My Fitness Adventure

It’s almost the end of the 5^th month of this year and I haven’t started a fitness regime, I started well religiously doing exercises at home, but I lost momentum. So I was very happy when an old colleague invited us along for a hike.

The trail we would be doing would be a 4 1/2-hour hike, we took the Manganese Mine route, which starts at Constantia Nek and ends at Chapman’s Peak.

According to the hiking book it is, “strenuous only because of its duration, this walk affords splendid land and sea views. In addition, you can explore a fascinating old mine which penetrates all of 84m into the mountainside…”

On the day of the hike we were blessed with beautiful weather it was definitely the last taste of summer that day. We started at Constanstia Nek, then progressed to Vlakkenberg and carried on from there.

The walk started relatively mild until we reached the inclines, boy was I huffing and puffing. We liberally took breaks along the route and marvelled at the beautiful views.

We finished the hike in about 5 hours.

The next day I felt all that walking, in my calf, thighs, lower abs and glutes. It was an awesome experience just being outdoors and being physically active.

Check out the beautiful pictures.

My next fitness adventure will be Dragonboat racing, hold thumbs for me.

Friday was our last training session, and what a scorcher it was.  It was also assessment day.

These are my results:

1,2km run – 5.11 min

1 minute sit ups – 53

1 minute lady push ups – 55

And overall I lost 9cm.

The rest of the session was filled with FitDeck exercise playing cards. We were all a bit lacklustre though.

We had a sort certificate ceremony and I won most improved run time *yay*.

Overall the course was a great experience, I’d definitely do another bootcamp round, I do enjoy the group aspect of it and the outdoors. I’m feeling fitter, leaner and stronger.

I’m summer ready!

The saying, “women don’t sweat they glow” does not apply to ABC Bootcamp, the week has been a sweat fest, Jason is working us hard this week.

We’ve dubbed Wednesday’s hell day, cos its lower body day.

This is how last night’s circuits looked with lots of jogging and jumping jacks in between:

• Lunges
• Walking lunges
• Reverse lunges
• Curtsy lunges
• Squats
• Sumo squats
• One leg side squats
• One leg step ups
• One leg squats with pulses
• Step kicks
• Step ups
• Glute kickback with dumbbell

I probably missed a couple. I’m feeling all of last night’s squats and lunges in my glutes, thighs and legs. I even borrowed FitnessEd’s donught to get me through the day…

2 more days of camp left I’m looking forward to assessment on Friday to see just how far I’ve come.

Here’s hoping Jason isn’t too hard tonight *fingers crossed*

Is it just me or did last week go by way too fast. This is what went down the rest of the week.

Wednesday

A couple of rounds of each, each round you lower your rep, with lots of running in between.

• Squat clock – which ever number you were on you did the about of squats, my legs were like jelly
• 20 high leg step ups
• 20 reverse lunges
• 20 high step ups
• 20 walking lunges
• 20 star jumps
• 20 side walking squats
• 20 crunches
• Plank
• 20 side leg pulses with weights (each leg)

Thursday’s session was cancelled

Friday

Jayson really made up for the session we missed on Thursday.

Arms galore, halfway through the exercises I wondered whether or not 3kg weights were a good idea.

Same pattern a couple of rounds each, each round you lower your rep.

• 20 tricep extensions
• 20 overhead press
• 20 bicep curls
• 20 lateral raises
• 20 tricep dips
• 20 pec decs
• 20 push ups

And then we did some core:

• Plank, side plank, side plank with one arm raises, side plank with one leg raise,  reverse plank, reverse plank with flutter kicks, reverse plank with cross leg kicks
• 3 way crunches with weights, 180 degree, 90 degree, bicycle crunches and 20 star jumps thrown in for fun

After week 2 I’m definitely feeling stronger, and my body is starting to feel stronger especially my arms and stomach. My running is improving; I can keep out for much longer when I’m jogging at a steady pace. I’ve also changed my eating habits getting in more fruit and greens and I’ve cut down on sweets which are my Achilles’ heel.

I can only image what Jayson has in store for this week…

After a really long year of studies I thought the perfect way to end it would be doing a bootcamp, so I signed up for Adventure Boot camp 4 weeks, 5 days (yeah I’m hardcore like that). As luck would have it I ended up winning a free camp (yay!).

Armed with my weights and mat I was ready to go. Man, were all my illusions about my fitness shattered on Monday during the warm up, freaking hell. Jogging, star jumps, side hops, butt kicks, high kicks had me winded, panting and legs burning. It was going to be a long session of swearing, and asking myself why I signed up to do a 5 day camp (madness).

