Today, in a fit of brilliance, I brought 4 workouts to the gym. You see, I was unsure what all the gym buddies would want to do now that we’ve wrapped up CrossFit and I like to have options. I brought two days worth of CrossFit, the WOD from Monkey Bar Gym and, for my new experiment, a workout called The Bar Method – a workout based around the way ballerinas train.
We decided that The Bar Method looked really easy so we decided to do CrossFit instead. It was 7 sets of 1 rep of the clean and jerk. (I know, I can’t even type that with a straight face. You can totally snicker. We’re all middle schoolers at heart.) That was tough. Actually, make that TOUGH. But it was over relatively fast.
We weren’t up for another CrossFit so we went to MBG which was intense, but not grueling. And this is where the Bad Idea comes in. Already having completed two entire workouts, we decided to give The Bar Method a try. Their website doesn’t give enough information to do an entire 30-day experiment but they provide a sample workout and I really wanted to give it a go.
Ballerinas are tough.
My legs were shaking not even halfway through. And then my butt started. Followed quickly by my calves and hamstrings. Finally my abs joined the Jell-O party. The moves look easy but they sure work you hard.
After finishing the third workout of the day, a Yoga Teacher friend of mine lead us through “4 minute walking plank on a bosu” – a kind of torture I still can’t find the words to accurately describe. When we finished she said “Now, repeat.” We would have laughed in her face except that we were laying curled in the fetal position at her feet. We did not repeat.
Gym Buddy Mike (who took the ballerina workout like a man) summed it up thusly, “You reduced me to a pulp of my former self, but I remain intact with my dignity!!”
I am sore all over. Seriously, what was I thinking?!? I don’t know if I’ll even be walking tomorrow. Have any of you ever done this? Tell me your worst over-worked stories. I need some sympathy. Or a good giggle.
I do Bar Method every once in a while.
It hurts!!!!!!!
The most recent crazy workout I did was a couple of weeks ago, during pilates teacher certification. Our instructor had us do 90 minutes of reformer, immediately followed by an hour of mat with crazy props (rollers, discs, balls, etc.), and then we spent 4 hours going over all the exercises in the manual on the reformer. Then we had to come back the next day and do it all again!!!!
But what you did today? I got tired just reading about it!
Wow, when things “look” relatively easy on paper chances are, its not. Not that I would know for sure being naive enough to hit major components as if they stood alone (doing a full throwing work out on top of what happened today). Yeah, can we say oblivious?? I know I was, but it was a good overall test to see if I could do it. If you thought your legs were jello, you should be in my position, I still had to go to work and push paper rolls around (500lbs, and carts full of folded 18″ wide stacks (4-5 feet high and 2-4 stacks per cart). I was hobbling around and people at work kept asking me if I was injured. I simply sucked it up and said 4 ladies kicked me arse =p
Gym Buddy Mike
ok
I must follow your lead and shake up my workouts.
it’s getting bad (too many times actually showing up at gym and there are no daycare peeps to watch the tornado so she and I end up playing outside)
back in the day people used to ask me if I were a ballerina (not sure why but thats another story–) and my friends would laugh and ask if it pissed me off.
NOT AT ALL. Im so with you in the fact that those girlswomen are *tough*
M.
please to fly to my city and make me change my routine 🙂
Azusmom – you must have a core of steel, girl! I so wish I could take Pilates from you. Wow, I am so jealous you actually get to do a bar method class – is it as fun as it looks?
Mike – I feel so bad for you! I don’t know how you managed at work after what we did. I hope you take today off and sleep in:)
MizFit – I would lovelovelove to work out with you!! Although you’d have to come here because I can’t do without the childcare;) All of our tornadoes would meld into a hurricane.
I have tried the Bar Method before. Left my legs a pool of weakness. The hardest part for me was due to my lack of coordination and balance, though. I’m a big ol’ clutz!
My worst was back in HS. Our Saturday workouts were: run 3 miles, lift weights. I had to lift extra heavier because my brother was a powerlifter and thus I must also be freakishly strong (which I was). Then, go jump around in the sand pit without shoes for 30 minutes. Then, go do calisthenics and jump over heavy stuff. Then, go play basketball for 2 hours, being punished for crap playing by running sprints until the coach got tired of us puking.
Come Sunday, no one could walk.
I didn’t think ballet was so special until I started to pay more attention to how strong and athletic the dancers were. Now I’m a fan!
The latest thing I tried was Zumba. The workout is pretty good, but the best thing for me was I couldn’t stop laughing while the class tried to imitate an instructor who, if a body could move that way, could move that way!
I have to apologize for my NO2 for N2O typo yesterday! Must have been like chalk on a blackboard for a professional chemist 🙂
Dr. J
Perhaps, as a general rule of thumb, 3 workouts in 1 day, 1 of which comes from a system that you recently described as “hardcore,” might be overdoing it a tad…
But I’m highly impressed that you managed to get through it all, and lived to tell the tale! Ballerinas and their male equivalent (ballerinos?) are some of the most under-rated athletes around. Most people (me included) don’t have the leg strength or motor control to be “on point” for 3 seconds, much less for an entire 2 hour performance.
I was soooo sore from the triple work load. We thought since there weren’t any weights involved it would be a simple end to the other workouts. WRONG!! I had to grab the rail when I walked down the stairs after we were finished!!
Oh, I’d do it again in a heartbeat! It’s great to be sore and know that I pushed myself on every set we did!
Keep them coming Char!
Candice
Hi Charlotte, great post about gym and fitness , Very nice to read your post & hope to get more posts from you,