Getting pumped at any age!

I was off to my Zumba class on Kenaston when I realized I hadn’t booked childcare and I was likely going to be late for the class – so I turned around and went to the McPhillips location ( I don’t have to book childcare at that facility). As I was walking in, I asked what class was happening on a Tuesday (I had always been going to the Zumba class at Kenaston on Tuesdays). Body Pump... and that describes what it is!

Body pump is a barbell training to fun energetic music in a group environment. I walked in at the back of the class and wasn’t sure what to do. I was a little intimidated be the equipment, the weights and all the people in the class that seemed to know what they were doing – except me. Ronika – one of the child care workers at McPhiliips was taking this class and graciously helped me figure out what to do.

As I started figuring out the moves and watching others around me, I realized that Body pump was a lot of fun and quite a workout. The instructor who I later spoke with was Jayne Steeves. Jayne was energetic, involved everyone in the class, spoke to us "newbies" whenever there was a tricky move and made the class completely enjoyable!

After the Bodypump class, Steeves and I spoke about a few different things. Steeves has been with Goodlife Fitness for 2 years and has been teaching Body Pump for about 11 years. She is the oldest instructor at Goodlife Fitness – a very young 56 years old ( she will be 57 in November). Steeves is a person we should all be inspired by!

I ended up speaking with one of the participants of the pump class – Pamela Zaslow. Zaslow has a keen interest for health and nutrition and was very knowledgeable. We started talking about exercise in general and she educated me on some very interesting things! One of the most important factors about exercise is that is lowers your Cortisol levels. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone – the more you exercise, the lower the level. Stress can also lead to weight gain – when this hormone is decreased, you decrease the risk of gaining weight.

When you exercise you are also increasing your endorphins – or "happy hormones" as Jolyne Roch – my personal trainer at the Kenaston Goodlife refers to them as . When you exercise you increase your bloodflow to your extremeties, it increases you oxygen levels, gives you better posture and increases your joint protection.

Zaslow reminded me that I shouldn’t be concerned about the number on the scale – "It’s about losing fat – don’t say weight" Muscle weighs more than fat it’s more dense."

Not only am I having some great workouts, but I am really becoming more educated on health in general! I am looking forward to the next month of the challenge and how I am going to keep up with this new fitness regimen long term!