Day 12: 30 Day ClassPass Challenge

Barry's Bootcamp 

14622 Ventura Blvd , Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Ooo Barry's Bootcamp. I've been dreading this day for a while. Everybody knows Barry's is no joke. And it lived up to the hype. 

Barry's definitely has what I would call a cult following in Southern California. They have been around for a while, and have their solid fan base. Everyone in class was super toned, fit, and hot. You gotta be in shape to do Barry's, as well as have a lot of desire. Desire is important here. 

I signed up for this class before my weekend camping adventure on Friday. I did this for two reasons, one because I knew after a weekend of booze and shitty camp food I would need a good ass kicking, and two the morning classes always fill up pretty early and I can't motivate myself after about 10 am. Short motivation window for me. 

Everybody at the front desk was sincerely friendly and when they found out it was my first time you could tell they had a little bit of pity in their eyes for me. The friendly front desk man, who may also be an instructor there (fit enough to be anyways) introduced me to Martin, my class instructor for the day. Martin was also very friendly and explained how the class would go and where to put my things. I have been to classes similar to Barry's, so I kind of knew the deal but it was nice that they didn't just throw me out there to the wolves.  

I was surprised to see that my class was completely full. Almost 40 people! There are two groups: a floor set and a tredmill set and then you trade off every 10 minutes or so. I was assigned a spot when I signed up. I had the floor set first. I wished for the treadmill set first to start getting the running over with, but you can't always get what you want. I would have asked to trade, but again, my class was packed! 

The first set on the floor began with hand weights. He told me to grab a heavy set "At least a 12 to 15". I chuckled and grabbed an 8 pound and 5 pound set. I'm not even sure I could curl a 15 for more than, say, twice. We did lots of curls this round. Then it was time to switch to the treadmill.  

Full class! Sorry for the bad quality. It's difficult to take photos when you aren't supposed to be.  

Apparently it was "Monday Runday"- lucky me. I love running. While on the treadmills, Martin gave three levels of running speeds, which was always around 6.5, 7.5, or 8.5. I bet you guys can guess which number I typically took. We started with a warm up. Then we did this whole 5 minute get your best time running thing. Ugh. 5 minutes straight of running is a mile! (well not for me...but for some people) The distance I got to was 6.8. 

Back to the floor and this time we used resistance bands. Despise resistance bands. We put them under our stackables. Boy, did this make arm curling incredibly difficult. I ALMOST grabbed my hand weights because I could barely curl more than 5 times. 

Butt Shot! 

Typically in classes, I think you do side runs, runs on inclines, and backwards, and all the wacky ways. But today, it was all about distance. Monday's are distance days. It included lots of sprints and long "jogs"- by jog I mean running at a pace of 7.5 or higher. I should have clocked how many miles I actually ran today but if I had to guess it would be at least around the 3 mile mark. I for sure was not doing the highest number that Martin always shouted out, but I wasn't always doing the lowest either. I never stopped to walk when it wasn't a rest period, so I can feel proud of that. 

The plank series on the floor was pretty rough. I kept slipping on the mat because of how sweaty I was. Bring a towel. What an amateur move that was to not bring one. I removed the mat and my poor little elbows were screaming on the hard floor, but it was the only way. I had to push through. We had to smack our butt with on hands in the plank. Then hit our butt with our legs. Lots of butt smacking. Good way to begin a Monday.     

We did a few more sets of switching back and forth between the floor and treadmills. I liked that each set wasn't too long. I have been to classes similar to this one before, and I thought we spend too much time running. Like it was never gonna end! This kept everything manageable for me. Still hard as hell, but I could do it since I knew we weren't going to be running forever. 

At the end of class, Martin shouted out that he loves when he can't tell the difference between the newbies and the regulars so even if he wasn't talking about me per say, it made me feel neat.  

With so many people in class, Martin only came up to me once, during weight kickbacks and told me I was looking perfect. He didn't hand out any adjustments to me, and I like adjustments. But again, with nearly 40 people in class I imagine it would be difficult to get everyone. I did see him working with the chick behind me once or twice. I am sure if I was a total newbie he would have been fixing me right up though.  

Barry's Bootcamp is legit. If you want to incorporate some cardio into your life, like me, then this is a great spot because you also get toning involved and an excellent sweat. Ohh..it's also really clean! They mop and clean the machines between every class. Which is necessary- because you will sweat! 

Day 8: 30 Day ClassPass Challenge

PULSE FITNESS STUDIO  

In between sets at the club, I mean, gym

Apparently, I do not do near enough cardio. My face has finally lost its bright red flush since this mornings class at 9:40. Today I visited Pulse Fitness Studio located in Sherman Oaks, CA. Every day of the week, they target a different area of the body and today the focus was "below the belt".  Again, good for me, because my pesky thighs like to keep all the french fries stored there. 

