Thursday, May 21, 2009

Booooooot camp!

You may or may not know this, but I am getting pretty obsessed with my fitness classes - I guess if you've been reading this blog for some time you may have noticed my nerdy obsession with step aerobics and to be honest I have legitimately thought about detailing my High Intensity Training classes on here as well. 

But I won't bore you with a revolving list of jump squats, plyometric jacks, flying lunges, mountain climbers, shuffles.. and other ridiculously hard work out combinations. I will however talk about how I have taken my new found love of fitness to the next level... my very own BOOT CAMPS! That's right, I've been kicking my own ass as well as a select few, mostly Duncan, but Anna and her boyfriend Nick have joined us. Nick in fact provided another awesome butt-kicking move, called the TOYOTA! Which I will illustrate soon enough! These weekend boot camps are becoming more and more important as Duncan discovers his skill in crafting delicious breads  and Anna and I perfect the art of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. (Sorry, no post on our pie secrets, we are still honing our skills as pie bakers.)

Back to camp! Sooo, last weekend Dunc and I took along a camera to illustrate some of the more unfamiliar moves we executed with ease and fitness-awesomeness... not true, these workouts are  still REALLY hard, even though I've been doing them for almost 6 months... Without further ado, I give you a sampling of Betsy's Boot Camp!


First off, you need water, so DRINK IT! Even if you aren't in a boot camp. Also, I use my water bottle to remind me of what sort of butt-kicking plans I have - and yes the last line on the blue tape says "3 Suicides" - also known as "Ladders", "Lines", "Awful, painful sprints", "Why are we doing these agains"... and so on. They are hard and involve sprinting from one point to 1/3 of the way down a line and back, to 2/3 of the way down and back, and finally all the way down and back... or any other variation of sprinting lines multiple excruciating times. 

So other things we did?

The dreaded SQUAT THRUST!
Begin standing with a thumbs up.
Bend over your knees and....
Jump back into plank position... then...
Jump your legs back towards your arms...

Stand back up, and if you love squat thrusts, jump in the air! And repeat, at least 50 times. Just kidding! Maybe like 12...

Mountain Climbers! 
Begin in plank position. Dunc makes good plank.
Then alternate each leg, bringing your knee to your chest. Left leg...

Right Leg! You do not need to look at a camera while doing this exercise, but you can if that motivates you. I wouldn't object.

Plié Squats/Plié Jump Squats
Begin in a plié. Now you can just squat up and down in this position or you can pump it up and...
Jump! Or you can go one step further and...
Click your heels together as you jump out of your plié squat. Your choice.

The TOYOTA! Why is it called the TOYOTA!? You will find out, very soon, just you wait.
Begin crouched down...

And then explode with joy, because you just won a TOYOTA!

The Plyometric Jack (Plyo Jack) - similar move to a Jumping Jack except you squat the whole time and explode between movements - that is confusing... pictures, help?
Start in a narrow squat.
Jump out to a wide squat.

You should end in this position. Except it never ends, ideally you are doing a 30 second, 45 second, or 1 minute interval of this move at the same speed you would do a Jumping Jack.

Up Downs, via Duncan's wrestling career:
Here, I tried to photograph "fast feet" - meaning you run really fast in place while keeping your upper body still.
See, he moved his right foot, then he his left foot... 
Then at any given moment, whoever is in charge (Me, baby... ME!) will yell DOWN! And you stop doing fast feet and hit the ground.
Then you push out of it, like a push up and get right back up for more fast feet.

Dunc tired... he no like up downs. Also I made him do a minute straight. I'm mean.

And there you go, a peek into part of my world of fitness.

2 comments:

  1. You ARE mean. But me loves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Awww....I wanna play! Unstead, Chris, Rick and I are going to jog at the park in 90 degree heat. Then I shall make cake balls for our new neighbors who bought the house ya'll should have...bought. Tooooo late.

    ReplyDelete

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