Category: BSC

I said “no”

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Yup. I said “no”. As someone who always says yes (or tries to always say yes), this was a big accomplishment. Let me explain:

On Wednesday, I got an email from the instructor who teaches the 5:30 Cardio Conditioning saying she was really sick and asking if I could sub. Normally, I am more than willing to help and am really lucky that my job has the flexibility that allows me to leave early when I need/want to, but for some reason on Wednesday, it was the LAST thing I wanted to do. I was having a rough couple of days and was really looking forward to going for a run before teaching so I could clear my head. Plus, I was REALLY sore from my workout on Tuesday and didn’t want to do any lifting, which I would have done had I subbed.

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I literally hemmed and hawed for a  long time before finally saying “no”. And even after I said no, I was second guessing my response and feeling awful that I said no because technically I could have subbed.  I just didn’t want to teach a double on Wednesday and a double on Thursday. I didn’t want to.

And you know what? It all worked out OK. I’m not doomed with automatic bad karma or getting a bad name at the gym because I said no. I doubt anyone is even thinking about it anymore. Big thanks to Athena for confirming that I did the right thing and even saying she was proud of me for saying no 🙂

So the point of this post is: it’s ok to say no, it’s ok to put yourself and your needs/wants in front of others, it’s ok to not do things because you feel like you have to, it’s ok to not do everything and to try to make everyone happy. It’s ok. (if I keep telling myself this, I’m hoping it will be easier to do these things!)

Questions for you: When’s the last time you said “no”? Are you someone who always tries to make everyone happy and put others’ needs in front of yours?

On a side note… I said no 2 times on Wednesday; apparently I was on a roll! It was 7:10 and my class was 20 minutes from being over and a girl walks in, puts her stuff down and starts to get her weights, without so much of blinking an eye to the fact everyone was sweaty and looking like they were quite far into the workout. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: “oh, I’m sorry, Zumba starts at 7:30.”

Her: “I know, it’s ok I’ll just join this class”.

Me: “Well the workout is more than half done and you’re not warmed up so it would not be very safe for you to join now”.

Her: “I ran here. I’m 9 minutes late, I can’t believe you won’t let me join.”

Me (as nicely as I could): “Actually the class started at 6:30 so you’re almost 40 minutes late and we are on the last bit of class, so it’s really not safe for you to join. I’m sorry.”

Girl storms out.  Fitness instructors, what would you have done? I just wouldn’t feel comfortable having her join the class 40 minutes late! Not to mention it was an incredibly distracting 3 minutes for the class and for me.

Weekly Workouts: Outdoor Boot Camp

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Hey there! Phew! What a weekend 🙂 I had my “housewarming” party on Saturday and it was an absolute blast! I’m very thankful for all of my friends and family who came.

Let’s talk workouts, though. Last week was an awesome week of workouts! I had my full teaching schedule (UXF Burn, SHRED and 2 Kickboxing classes) and got in some good workouts on my own, too.

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- I worked from home on Monday so I was able to start my workout earlier than normal (always a nice treat!). I went for a 3.5 mile run and then went to the East Boston YMCA and did an upper body superset workout. I picked two variations of exercises for the following muscle groups: biceps, triceps, back, shoulders and chest. I did 15 reps and 3 rounds of each superset before moving on to the next. It was a great workout!

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  • Tuesday- I had errands to run after work so I got up early and did an at-home, no equipment cardio and core workout that I shared with you here. It wasn’t anything crazy hard, but it was perfect for what I wanted.

