Becoming Weightless

Mama_Hradek
43 F , Fife ,WA
 Rating: 5.0/5.0

Kickbox Cardio...Certain Death!

 Unrated
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 4:27 PM filed under Exercise & Fitness postings
Ok, I might be exaggerating just a little bit...but not much. I think if I had been offered death as a means of getting out of there, I just might have taken it! Ok, I might be exaggerating again...

So yesterday I decided to take the kickbox cardio class that is offered at my gym. I really like the idea of an instructor led workout. So I got to the gym at 4, when the kids club opens, and I warmed up for 5 minutes on a crosstrainer. Then I hit a few of the weight machines, seems how my research shows that you should pretty much always do weights before cardio. I never knew that, but here is the reasoning:

Strength training (ie weights) utilyzes carbohydrate energy stores. If you do your cardio first, your body will first burn carbs, and then fat. By the time that you get to your weight routine, you have no carb stores left, so your workout wont be very effective. However, if you do weights first, and you burn off those carbs first, then when you hit the cardio you will be burning mostly fat. Woo Hoo! Who doesn't want to be burning fat? Also, doing weights in a circuit manner will get your heart rate up, meaning that when you hit your cardio, your HR will hit the target zone that much quicker. It all makes sense to me.

So, being completely unaware of the challenge that was coming my way in the form of kickboxing, I did 3 out of 4 of my planned weights. I did machine chest presses, machine tricep curls, and machine abdominal swivels. All in all, I felt pretty good.

Just before 4:30, I head into the class. I immediately notice that there aren't nearly as many people attending this class as the step/ab one that I had seen in there before. I also can't help but notice that the other 5 women that are there are all in excellent shape. Hmmm....and I guess my final warning came in the form of the guy that came in to put some equipment away, said hi to the instructor, and then said "I hope you ladies brought your towels!"

Yikes.

So we get started. Ok, I can do this. Lots of punching. Ok, its starting to get hard....what? That was just the warmup? We get into the actual workout. Ten minutes in I want to cry. I start praying like a crazy woman, please Jesus help me get through this class. The hardest part is not knowing what comes next - should I push myself or back off? How long is the class? About halfway through, I start to modify some of the movements. Forget these other girls. I took a little satisfaction knowing that they were struggling too...yeah, now do it with an extra 100 pounds strapped to your body! I'm the only one yelling out when the instructor says "How you doing ladies?" I want to scream "I think I'm going to die" but I instead opt for an enthusiastic "Whooooo!" She brings out the jumpropes. Oh...my...God...jumproping wasn't this hard when I was a kid! Even the instructor is struggling to make it through. Finally...finally...the cardio is done. I am overwhelmed. Amazed that I made it. We go into the ab routine. Its crazy hard, but I keep up. I come face to face again with my arch enemy - planks. I admit to keeping my knees on the ground. We stretch. We all clap. We're done.

I immediately head to the locker room, and the entire way I am fighting tears. When the class started, I wanted to cry from the sheer horror of what I had gotten myself into. Now, I wanted to cry because I was so proud of myself. I did it! I am completely overwhelmed by the experience. I just wanted to get into the locker room and decompress.

Unfortunately, I can't take my time, the kids have to get picked up and I need to get home to get dinner going. I didn't anticipate what happened next. I started to crash...HARD. Maybe my blood sugar was low - I easily burned 600 calories during that workout. I feel dizzy and disoriented. Everything is annoying me (and if you know me, you know that it is VERY hard to make me feel anxious and annoyed. I roll with the punches quite nicely), and I can't focus. It took me a good hour or more to start feeling better, but it was an eye opening experience. I should have fueled up better before hand. I know better now.

Maybe I'll take the class again next Tuesday...
1 Comment (add) | Tags: exercise, Kickbox cardio
Last comment by lelogosdemoi on 7/10/2009 7:16 AM
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