Looking Forward to a KickAss December

I'm a bad little active blogger. I know I totally didn't do my job in November for this blog. I did jump rope a couple times and I was definitely very active all month. I actually lost a couple pounds through it all...even with the Thanksgiving holiday feast. I figure, I owe it to myself to breathe some new life and energy back into this here little active blog. I'm going to do that for the lovely month marking the end of the year. End it with a POW, BANG, POP, KICK!

DECEMBER is going to be one kickass month. Here's the plan.

KickBoxing! Oh ya baby. I'm gonna kick kick kick my way to a tighter, firmer, lovelier ass all month.

This is the schedule of classes available every week:

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 7-8pm

Saturday 9:45am

I'm committing to Tuesdays and Thursdays every week this month. The only week I can't do it is the week of Christmas because I'll be playing nursemaid to my sister who will be having a nasty surgery that week and she lives out in the middle of nowhere. Since I probably won't be able to get to the gym at all that week, I will bring my jump rope with me and do that every day I'm with her. I'll think about going for a run a couple times too if I'm able to get out for a little while. Oh, maybe I'll dig out my good ole fashioned work out videos and bring some Billy Blanks with me. That'll give sis and her family a good laugh for sure. You see what I'm willing to endure for this active lifestyle thing? You see? It's all good.

Bye Bye November, Helloooooo December.

Whiner

I'm just going to take a moment to whine about my current situation here.

I did the 6 hour jump rope class and had no problems, until after it was all over. Then I go to the gym and now I have a problem. The other day, I got on the elliptical machine like I always do. I turned on some music and started doing my thing. My heart rate was getting going but I just wasn't feeling satisfied. I felt the need to just kick someone's ass so I decided it should be my own. So, I hopped off the elliptical and hopped on the treadmill.

I typically grab a treadmill for some speed walking and perhaps a few 2min intervals of jogging at a brisk pace. I don't do it all the time but maybe once or twice a week. Well, earlier this week, my shins started hurting. I don't know if maybe they're just still sore from the crazy jump rope episode or if I did something to them on the treadmill. I did some jumping rope today at the gym and again, my shins are hurting me.

Then work out buddy and I attended a hip-hop dance class at the gym just moments ago and woo doggy are my shins a barkin'. What did I do to myself? What happened? Ugh.

I don't want to have an injury. I don't want to have anything get in the way. I'm doing so well and seeing results and feeling great. I don't want anything to come close to even having the potential to side track me or slow me down. Damn it!

Okay, that was my whining. How was I?

Jump Rope Ouch

Sorry for the delay in getting going on the month for Jump Rope. On Sunday, November 1st, I attended a workshop for a kick ass jump rope exercise class and it took almost an entire week to recover from the damage done to my calves.

So here's how it went.

10:00am - I arrived at the YMCA, found the room, shook hands, signed in, and did all the friendly introduction stuff. There were probably 15 people there, 3 of which were men.

10:30am - The demo class started. Yeehaw! Seeing that it was the day after Halloween, it wouldn't have been right to ignore the obvious theme opportunities here. Class started with a little warm up, just to get the muscles woken up and informed that they were about to have their little asses kicked something serious.

10:40am - This is a guestimation of course, I was far too busy to stare at the clock to know for sure. Time to start jumping over those ropes people. Just a basic little hop, no big deal. Hold it for about 2 mins. Keep with it, don't quit on me, it's just 2 mins. Have any of you jumped rope for 2 mins without stopping..ever? Give it a try and tell me how you feel.

10:43am - Time for some interval switcharoo stuff now. How about a few squats and various other calisthenics.

10:46am - Pick up your ropes and starta jumpin'. This time, on every verse of the Rob Zombie, I want you to switch it up. Maybe start with a basic jump, then switch to some cross overs, how about changing direction and swing the rope backwards, and continue that through the entire song. Nice job.

10:50am - Ready for your first relay race? No? Too bad...let's do it. Since it's Halloween and all, how about we use pumpkins. You know, the plastic kind with the black handle that you used when you were a kid for trick or treating? Ya, those ones. Run half way across the gym, place your pumpkin on the line, run the rest of the way, return to pick up your pumpkin and hand it to the next racer. Run run run. 3 mins. Nice.

10:53am - You guessed it, time to jump rope again. This time, we're going see how many double-unders we can do. Oh ya, you know what I'm talking about. Where you swing the rope twice under one jump. That'll get the heart rate up there if you haven't managed to get it working so far. Again, keep up for the entire song.