No weights, no problem workout

  • Wednesday- I did 22 minutes on the elliptical before teaching UXF Burn (22 because I didn’t have time to do any more!). The UXF Burn workout was hard, but I loved all the moves I chose!
  • Thursday- I taught the same Tabata workout in my SHRED class as I did the week before when I subbed Kate’s class. And again, it left me incredibly sore! Love that. It’s funny, though, because when I teach Tabata I think everyone hates it and is bored (it’s a lot of repetition), but after class I had multiple people tell me how much they enjoyed it. Weird. After SHRED I amped up my cardio and taught Cardio Kickboxing.
  • Friday- I rested 🙂 Well, I rested in terms of not working out, but I was very busy party-prepping!
  • Saturday- I taught kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA. Athena came, which is always a fun treat!
  • Sunday- Athena sent out an invite to some gym friends seeing if anyone wanted to go to a free, outdoor boot camp sponsored by City Sports. Obviously, I was all about that, as were a few other gym friends, so we did that yesterday morning. There was a great crowd and the instructor was hilarious. We ran about 3/4-1 mile to a park and from there, we did a circuit style workout consisting of a minute at each station with a cardio burst between stations. We did lunges with a bicep curl using bands, push ups, squats and “anything abs” (a core station where we could pick whatever core exercise we wanted). It wasn’t as hard as I was expecting, but it was still really fun to try something new and workout with friends (and not be the instructor). I contemplated buying new sneakers at City Sports after, but I was good and restrained.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- My plan is to rest today besides my normal walking commute. Since last week was heavy on the workout front, and I am a little sore, I feel like I should take it easy. I may try to video some workouts for a fun post I have planned 🙂
  • Tuesday- I’ll probably run after work and do another strength workout at the EB YMCA.
  • Wednesday- Cardio and then teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- SHRED and Kickboxing
  • Friday- I’m not sure. Since I rested today, I may be up for a workout. We’ll see how it goes.
  • Saturday- I’m not teaching, so my thought is I’ll get up and go to BodyPump at the Wellington BSC.
  • Sunday- Not sure! If I rest again on Friday, I’ll probably be antsy for something on Sunday. My weekend is pretty open so I’ve got loads of time to workout!

Make this week awesome, friends!

Questions for you: Do you like outdoor boot camps? What was your favorite workout last week?

Weekly Workouts: Travel Edition

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Hey there! How was your weekend?? Mine was a whirlwind of a weekend, but an absolute blast! I can’t wait to recap because it was such a fun little mini vacation. Before I get to that, though, let’s talk workouts! After a slightly more indulgent long weekend, I’m always super motivated to get back on track starting on Monday morning. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do for a workout tonight, but it will surely be something to make me sweat and feel like I kicked my own butt 😉

Even though I traveled and was surrounded by family the whole time, and was tempted to skip a workout to have wine and snacks I still made it a point to sneak in workouts when I could, and at times when I knew I wouldn’t be missing out on anything fun! Did I really feel like getting up to run the morning after my parents and I drank incredible amounts a few glasses of wine? Nah, not really, but I knew it would make me feel SO MUCH BETTER, so I got up and did it before I really even fully woke up. I was so glad I did because once we got to the hotel in Michigan, the last thing I wanted to do was workout!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- Since I ran 4 miles on Sunday, which was supposed to be my weights only day, I made Monday my weights only day. I headed to the East Boston YMCA after work (which, with my new commute, I’m walking almost 3 miles on any given day, which is awesome!) to complete an upper body tabata workout. I had worked my lower body a lot the week before (hello, Booty Burner workouts!), so I decided it was time to give my upper body a little attention. I asked Athena for a good upper body workout and she told me she had recently posted an upper body tabata workout. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check it out, but when I compared what I came up with to what she had come up with earlier, they were pretty close…. we think more alike than we both realize! Anyway, it was awesome and I was sore for a few days- haven’t had that in a while!
  • Tuesday- I had dinner plans with my girlfriends after work, so I dragged myself out of bed and went running in 45 degree weather… I can’t say it was fun, but I was glad I did it! New songs on my playlist also helped get me up and running!!

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  • Wednesday- Since I had to get subs for my Thursday double, when Kate asked me to sub her sports conditioning class, I jumped at the offer! I taught a tabata themed workout that looked like this: upper body tabata, lower body tabata, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs. Holy moly. I always forget how hard tabata workouts are (if you do them correctly) until I am on the 7th set! Between that and an awesome UXF Burn class right after, I woke up Thursday REALLY sore. My glutes literally screamed at me for 2 days… that kind of scream where it hurts to sit on the toilet (TMI?). I loved it!
  • Thursday- I originally thought I would get up and workout before my parents picked me up, but I decided that since I hadn’t rested in way too long and since I was really sore, I would foam roll instead. Good choice! I did instruct my mom through a 30 minute water aerobics workout at the hotel pool. I may have had a wine glass in hand, but I actually had a blast teaching her! I think it’s better to teach water aerobics from the pool deck, so I kicked off my sandals and got into instructor mode. So much fun. I think I want to start teaching H2O aerobics! Mom said she got a great workout.

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  • Friday- I didn’t sleep well (shockingly enough. Wine usually puts me to sleep) so I was up and ready for a hotel treadmill workout at 7am. I hadn’t run on a treadmill in so long and I forgot how much “easier” it is to run on a treadmill vs. outside. When I run outside, my pace is usually between 6.85-7.5 the whole time, so when I hopped on the treadmill and started at my normal 6.4, I quickly realized that speed isn’t appropriate anymore! I ended up running a 5K in about 26 minutes and felt like I could’ve run 5 miles. Love days like that!

