that extra motivation I got a bit hyper while mucking around with Alex and did some plyo lunges on the concrete. Sigh, I guess it’s hard to face the fact that my body must take it slowly, and I have injured my knee. Will see how it goes, but I’m supposed to be teaching my first balance fill in since getting back in Australia on Thursday. So ice and rest it is in the meantime.

So I’m finally back. I’m adjusting to the warmer weather and loving the sun on my face and the vitamin D. The warm nights, the cool summer breezes and getting back into socialising with my friends. Some things have changed, some things have stayed the same.

I’m currently getting my fitness qualifications back in order. My registration has lapsed and so of course I need 18 CEC points for the last 2 years. I thought this was going to be diffcult and that I’d have to pay for some new courses, but alas, I can get points for the last 3 Les Mills programs by doing the questionares online. 2 points per program, 3 releases for each program and I teach 5 programs. If I had all the chorrey for all those that would equal 30 CEC points! But at the moment I only have 6 releases that I can do the questionares for, so that’s 12 points, and I’ve ordered the latest releases for combat, pump and balance, so that’s another 6 points….easy.

I’ve made contact with a couple of gyms, and it’s looking promising to get some classes or fillins maybe. I probably won’t go into fitness full time, although I’m unsure. I’m searching for web design jobs at the same time, and if I don’t get a job before Alex does, then I’ll remain part time and stay a mum. Once I get my fitness registration back in order I plan to Personal Training sessions again from home, since we have some great facilities around here for outdoor training (like I did when I was pregnant). This may or may not be on a casual basis, again depends on how things go.