Booty Camp: Round One To The Knees

First night of Booty Camp finished!  All in all the experience was great and at the end of the class  I was mostly intact with only a slight tweaking of my knee and some bruising of my ego.  But isn’t that always the way when you jump into a new fitness regime.

I’m the slowest, heaviest and possibly the oldest in the crowd… so as I mentioned above my ego is getting a bit of a work out alongside my body.  But in general the crowd seems pretty non-judgy.  Trust me, that’s not always the case in groups of women… especially when you are fat.  There’s often lots of eye-rolling and quick glances of disgust creating an unpleasant work-out environment. In fact, an unpleasant environment period.  Not so at Booty Camp.

Since I missed the first session, I really was the newest newbie. Though the class included newbies and people who were back for another 4-week program. Since it was my first class Jannah, our instructor and owner of this Booty Camp Fitness Licensee and also happens to be an Orthopedic Rehab Therapist, took my measurements (no, I will not be sharing those with you) and discussed my goals and knee issues with me before class began.  She was fantastically supportive finding alternatives and variants that kept me working and moving through-out the class with reduced stress in the danger zones.

The class started fast! And included a lot of jumping, bouncing, squats and lunging, things that are a little edgy given my knee issues. Jannah is positive and high energy, without being one of those women who you want to smack,  and the room went with her, working hard and focused on doing it right.  I was sweating in minutes!

The class was a mix of:

• cardio/aerobic – including jogging on the stop and jumping jacks (must wear the sports bra next time!);
• circuit training – skipping rope, sprints, foot work and something hard that I can’t even attempt to describe because it hurts my knee just thinking about it;
• yoga mat work – push-ups and crunches which was the nicest part of the evening for me;
• and a set of partner activities.  I felt badly about the partner exercises since I felt like I was holding my partner back. But she smiled bravely and soldiered on.

For the first half I was trying some of the lunge and squat moves and was attempting to keep up the pace.  By half way through the class my “run” had slipped down to a fast walk, my jumping was pretty damned pathetic (must bring sports bra… yes it’s worth mentioning again!) and I had completely stopped doing any lunges or squats.  Something had twinged in my right knee before I knew I was over-doing it and I had started limping.The knee twinge was probably due to a quick move and twist, aka my fault, on an interesting footwork course, rather than anything in the actual workout.   So I reined it in even further, felt even slower and more pathetic, but by this time the rest of the class had warmed up and there were lots of quiet smiles and encouragement in the room.

During one of the “shake it out and have a sip breaks” a couple of woman started chatting with me a little and we were laughing by the start of the circuit training. Which was good because we were all a group and luckily I didn’t feel like I was holding them back.

At the end of the session one attractive and slim young woman reassured me it gets easier and then added that she said she had lost 50lbs with Booty Camp. Wow, didn’t see that coming!

I have a list of things I need for my next Booty Camp class including my sports bra, a mat that doesn’t smell (this one was brand new and still smelled like rotten eggs), sneakers that don’t smell (well, I’m to blame for that!) and a water bottle!  Hydration during this class is mandatory!

I’m also going to be wearing a knee brace because that “slight tweak” I mentioned above was fine, but the little pull at the end of the foot work part of the circuit training left my left knee in bad shape.  I thought it was fine but I was wrong. Stairs have not been my friend for the weekend and even standing in the shower this morning was painful. Luckily I have a fine collection of knee braces and even just putting one on last night removed some of the pain I had while sitting. (yup, sitting hurts, talk about pathetic!)

Over all I really enjoyed the class although many of the alternative movements are low-impact, but not knee-friendly at least for the kinds of issues I have. When I mentioned I’d be writing this and likely whining a bit, Jannah said “I take whining as a challenge”, and I’m hoping that challenge will manifest in a lower body work out that doesn’t leave me hobbled for 3 days.
After the class I was pretty sure that my muscles would be sore the next day, but it took until Saturday for my upper body to tell me it got used! When I moved my arms I got that nice warm soreness that says “hey I got to do some real exercise” in my upper arms and through my back. It was a lovely feeling!

I’m a little scared about tomorrow’s session taking my knee from bad to horrible, but I know now to be extra careful and the knee brace will help.

But even with that, I’m eager to get back in for tomorrow’s session!

 

Note: This post is the first post in my sponsored Booty Camp Series of posts. for more information on my sponsored posts please read my disclosure statement

Also: the photos used above are not mine and are used with permission from Booty Camp Fitness I was too busy working out to take pictures!