I have officially finished three quarters of my Bar Method challenge! While I am liking the overall workout much more than when I started, I still am finding it difficult to motivate myself to actually make it to class in the mornings (since it is much more difficult for me to attend after work). I have also been slipping a bit on the cardio bit, since my preferred method is running and it has been pretty icky outside. But overall, I am feeling pretty good about my progress!
Week 5
Day 13:
Today was an extremely difficult workout for me today. I actually broke a sweat!! I found out that the majority of the time I have been doing my arm exercises incorrectly. This was a bit annoying since this is now my fifth week and no instructor has corrected me up until today. It also meant that my arms were absolutely burning after the arm exercises since I was now adding a ton more resistance. I finally learned to “embrace the shake” during the thigh portion, as my thighs were jiggling so much I thought I was going to fall over. I added much more depth to my movements, making my muscles work harder and thus adding the “shake.” The final fifteen minutes of abs are officially my happy place. It means that I’ve overcome the most difficult part of class for me and I always want to do a little dance during the last bit. I’ve started letting go of my thighs during most of the ab exercises, which means I’m actually developing core muscles! Woohoo!
Day 14:
In general, I do not think that I am a morning exercise person. I made a 7AM class today and could barely keep my eyes open for the first half of class. I found it difificult to keep my balance during a lot of the movements, but I trucked through it. At the end of class, I realized that my balance issues were a result of not engaging my core throughout most of the exercises. I really realize how important those muscles are now! My thighs are continuously getting stronger and I love that, even though I was super tired, I was able to complete one of the exercises fully! I left feeling strong and ready to tackle my day.
Day 15:
I was up at the crack of dawn today so I decided to head over for another early class. My absolute favorite instructor was teaching (yay!). We had the pretzel exercise today and my obliques were absolutely burning and my legs were shaking at the end of it. I could barely do the rest of the class with full range of movement afterwards! The highlight of today’s class was having a girl who has been in my class several times compliment me on my posture- bar classes are definitely helping with that.
Week 6
Day 16:
While it’s a relatively terrible reason to motivate myself to go to Bar Method at all this week, the main driving factor my classes at the start of the week have been my overindulgence in foods. I have already felt the extra “cookie weight” and have made a priority to stay active. Today’s class was really, really difficult for me. I struggled my way through class and felt like I couldn’t even maintain a pose for more than a few repetitions. The instructor was very nice in helping me correct my movements, but I left feeling somewhat dejected and in pain. Since I’ve been doing bar for a couple of weeks now, I was confused as to why I was having such difficulties. One of my friends expressed similar feelings about yoga. She encouraged me to push through the one bad day, because who doesn’t have an off exercise day once in a while. I’m very curious to see how the next class pans out.
Day 17:
There’s a massive storm in Boston today, but I trekked through it to make one last pre- Thanksgiving travel class! Today, as my friend noted during my last class, went much more smoothly than the last one. Thigh work will never get easier, and I have finally accepted that 😛 It was a pretty uneventful class progress wise, but it was awesome to squeeze in one more workout before the long weekend.
Day 18:
I have decided that my favorite time to take bar class is Sunday at noon. Not only am I not falling asleep at the bar, but I feel relaxed and ready to take on the challenge! I experienced several new exercises that I had never done before, and found them very challenging! I still need to work on aligning my hips during most exercises and keeping everything in line! I have found a new exercise that absolute kills me during thigh work called the chair (see below). If the position itself wasn’t difficult enough, we had a small rubber ball between our legs to squeeze during the process. Another big hurdle that I need to overcome is knowing my limitations. I felt myself pushing a little bit too hard and felt something pop halfway through- I’ll be resting up for the next few days.
This exercise absolutely kills me
