Tuesday 18 September 2007

GOFC and Yoga

Today's GOFC session was a lot of fun. I missed this session during the last challenge so it was all new to me. We headed over to a sunny patch of grass to warm up and Brad brought a medicine ball with him. I was quite intrigued.

Mixed in with the usual warmup activities we did a few new ones. The one that amused me most was putting our thumbs into our armpits then rolling our arms around. It has this whole eggbeater look to it. I was expecting to take off into the air any second. Mind you, one of our later activities made me very glad that we warmed up our shoulders.

Once we were warmed up I discovered what the medicine ball was for. We were doing "cardio cards". Krissi had a selection of cards, which each had activities. Whenever she blew her whistle during the session we were to run over to her and the person who got there first would get to choose an activity. In the meantime, we were walking or jogging along in two lines, with the back pair carrying the medicine ball. When Brad blew his whistle, the back pair passed the medicine ball on and then ran up to the front of the group.

The cardio cards had a mixture of activities. I managed to get to Krissi first one time, but only because I was the closest to her at the time. I got a "team choice - 2 mins or 20 reps". We decided on 20 reps thank goodness as it was pushups. Some of our other activities were "overhead medicine ball relay" where we passed the ball overhead, "sideways twist medicine ball relay" where we ... yes, you've got it ... passed the medicine ball sideways to the person behind us, dip relay where teams had to complete 100 dips, walking lunges (that didn't come off a card - that was trainer's choice!), run around the gardens, and overhead shadow boxing for 2 mins. The last one sounded easy and it was, for all of 20 seconds. I was extremely glad when that one was over. I also hated the walking lunges, although I did learn how to do them better. I was stopping between each lunge but Krissi explained to me that I needed to push through off my back foot into the next one.

The weather forecast had been for -1 and frost, but it didn't feel that cold at all. I enjoyed my bike ride there and back today, although I got off to a late start. I realised I should occasionally pump up the tyres, so I checked them this morning. I was wishing I'd checked them earlier, as I was in a real rush to get to Lennox Gardens in time. Mind you, being in a rush meant that I rode a bit faster. I don't really push myself on the bike at all, so riding under pressure was probably good for me.

Having managed to get to GOFC so quickly, I felt that I should be able to get home as quickly. I was puffing and panting but I managed it!

Tonight I went to Yoga. I had a word with the instructor about my sore lower back last week and she advised me to keep my abs locked on during the stretches. I tried hard to do that today. I guess I'll find out later in the week how well I managed. There are so many things to think about that it's easy to forget to do something. Still, I might not notice my back as my shoulders are burning tonight. That is probably a legacy of the shadow boxing.

4 comments:

jojo said...

yep, doesnt take much to feel upper body work..i can think of a few times grimacing while trying to write on a whiteboard the next day...but it is a GOOD pain

Andrew(ajh) said...

A few days late, but congrats on the SiS1 result, and also hope you had a wonderful birthday - sounds like some lovely pressies!

Kathryn said...

That's a good tip about the abs - will have to try it. Sounds like a grueling morning.

Btw, we'll have to meet up for real if I do the SiS2 :) (Wasn't going to but am now thinking of doing the 4 km).

Anonymous said...

Your exercise sessions sound great even if it is hard work at the time!

I really must start doing a Yoga class. I use to do it years ago and totally loved it :)