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  • Saturday- Danielle and I were in bed by 10:30 on Friday night and slept straight through until 8:30, which is almost unheard of! After breakfast, I caught up on a little blogging and then hit up the hotel gym once everything had digested. Though the gym wasn’t big, they had some pretty sweet treadmills. I didn’t want to run a lot since I had run on Friday, but I hopped on one and chose to do a 3 mile route (pre-programmed in the treadmill). It said the highest % grade would be 12.5, and I figured that would be after a bit. Umm, no. I literally climbed up to that 12.5% grade in less than 5 minutes and was dyingggg. I ended up walking/jogging a mile of that route and then switched to manual for the rest. I just wasn’t up for pushing myself since my main focus of the workout was going to be strength training. I ended up doing 30 minutes of walking & running and then used the machine to do 12 reps and 3 rounds of bicep curls, tricep extensions, standing row, oblique twist… and something else? Although I prefer free weights, it was nice to get out of my normal routine and use a machine. I ended with lots of abs! Nice start to a Saturday. I also danced a lot at the wedding… that counts as extra 😉

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Strong is the new sexy. Own it.

  • Sunday- Nothing! I could’ve gotten up to workout before my flight, but decided a rest day wasn’t a bad idea. Plus, I always walk a lot in airports (always take the stairs).

This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- As I mentioned, I’m not sure what I am going to do for a workout today. Probably something with cardio and weights as a way to get back into total body workouts for the week.
  • Tuesday- I would like to get up and run before work so that I can have the evening off. I’m having a party on Saturday and could use some extra time during the week to shop and get ready for that.
  • Wednesday- Something on my own before teaching UXF Burn.
  • Thursday- SHRED followed by Kickboxing. I missed these classes last week!! I think I’ll do the same tabata workout I taught last Wednesday in my SHRED class. I want everyone to experience that class, haha
  • Friday- Rest day! Since I’m teaching on Saturday morning, I need to make sure my apartment is ready for the party before that, so Friday night will be spent running around doing errands, setting my apartment up, cleaning, etc.
  • Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Y! 🙂
  • Sunday- Probably another rest day, unless I feel up for a walk/jog around my neighborhood.

Questions for you: When you travel, do you try to get your workouts done in the morning? or skip them all together? Are you a fan of Tabata workouts? What’s your favorite workout song right now?? I need more updates on my playlist!!

So, you want to become a fitness intructor?

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TGIF! While I’m on day 2 of my road trip to Michigan with my parents, I thought I would re-post a guest post that I did for Kendall last week. I know I tend to glaze over guest post links and since I’ve had a couple of people ask me what the process is to become a fitness instructor, I thought it was a blog post worth posting again right on Burpees to Bubbly! This is mostly specific to the general group exercise certification, but if you want to learn more about my kickboxing certification, please let me know!

After college, I spent many hours at the Oak Square YMCA, where I met some awesome instructors and friends (Liz, Kim, Athena, Jen, and Ashley, just to name a few). I took Zumba classes, Kickboxing classes, Total Body Conditioning classes, Build and Burn classes… you get the idea. The gym became one of my favorite places to go because I had such a great network of people to socialize with… ones who shared my passion for all things health and fitness. It was at this time that I started thinking about getting my certification to become an instructor.

Why AFAA?

If you’ve ever looked into getting your group exercise certificate, you’ve probably noticed that there are a number of different programs (AFAA, ACE, ACSM) to choose from. AFAA and ACE are, in my opinion, the most popular programs to take as they are widely accepted across most gyms. After doing some research and talking to some other instructors, I decided that the AFAA Primary Group Exercise certification was a better choice for me. I liked the fact that they held the course on-site and put a lot of emphasis on the practical aspect of the exam. Granted, it’s good to know the information in the book, but I think even more than that, it’s important to be able to instruct well, safely, accurately and appropriately, and I think AFAA did this very well.  In addition, I realized that they have a February APEX deal where they run certifications for $99 instead of the $299 that the normal AFAA program runs for! It seemed like a no brainer to me to wait a few months and sign up for this instead of paying $400+ for the course, manuals/study guides and CPR training.

What preparation work is needed prior to the exam?

You have the option to buy the texts books, study guides and video, so in typical Monique fashion, I bought all of them so that I had everything I needed in order to be fully prepared. I literally read through everything and highlighted and made notes.

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While most of the information was really interesting, there were definitely some boring chapters and/or chapters that wouldn’t likely pertain to the kind of teaching I planned on doing, but since we were tested on everything, I read and studied everything.

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Studying with wine helps 😉 But, let’s be honest, wine helps most things!