Monday’s are full body workouts, we did a circuit comprised of:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Star jumps
• Stair climbs

Switched to arms:

• Push ups
• Tricep dips

Then abs:

• Crunches, bicycle crunches
• Plank
• Leg lifts

It felt like the longest session ever . I had lots of stiffness the next day, especially in my thighs and bum.

Tuesday’s are upper body and core, circuit comprised of:

Each round your lower your reps

• Crunches
• Mountain walking
• Tricep dips
• Star jumps
• Bicep curls with theraband
• Skid runs
• Pectoral flys with theraband
• Shoulder press with theraband
• Forearm extension with theraband
• High kicks
• Bicycle crunches

Ended with abs

• More crunches
• Plank
• One sided plank
• And the dreaded V-sit

Really enjoyed this session, the only stiffness I had felt was in my chest area.

Wednesday’s are cardio and legs.

We had a warm up that felt like a workout in itself, it was a blur all I remember is that we did a whole lot of running (I still don’t like running btw)

Circuit comprised of:

Each round your lower your reps with a jog in between

• Squats
• Reverse lunges
• Cross lunges

And then came running…

Interval running comprised of a slow jog, medium paced run and a full out sprint. (#deathby…)

Another circuit comprised of:

Again each round lower reps

• Backward leg extension
• Sideward leg extension

Followed by two rounds of stair snaking

We ended with:

• Bent sideward leg raises
• Extended leg raises
• Bridges

It was a killer workout, feeling lots of stiffness in my bum, legs and thighs.

Monday was a rocky start but I’m getting into it. I like that the instructors emphasise that you can do everything at your own pace, I just have to quiet the competitive devil in me now and then and remind myself that it’s only the first week.

It feels good to be exercising again in the outdoors I love the feel of the sun on my skin as it sets and the fresh wind we had yesterday. Still being a newbie Northern Suburban seeing the lush landscape is breathtaking.

Tonight  it’s full body again….

After the previous session I was feeling some stiffness in my arms, back, abs, thighs and especially my bum all those squats and lunges made themselves felt, even two days later.

I had my last session today; we started with a warm up:

• Lateral pull downs
• Squats
• Overhead tricep extension with squats
• Overhead and side to side extension with squats
• Forward and backward on your toes extension in a squat position

Set 1

• Pectoral flies
• Left and right lateral pull downs
• Left and right lateral pull downs with knee lift
• Left and right lateral pull downs with knee lift and jump
• Calf raise

Set 2

• Sit ups
• Crunches
• Push ups with forward extension
• Push up with side-to-side extension
• Squats with 180 degree body rotation
• On your toes in a squat position 180 degree body rotation

Set 3

• Bunny hops with squats
• Walking lunges
• Jumping lunges
• Side to side skipping and a sprint

And the killer: Squat with a forward extension and then roll your body forward to balance on your toes while maintaining the squat position. (Best way I can explain it)

The verdict

After four sessions I can really feel a difference especially in my abdominal area, my core feels tighter. What I like most about XCO is that it’s so easy to use, everybody can use it no matter you fitness level.  It’s a full body workout that can be done in 20 minutes and gets the heart rate pumping.

Flexi-Sports will be launching XCO in Virgin Active gyms next month, if you can give it a try, it will be worth it.

On to the next one…

Today I had my third session and was I in for a treat. I’m still trying to catch my breath *exhales*.

We started with a warm up:

• Squats
• Overhead tricep extension with squats
• Overhead and side-to-side extension with squats
• Forward and backward extensions with squats
• Lateral pulldowns

And a couple of sets with these combinations:

Set 1

• Right and left hook punches
• Left and right lateral pull down with a knee lift
• Lunges
• Jumping lunges
• Running lunges

Set 2

• Overhead and side-to-side extension on an exercise ball
• Walking lunges with single side pull downs
• One leg extension on an exercise ball
• Walking lunges with double side pull downs
• Overhead and side-to-side extension on and exercise ball
• Bunny hops with squats
• One leg extension on exercise ball
• Double bunny hops with squats
• Overhead and side-to-side extension on exercise ball
• Walking lunges with three way side pumps

Set 3

This set focused mostly on abs:

• Overhead and side-to-side jumps
• Crunches
• Skipping
• Running extensions
• Abdominal twists
• One leg skipping

I’ve finally got my breath back. I worked up quite a sweat in this session. Gordon says I got fit pretty quick and that I’m handling the XCOs well.

For my hard work I got a fist pump!! Yeah!

I’m really enjoying these training sessions what I like about XCO is that it’s a full body workout; no muscles are isolated like with traditional weight training. What I also like are that there are endless combinations of exercises that can be done you won’t get bored.

Wednesday is my last session, looking forward to it.