Training Truths: Burning Calories

One thing I love about being a teacher is the flexibility I get during summer vacation. During the school year, my workouts are after school and I skip fitness classes during the week because my evenings are booked with family time and sporting events.

My stepdaughter has been home from college for over a month now and doing a 6 week summer fitness challenge. When she got her first check-in measurement results back, I was inspired to start whittling away some of the comfy pounds I put on this spring.

Last week I jumped into my new summer workout plan and I put my fitness gadgets to work tracking my calories burned. I strapped on my Polar FT40 heart rate monitor and got busy. Even though I take a lot of photos of my watches, I've never really thought about the data beyond that one workout.

Monday - 4 mile run. I was supposed to go to SurfSet, but class was cancelled because the AC was broken. (417 calories burned)

Tuesday -  Morning stretching and leg work. Went to Yoga (wildcard) class, but the instructor was stuck in traffic so instead we did a Strength class. (185 calories burned)

Wednesday - Started the day with a humid 4 mile run. It wasn't good. Loved my lunchtime Surf-n-Turf workout at TI Fitness. (853 calories burned)

Thursday - I took my morning workout to Strength In Balance NH for a Booty Barre class. There are three main parts to Booty Barre: killer arms, brutal legs, and lethal abs. It sounds deadly, but it's an awesome workout! The battery in my Polar died about 10 minutes into class, so I will have to wait until next time to see how many calories I burn doing this full body workout. (351 based on my last class)

Friday - 6 mile long run with mrC to start the day. (654 calories burned)

Saturday - 50 minute SurfSet class. There were a couple of new people in the class, so I think the instructor went a little easy on us. It was ok with me because my legs were tired from the week (357 calories burned - 28% fat!)

Sunday - Spent a rest day hanging out at the beach and taking a few walks.

My total calories burned for last week: 2817

I can't wait to see how I do this week! (although vacation will get in the way a little)

Do you track your calories burned during your workouts?

Fitness Friday: Booty Barre Recap

If I was thinking that Becki, owner and instructor of Strength in Balance NH, was going to go easy on us at the Booty Barre Blog & Tweet event, I was proved WRONG! But I'm totally ok with that!

The Strength in Balance NH Barre Fitness Studio is located at Z Club in the old mill buildings on Factory Street in Nashua and is the first barre fitness studio in southern NH. This total body workout is a mix of dance, yoga, Pilates and balance.

Becki got us warmed up quickly with some arm and leg strength work in the middle of the room. Using two pound hand weights seems like nothing at first, but by the end warm up I had to put them down and go through the motions without them.

After the "warm up", Becki moved us over to the barre for the bar/ballet part of the class. She would show us the exercise in small parts first and then put it all together. The balanced moves made my legs literally shake!

These barre workouts would be interrupted briefly for some open floor cardio like burpees and mountain climbers to get the heart pumping before heading back to the barre.

Janine, Allie, Amber and Candra

Just when I thought I was mastering the barre moves, we busted out the blue sponge balls. Yikes! The goal was to squeeze it between our legs while doing squats and behind our knee while doing leg lifts.

Lastly, we moved to the mats for some core work similar to Pilates moves but using the barre. I liked these exercises better than regular Pilates class moves because it felt easier to control what my core was doing.

Class ended with a good dose of stretching which felt so amazing after the complete burn I had just put my body through. Despite feeling spent, I was all smiles!

I wish I lived closer to Nashua because I would make Booty Barre class one of my regular cross training workouts. I loved the high energy, loud music, open and roomy studio. Becki was awesome about walking around, checking our forms, and correcting when necessary. It was a fun and challenging class, which it makes it totally worth the time.

Strength in Balance NH offers a wide variety of classes designed for all levels, so there's no excuse not to try it.

Have you tried barre? What do you think?

Special thanks to Becki for hosting us all for the Blog & Tweet event. We attended the class free of charge, but all opinions are 100% my own.