After Six Weeks of Body Pump
My six weeks of body pump is now complete! At the end of May, I challenged myself to go to Body Pump class, an hour long barbell class that works big muscle groups, for 2-3x a week for six weeks. And I did it! The only time I missed a class was when it unexpectedly got canceled, and I made up for it by going on a Saturday morning.
I should have taken before pictures, but I didn’t. All I have is this one, from my first class.
I also have the pictures I took of myself doing yoga back in April.
And here’s today. I felt pretty ridiculous taking these photos. I’m not muscular by any means, but I did notice a bit more firmness in my upper body than before I started taking the class. I’m also stronger since I’ve increased my squat, lunge and back weights since the beginning! I can honestly say my legs look more muscular than before. But I’ve stayed pretty much the same on the upper body tracks, because my upper body is just so weak. I’ll get there, though, eventually.
I took a 60 minute yoga class on Friday night after six weeks off from yoga, and it felt like I never stopped doing it, the poses were almost easier than when I was doing it regularly. And I give credit 100% to going to Body Pump! It felt great to be doing yoga again. I felt so strong and amazing!
I’m not sure if going to Body Pump has made me a faster runner though. I’m still about a 9:26/mile pace average on my long runs, which is actually 30 seconds slower than my 15K pace in November. Some of that could be because I’ve been doing speedwork on the treadmill once a week. I’m still on the fence on whether or not I’m actually going to PR the Boilermaker next weekend. But I could surprise myself, so who knows!
For right now, I’m really liking the results I’ve seen since taking Body Pump for six weeks. I just wish I had better “before” photos. I’m probably going to continue taking the classes 2x a week and throwing a yoga class in there because I’ve missed it so much!
Have you ever taken a weight training class, did you see results?
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4 Comments
derryX
I’m happy you were able to notice such a difference before and after Body Pump. You’d be surprised how different your body probably is now on a skeletal and muscular level. Increasing the squat weight is actually a pretty huge thing if you think about it; your quads (which do most of the work) are some of the larger muscles in the body, as opposed to biceps or triceps which are a whole lot smaller.
Great stuff, Jen!
cap2cap
I think you’ll kick ass at the Boilermaker. Even if I can’t tell by speed, I can appreciate improvement in how I feel during and while recovering from the race. FWIW I often slog through my long runs at a 10-10:30 pace, but race day is a different story. We’re going to be all juiced up this weekend; literally with juice, not steroids.
Katie H
Jen, you look awesome! I would love to try body pump at some point. I did a strength training class for a few months but after the wedding last year running and yoga took priority. I need to get back into strength training!
Katie H recently posted..Tuesday Things
Jen
thanks, girl!