Hark how the bells....

Today had nothing to do with running.  Today had everything to do with bells....kettlebells.  Apparently it's the new fitness craze.  My local Y has added a KettleWorx class to the group fitness schedule.  Kettleworx is a 30 minute kettlebells class that is choreographed to music.  The classes are so popular that you need a ticket to get in.  Most of the classes don't fit into my life schedule...most of them are in the morning while I am at work.  There is one at 1:00 on Thursday afternoons, so I made it a point to get there today.

I don't have my little man with me on Thursdays.  He goes to his other school (not the school where I am) and my mom picks him up on those days.  She decided to meet me at the Y to do the kid transfer and she volunteered to grab me a ticket to make sure I got into the class.

At 12:30, I flew into the Y and greeted my little man.  Of course, today he decided that his "tummy was hungry" and didn't want to stay at Child Watch.  That great mom of mine agreed to take him home and feed him while I did my class.  (Thanks, Mom!)  I changed into my gym clothes and headed in.  After 30 minutes of chatting with someone I knew in the class, it was time to start the 15 minute demo class before the 30 minute real class.

Today was KettleWorx Cardio.  (The other classes are Resistance...much like Cardio, and Core.)   It's 30 minutes of pain and hard work.  You hate it while you are doing it, but you are glad that you did.  Some of the ladies in the class burned 400-500 calories in a half an hour.  Because the classes are new, the instructors start with a 15 minute intro class.  The intro shows some basic moves, techniques, and then the two major moves for each of the 5 main workouts.  After the intro, it was time to get going.

The class started with a warm-up and then there were 4 songs of work and then 1 song of abs/cool-down.  I was tired after the warm-up, so I knew the class was going to kick my behind!  When the first thing the instructor mentions is burpees and I have never actually DONE a burpee, trouble is on the way.

Surprisingly, I was able to keep up!  I figured out how to do a burpee and get it done.  Kettleworx is a LOT of squats.  Let me say that again....it's a lot of squats.  You work your arms (presses and rows and lifts and curls and all of those arm exercise words) while you are doing squats.  Then, you just do some more squats for fun.  There are squats to the front and squats to the side and squats to teh front and squats to the back.  Sometimes, you even pass the bell between or around the legs while you are doing the squats.  The Cardio class throws in some jumping and some of those burpees just for fun.  

About 15 minutes in, I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction that we will just mention with no elaboration.  (Because that's always fun in the middle of a group exercise class!)  It made the rest of the class a little difficult, but I kept right on going.

The last song was a cooldown with an emphasis on abs.  I didn't know that I had abs, but apparently I do.  I also didn't know that slow crunches could be worse than fast crunches.  I am afraid that now I know both of those.

One thing that I learned - I LOVE the swings.  It's ab work, but it's fun!  I know that I will feel it tomorrow.  :)

So, there's my quick overview of my first "real" KettleWorx class.  I am looking forward to doing it again in 2 weeks!  (Have to take next week off because we are surprising the boys with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge!)

And, if you are in the Great Bridge/Hickory area of Chesapeake, Virginia, join me for the 1:00 Kettleworx class on Thursdays.  I'll be the one in the tech race shirt.  :)