In addition to reading the book, I made photo copies of the study guide so that I could fill it out multiple times (I retain information best when I write it down, so the more times I write it down, the better I remember it!). This ended up being a great decision and was something I did when I got my AFAA Kickboxing certification, too (also done in February to save money!).

What happens on test day?

Both certifications I took were held at local BSCs. We spent the whole day going through the study guide, an accepted warm up, every basic exercise and doing various demos and practical exams. It was really nice to spend the majority of the day going through everything we needed to know for the exam, as well as have time to practice doing the approved moves and demo’s.

Once the afternoon rolled around, it was test time! The practical exam was first and we had to do the following demonstrations:

  • Proper warm up & cardio training (8 minutes as a group)

  • Strength & flexibility demonstrations (15 minutes as a group): chest & back, shoulders & abs, hips & buttocks, legs: front & back, core: front & back

  • Solo presentations- demo 1 move, showing all 3 different levels of intensity

This was actually a little scary! We all got lined up with numbers and while we performed the different demonstrations, judges walked around and gave us scores. I decided to do jumping jacks for my solo presentation, showing a beginner level, intermediate level and advanced level.

Once the practical part of the exam was complete, we finished out the day with the 100 question multiple choice exam. The day was long and physically and mentally exhausting and I have to say that when I left there and called my mom to tell her how it went, I was in tears, convinced that I showed the wrong stretch for the biceps and therefore, failed the entire exam (so dramatic, I know!). But, I’m happy to report that I passed both the written and practical aspects of the exams with flying colors!

When do you find out if you passed?

The hardest part about taking exams like this is the wait period after the exam until you find out your score, right?! It took about 4-6 weeks to get the scores as we were scored both on the written exam and practical exam. The written exam was easy to score as it was all multiple choice, but the practical exam was much more complicated to score. There were multiple judges in the room and they needed to compare their scores with each other in order to determine the final score. If you got low scores from 2 or more judges on any particular aspect of the exam, you were in danger of not passing that part of the exam. If this were to happen,  you could merely retake the exam that you didn’t pass (either written or practical).

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kickboxing cert

How do you start teaching?

So, you take your exam, you pass your exam, you’re ready to teach… but where?! And how do you go about applying for jobs? Lucky for me, I befriended an instructor at the Wellington BSC and she definitely helped me out. She emailed the group exercise coordinators with my information so that I could be put on the next audition list. {If you’re interested in teaching at a particular gym, talk to the instructors and ask them to send the coordinator your name and email address as it helps to be kept in the loop and possibly even get an audition.} After some back and forth, the new audition date was released: April 14th- my birthday. Perfect, right?! Not necessarily, but I wanted to start teaching ASAP so I took 3 hours out of my day and headed to the auditions. I was more nervous than most because I wasn’t just applying for another job at a new-to-me gym, I was applying for my FIRST job at my FIRST gym. Yikes! Thankfully, my mentor instructor had prepped me well and I did great! About a month later, I was offered my first class: Friday nights at 5:30. Certainly not ideal, but as a new instructor trying to break into the industry, I couldn’t really be picky or choosy, so I took it… and ended up loving it!!!

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What to teach?

With the AFAA group exercise certification, you are certified to teach most forms of group exercise classes, but if you want to teach specialized classes like Zumba, BodyPump, yoga, etc., you need additional certifications. I went into my audition ready to demonstrate cardio kickboxing and total body conditioning. I have been an avid cardio kickboxing goer for years and I have a bit of a dancers background, so learning routines and combinations and keeping beat comes very naturally to me, hence why I wanted to teach cardio kickboxing! The first class I started teaching was a Total Body Conditioning class, which changed to a UXF Burn class just a few months later.

From there, I took on many more (probably too many more) classes, but have scaled back over the past 6 months or so and have a schedule that I love!

  • Wednesdays- 6:30 pm UXF Burn at the Central Square BSC

  • Thursdays- 5:30 pm SHRED followed by 6:30pm Cardio Kickboxing at the Central Square BSC

  • Every other Saturday- 10am Cardio kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA

What’s Next?

If you’re anything like me, the more you learn about fitness, the more you get invested in it. Now that I teach a fairly wide range of classes, I want to learn how to teach even more! Ultimately, getting my personal training certificate should be next on my list, but in all honesty, I love the class setting. I feed off of the members energy and LOVE the feeling of instructing a big group! With that said, I would like to get a Dynamax training and possibly a Tabata training under my belt… and then I’ll look into getting my personal training certificate 😉

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I have been trained to teach UXF Burn and UXF Core through the BSC

With that said, with AFAA you are required to have 15 continuing education credits (CEU’s) every 2 years, which I think is good because it forces us to stay up to date with the latest trends and certifications. My two years will be up in February (I can’t believe it’s almost been 2 years!!), and I have about half of the credits. To get the rest, I think I am going to go to MANIA in November. Athena went last year and I was so jealous, so I’ll definitely be going this year!!