10:56am - Game time. Oh boy, time to rest? Not so fast. Game time in Punk Rope means you're going to be moving around at a vigorous pace for no less than the duration of the next song. This game is called witches brew. Fun game. And very very tiring. You wanna know how to play the game? Guess you'll have to go to a class in your area around Halloween to find out. :) Neener Neener.

11:00am - Jump jump jump that rope. This time, we're going see how fast we can jump to the fastest song in music history. Can you make your feet keep up with the nasty fast beat? Oh, and don't forget that you get to keep it up for the entire song. Oy!

11:04am - Another relay race? Na. I'll be nice and give you some calisthenics to do instead. Hows about a few push ups, squats, and so on. Ya. That'll do it.

11:07am - Freestyle jump rope now. Do whatever you want for the duration of the song. Fun.

11:10am - Another game. This time, it's ZOMBIE TAG while skipping of course, because that's what zombies do, they skip. :) So much fun. I feel like a kid again. I very very tired kid.

11:14am - More jump rope. Maybe we can play double-dutch or egg-beater now. How about jump rope baseball? Whatever works. Just jump rope.

11:17am - Time for a team exercise. This is fun, we can get creative. Yay!

11:20am - Okay, with 10 mins left of class, perhaps we should start to cool down a little. Do some upper body work, get that heart rate to slow down, do some good stretching, maybe a bit of abs. That should do it.

Congrats! You made it, if you're lucky. :)

Okay, so that was the first hour of the workshop. Now add 5 hours to that. That was pretty much my day, give or take.

My calf muscles were screaming at me all week. I think the real theme of the Halloween class followed me home because I was walking like Frankenstein until Friday.

The best thing about it is...I'm now one of the lucky few allowed to teach this class. So, I get to do it over and over and over to lots of other people. Yay! Now I need to work out the details and figure out when, where, who, and how much. Damn details.

November Kick Off - Jumping Rope

People! I'm soooo disappointed. I only got two votes for what I should do with myself for the month of November. Two votes? That's it? Now I really feel like I'm just talking to myself. I seriously need more followers to this damn blog. Maybe I need to make it a bit more interesting? How? What do you want to see? What do you want to read? Do you want to see videos of me hurting myself doing whatever it is that I do? Do you want me to take pictures of funny things and make fun of them? Do you want me to get all deep and spiritual with you? Okay, that one isn't going to happen. Sorry. Well maybe a little but that stuff wears me out. I don't have enough energy to be spiritual all the time.

The two votes were for Pilates and Yoga. I have to say that with two puny little votes, I'm just going to throw them out and not even consider they happened at all. I would love to have some group participation here. Hows about I just go with what I've been up to? You like that idea? Well, do you? Fine then, don't answer me. Rude.

I must admit that I think I chose the wrong activity for October. Although I did make it out on the course a couple times, it was hard to do it enough to make it a topic for the month because the weather was just horrible. Whoda thunk it possible in the great Northwest?

Here's what I'm up to lately...PUNK ROPE. I love Punk Rope. I've mentioned it a couple times already so you should view those posts for a bit of back story if you're interested. Here they are:
Punk Rope Baby
Weigh in day #3
Oh Sooooo Tired

Yesterday, I spent 7 hours at a Punk Rope workshop where I became a certified Punk Rope Instructor. Yes boys and girls, it's true. I am allowed to teach the greatest fitness craze ever to grace this planet. Now, I need to figure out where I will be teaching it, who I will be teaching it to, how much I'm going to make people pay me for it, how I want to get the word out, and all those little details.

I've also decided something else that may shock and surprise you. I am going to become a certified personal trainer. I've already read a million health and fitness books and looooove learning new things so why not put that together and have another tool to add to my tool belt. I am in no way considering leaving my day job. I went to college to have this cushy day job and won't give it up for anything but I am intending to add this little fitness endeavor to my after work hobbies and interests. And if it brings in a bit of extra income...yay for me.

Right now, because I don't have a solid plan for exactly how I will bring Punk Rope to the Seattle metro area I'm not going to officially state it as my activity for the month. But, I will say that I plan to sit down and make a solid plan for exactly how I will do that and then take the actions necessary to get it up and running as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'll be jumping rope all month. Practice, practice, practice. I can easily do it at home if I want or at the gym or wherever so it'll be easy to fit into my daily life no matter where I am. And, I need to seriously get my calfs better conditioned because 6 hours of rope jumping yesterday tore my shit up.

1. Any ideas for what you would like to see new in the blog, please let me know...seriously. I do this for me yes it's true but I do still want support and encouragement from followers and so far, I'm feeling kinda lonely here.
2. Any ideas for where you would like to see Punk Rope, please let me know.

If you don't like commenting for everyone to see, you can always click on my profile and send me an email. I would love it if you did. :)

Happy Monday all.