Can you say STIFF and SORE?

That's right, I went to my first fit class yesterday.  How'd it go?  Well ... there's a reason I didn't post about it last night.  I got home, showered, had my dinner and ... well that's pretty much it, I was buggered!  I mean I was tired and wanting to go to bed and it wasn't even 8:30 yet.  Wow.  I was still pretty tired this morning and slept in a bit late.

Fit camp was good.  I did have to modify some of the moves as you'd expect -- everyone started off with a jog to warm up, and I didn't get too far before I had to slow to a walk.  Then we grabbed partners and did a series of boxing exercises.  Uppercuts, jab and cross, and punching up overhead.  Then he had me doing a sit-up while he stood on my toes, and as you come up you punch left and right before lowering to the ground again.  I struggled getting the first 30 second set done - when we came to it again on the full minute set, I couldn't even do it once.  That's OK, he told me to just curl up as far as I could each time and don't worry about the punches.  Next came push-ups!  Believe it or not, I did get in two sets.  No specific number, just do them for the full 30 seconds, so I'm sure everyone else got in more push-ups than I did.  On the second set I didn't get as many as the first.  Of course I was on my knees and only lowered myself about half way, but hey -- I did them!  Then we jogged (and/or walked) to the tree and back another couple of times.

Then came burpees (aka squat thrust).  He said to wait while he got the others started and then he'd come show me what to do.  I thought he might suggest a modified burpee so I tried a couple of those while I waited for him to come back to me, but I couldn't even do the modified version.  When he came back to me he didn't even suggest that, thankfully.  He had me stand with my feet shoulder-width apart and bend down to touch the ground, then back up and stretch as high as I could, then back down again.  We were to do 10 burpees and then jog over to the hill and back. Then 9 burpees and jog, then 8, etc.  Some jogged to the top of the hill each time, others turned around at the base just before the steep incline -- I did that as well.

So I did everything he asked of me as well as I could.  The one thing I did not do was quit.  It was hard.  I swear 10 minutes into it I was asking myself 'what the hell have you done?'  But when it was over and I was walking back to my car I felt good -- I crossed over the walking trails where people were walking or jogging and I actually felt like I'd like to go for a walk.  I guess my energy was just high at that point and I felt like I could do more.  But I needed to get home to cook dinner, and I also didn't want to overdo on my first day.

I met a lady about my age or a bit older and asked how long she'd been doing this.  She said 2 years.  She's lost 86kg (190 lb), but 26kg (57 lb) of that was since she'd joined.  She's had some injuries and joint problems, so she modifies the exercises as well.  She definitely motivated me!

As the title of this post suggests, today I'm a bit stiff, a little sore.  Not bad really, but I can definitely feel that I did something beyond my comfort zone yesterday.  Today it rained, so I didn't walk -- and he said I should rest after each workout right now, so I'm OK with that.  I do think I'll go do some stretches, though -- I think that would feel really good about now.

I thought I would do the fit camp Mon/Wed/Fri this week, but the other option is ab camp (30 min) followed by the boxing cardio (45 min) workout on Wednesday.  I can't decide if I should stay away from ab camp until I can get through my crunches a bit better, or if maybe it's exactly what I need in order to get better?  Looks like it might rain anyway, so either way I'll probably be in the studio tomorrow.  I'll let you know how it goes.