Last week, Fuel Pilates / XTend Barre DC posted a Facebook update asking for help with morning check-ins in exchange for Pilates and XTend Barre lessons. While I’m not a huge fan of early mornings, I’ve always wanted to try Pilates, and XTend Barre looked pretty interesting, so I jumped on it faster than a speeding bullet.
I was trained on how to use the system to check people in yesterday afternoon right before my fitness boot camp, which, as per usual, kicked my ass. I arrived this morning to my 6:30AM check-in shift without any problems. It’s actually closer to my place than I thought it would be. I think that, since there’s barely any traffic at this time of the year, and especially at that hour, I might just bike it from now on. Since there were only 2 people registered for the 7AM beginner’s XTend Barre class, I was able to join in, and check out what XTend Barre was all about.
Me doing XTend Barre.
The other two students and the instructor doing XTend Barre.
It was a very interesting workout. If you’ve ever done ballet, this is the perfect exercise for you. It was probably exactly what my figure skating coach would have loved for me when I used to compete, but oh well. Most work is done using various ballet stances, adding weights and inflatable balls for an extra burn, and stability and control, as applicable. There are also straps that are used along with the barre to assure that you can continue using all of your force without falling on your ass. This is good for those of us who aren’t as balanced as the rest of the world. (Don’t ask me how I made it through skating while having nearly 0 balance on solid ground. It’s ridiculous.) While there are some extremely challenging pieces of this workout, I have to say that I didn’t find it as ass-kicky as I wanted to, but it’s probably because I was doing it all wrong, and because I was still beat up from Friday’s fitness boot camp, and had another layer of its abuse from yesterday’s session. Still, I was glad of the muscles that did get worked out and, more importantly, stretched out. I no longer feel like I want to detach my left leg from the rest of my body and throw it to some hungry wolves for a snack.
I ran waddled that mile in 15 minutes! Thanks, left leg! :D
Speaking of fitness bootcamp, I finally got to meet the rest of the class, since they actually showed up seeing as the weather wasn’t crappy. I’ve managed to earn Trainer’s Pet award for showing up last week and training through the storm. However, everyone else was all fresh and healed and all cruisin’ for a boot camp bruisin’, and I could barely walk, much less run the 1 – 2 miles they had planned for us that day without looking like Igor from Young Frankenstein. Still, I gave it all I could without actually injuring myself, knocking it out of the park with a 15:15:00 run waddle time! I redeemed myself later with an 00:08:15 wall sit. I really need to find a better position for myself, because I think my legs could’ve held on longer, but my toes were completely asleep by the end of that.
The good news is that I’m always welcome home to two extremely soft, fluffy kitties and superbly supportive boyfriend. Without that, this would make this extremely difficult to keep up, regardless of how painfully awesome it feels. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s fitness boot camp!
The Cat's Meow 