This class claims to burn 600-900 calories per class. AND I BELIEVE IT. The run down: You begin with about 10 minute warm up on the treadmill. I think I started on a 6 for most of this part. Sometimes you are on an incline, sometimes flat, but always a level of "oh shit I'm gonna die". After the treadmill you head to the floor for the butt and leg exercises for the next round of ten minutes.  Here is me doing a squat while everyone else is not doing a squat. 

After this, you guessed it, you head back to the treadmill for what I like to think of as the "oh shit, I'm already dead" part of class. This is where the steep inclines and sprints come into play.  A slight jog is no easy feat when you are on a 10 incline. We would do 30 second sprints, 30 seconds walk, then 60 sprint followed by a minute of recovery but then we had a TWO minute sprint. DONE.  Over and out. 

 But wait, there is still another floor set and another treadmill set?? aahhhhhhh

If you're reading this. You see that I survived. Personally, this is the hardest class I have taken on my challenge. This has a lot to do with the fact that I am out of cardio shape. The floor sets are challenging, but when you have just sprinted two miles, it makes it a heck of a lot more difficult. I was really sweating. Almost sweating as much as after a hot yoga class. And honestly, I should have washed my hair today. 

Hoping on one side to the other, with our "heavy" weight (aka, I could only do a 5 pounder) Emily's face in the background says a million words.  

My friend Emily was really brave and she came along with me for the ride today. She is also a fellow classpasser and also hates cardio so I knew she would be the friend for me. Suffering together is so much better than suffering alone.  Also, we both wore tye-dye and didn't even mean to. We were totally on the same thought process today.

Mark was the fitness instructor today. He is also the owner. He is really welcoming and friendly. Also, the perfect blend of being encouraging but not annoying. And he's cute. That is all. 

If you are looking to get into some kickass shape then I highly recommend Pulse. But be prepared to run and sweat. My clothes were soaked at the end and it's already hard for my to sit downso I have a feeling tomorrow will be a fun day for me. 

Day 4: ClassPass 30 Day Challenge

The "beach" torture chamber 

Aw man, I was completely finished with this blog post for today and then technology decided to be a sneaky little bitch and deleted everything before I could post. This post might be a little short since I HATE TECHNOLOGY and am really cranky now. This has nothing to do with my workout today.

A couple of evenings ago I was watching an old episode of ABC's SharkTank and SandBox Fitness was doing an update. Mark Cuban invested and put a bunch of classes in Crunch Gyms. Looks like it is really expanding because SandBox has many of their own standalone stores now. I chose to attend a Surfset class in Sherman Oaks, CA. Pretty nuts, they have covered the entire floor with sand! I have a difficult time imagining the class in a gym because we did a lot of jumping (jumping, my fav!) from side to side. On the gym floor I would imagine this would be a little hard on the joints. I definitely appreciated landing on the super soft sand.

I thought this class was going to be easier for me. A few months ago I told a modeling job that I could yoga on paddle board even though I had not ever actually yoga-paddleboarded before. In the end, I took a class, and turns out I was pretty freakin good at yoga on paddle board. But it also turns out, that Surfset class is NOT yoga on a paddle board.This is a full-out bootcamp class with high intensity cardio and sprinkled with a few holds and strength training. SandBox fitness does offer yoga, TRX, and bootcamp minus the boards. MY class today was spent entirely on the surfboards.

Cow-a-bunga (sp?)

We began the class with 40 second cardio bursts. This included jumping across the board. Jumping on the board. Mounting the board like on an actual ocean. Burpees.  After this we took a little time to do some strength training, like push ups, arm presses, ect.  THEN we did the whole cardio section but this time we did everything for a minute.  A minute may not seem very long, but a minute is eternity. A minute on an unstable board doing mountain climbers takes it to a whole other level.

Side note- Don't wear short shorts to Surfset class. Too much jumping and sand involved. Wasn't thinking. Sorry if I mooned you today. 

My instructor, Minna, made it look pretty easy. She did the whole routine with us, and talked and explained the entire way through it. Like it was as easy as brushing her teeth or something. I wonder how many classes she has to teach a day? Does she do all of them? Is she a freak of nature? WHO ARE YOU, MINNA?!

Let's get real here for a second. Getting dirty is not my favorite thing to do. I was nervous that I would have to wash my hair afterwards and I pretty much base most of my workout decisions on if it will make me have to wash my hair. I am not sure what I was thinking because luckily, my hair never touched the sand. I can go another day! The sand comes off your bod fairly easily too. Not like beach sand, it was very soft and my toes really dug it. But you WILL sweat bullets in the class, so expect to get a little messy because sand does like to stick to sweat. But bathing is fine, just no hair washing. 

I am still curious about how often they change the sand out. It cannot be cheap to pour that much sand in the room all the time. I was sweating an awful lot and everyone else was too...so...hmmm..I am just going to put that out of my mind. At least it wasn't stinky!

Pretty sure my previous post was funnier and longer but I can't do this any longer. please save, please save! If you're in the LA area you really should check out SandBox because it's very unique and unlike any workout I have ever experienced. So freaky lucky I live in a city with cool shit.

why did I choose to wear such short shorts? Sand likes to creep up certain...areas. Wear pants people.