I think that about covers it, but if I missed anything, please let me know 🙂

Questions for you: Have you ever thought of becoming a fitness instructor? If you are an instructor, what’s your favorite class to teach?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’ll be back with regular blogging {hopefully} on Monday 🙂

Weekly Workouts: Lots of Booty Burner Workouts!

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Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? I was totally lovin’ the weather- how perfect was it?! I went apple picking with some of my college girlfriends and we had a blast, but I’ll catch you up on that tomorrow 🙂

Last week, even though I had planned to take it easy on Monday or Tuesday if I needed to, I realized that I was feeling refreshed and ready to be active. So, active I was, but always being mindful and listening to my body. With a that said, a few workouts left me sore, in particular, my booty and my abs… 2 areas that I love being sore after a workout! Athena said I should post my “Booty Burner” workout, so I think I’ll do that for you Wednesday!

This week’s workouts are going to be a little “TBD” for the later half of the week since I’m going to Michigan with my parents, but I’m hoping to come up with a few hotel room workouts that I’ll be able to share with you!

Last Week’s Workouts

  • Monday- After my tour of Eastie last weekend, I was itching to run to Piers Park and use the little outdoor gym area that they have. It was a nice, cool, fall night so it was great weather to run and I got to “play” in the gym which was an added bonus! Let me tell you, my abs were SO SORE for a few days after some decline leg lifts and sit ups. WOW. loved it! This gym area is a really neat resource to have for the public. They offer different level, 4 move strength and stretching workouts using all sorts of different pieces of equipment.

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  • Tuesday- I got the schedule mixed up for the East Boston YMCA and Pilates was actually on Tuesday, not Monday, so I hit up the 6:15pm class Tuesday after work. It was very slow-paced, but it was nice to stretch and work my incredibly sore core. The class incorporated weights and I was able to take some of the moves into my classes- win, win!
  • Wednesday- I went for a really hot 2.5 mile jog before teaching UXF Burn. Lots of members told me how sore they were on Thursday from the class, so I guess it was a good one!

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  • Thursday- I taught this workout followed by cardio kickboxing. A member asked me to include my “Booty Burner” since skinny jean weather is coming up, so I was more than happy to oblige 😉
  • Friday- I’ve decided that I don’t like to go to the gym on Fridays, so, I did 10 rounds of this work from home workout which was plentyyyy. 10 rounds ends up being 100 reps of each, which is a lot!
  • Saturday- I taught the same kickboxing routine, including the Booty Burner, from Thursday at the YMCA. I also had time to squeeze in abs at the end!
  • Sunday- I planned on going to BodyPump, but I realize I was a little sore so it wouldn’t make sense to go to a muscle class. Also, once I walked outside and saw how nice it was, I knew I wanted to go for a walk or run. I ended up running 4 miles (no idea where that came from), and felt great! I wore my older running sneakers and they felt so big and bulky and I felt like I was stomping around! I guess I’ve just become accustomed to running in the more “minimalist” style of sneaker.

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This Week’s Workouts

  • Monday-Since I didn’t do weights yesterday and did lots of cardio, I’m going to go to the gym after work and do just strength and maybe this ab burner that Athena posted yesterday.
  • Tuesday- I have after work drinks with my team at work and then dinner at Jessi’s, so I’ll get up and run before work.
  • Wednesday- I am subbing Kate’s 5:30 Sports Conditioning class before teaching my UXF Burn class. Since I won’t be teaching on Thursday, I figured I’d pick up an extra class!
  • Thursday- I’m going to get up and do something before my parents pick me up. Or, maybe not. I feel like I’ll want to workout before being in the car for 8+ hours, but I may also need a break! If I do anything, it will be light (maybe yoga).
  • Friday- Not sure. I think we are getting on the road early to make the last leg of the trip, so if I haven’t slept well, I won’t get up to workout.
  • Saturday- Hopefully my sister will want to workout with me in the morning, and then hopefully lots of dancing at the wedding!
  • Sunday- Likely nothing. I have a 12:30pm flight and will probably be ready for rest.

So, there you have it! I hope you all have a great week!

Questions for you: What’s a good Pilates studio to try out? Are you interested in seeing “Booty Burner” workouts now that skinny jean season is coming up? Does weather influence your workout?