Pump It Up

I have a new fitness love. At first I was “meh” about him, but I decided to give him a second chance, and he has won me over.

It’s body pump

So what exactly is body pump?

Body Pump is a group fitness class focusing on strength training with a barbell. It’s kind of like the zumba of strength training in a sense that the songs have exactly the same moves each time. Each track focuses on a different body part: there’s a squat song, a chest song, biceps, triceps, lunges, abs, etc. It doesn’t matter which instructor you have, the moves to the songs are already pre-choreographed and the same with each instructor.

What I love about it:

-I like the predictability and continuity = every class is the same no matter which instructor you have.

-I know I will get an intense full body work out every time.

– Its incredibly difficult depending on how much weight you put on the bar

 What I dislike about it: 

-I wish the warmup included a bit more cardio to get my heart rate up.

-Body Pump isn’t exactly injury friendly– as someone with rotator cuff issues

-I imagine it can get boring, like if a Zumba instructor only had 1 playlist. While the songs and exercises might be great, doing the same thing over and over again can get boring.

– Changing the weights after every song makes me incredibly anxious- I feel like I’m racing to get weights on the bar. I’m also still learning what weight is best for each body part so I’m constantly adjusting during a song.

Overall

Body Pump is a great strength training workout. It’s been a fun class to add to my daily routine, even if it makes me feel like a weakling.

—

Today is the second day of September which makes the second day of Fitness Cheerleader’s Blogger Writing Challenge

Day 2 Share your thoughts and feelings about Lance Armstrong’s lifetime ban and loss of titles 

I will admit, I have not fully read up on the specifics of what happened, but I do know that overall his titles have been taken away because of taking performance enhancing drugs. I have mixed feelings about the whole situations– while I think it is unfair to athletes who worked hard and did not take anything to enhance their performances, I also think it is cruel to completely strip Armstrong of his titles.

It is hard to know what would have happened without those drugs– would he still would have won? Banning him is the appropriate gesture since in a sense he cheated, but I think ultimately he still won those races. I am sure there are plenty of other athletes who have also taken performance enhancing drugs yet have not be striped of their titles because it has not been investigated.

I honestly don’t know what is the right or wrong thing to do in this situation.