By the time I finish the tricep and bicep movements with the five-pound weights, the planks, and the pushups (mine are even modified), my arms muscles are burning.
We then move to the ballet barre for a sequence of thigh work with what I have been sweetly referring to as the "playground" ball. But really, this thing should be more aptly named the "fiery depths of hell" ball.
Standing facing the barre (if you're at home, use the back of a chair), you place said ball between your thighs, keeping your heels together. Then you're instructed to start pulsing up and down. Sometimes you go slow, sometimes fast, sometimes up and down only an inch, sometimes all the way to the floor. And sometimes, you just sit back and gyrate just your hips forward, clinging to the ball with every ounce of might between your thighs. All of it, every last bit, feels like death -- like your thighs are going to burst into roaring flames. What the hell, literally, is going on?
"That burning sensation is the feeling of lactic acid building up," says Katie Warner Johnson, one of my Physique 57 instructors, a certified personal trainer, and Harvard grad to boot. These thigh movements are making tiny micro tears in the muscle that will, after recovery, build the muscles back longer, leaner, and stronger, says Johnson. It's the burning that means it's working.
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Does the crying mean it's working?
After two weeks of Physique 57 classes, attending five times a week (the recommended amount to see results), I am spent. My body hurts. Everywhere. I'm physically and even emotionally drained by the rigorous routine I've been dragging myself to after work. One day I will feel stronger, and the next, it feels like I'm back to square one. I'm starting to get pissed.
This is where I typically give up and tell myself it's too hard. Frustrated by still not being able to make it through the thigh section without "cheating" (resting or flubbing my form) and not capable of doing a proper pushup, I storm out of class. I plead with myself for a reason to stay, to keep going, to quiet the fat, lazy person that wants so badly to take over my life. My face flushes and I feel hot, stormy tears threaten my cheeks -- why is it that one day I feel great, and the next, awful?
"Everybody builds endurance and stamina differently," says Becker. "Some clients are able to attend every day and others find that coming every other day suits their lifestyle best," she says to comfort me. I'm not comforted and decide to call in the big guns.
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How to change your mindset to change your body
I decide to speak to a psychologist about my struggles. I want to know how to keep up my motivation and not let myself give in to my tendency to give up on physical exercise. Richard Rogal, MD, a psychotherapist in Beverly Hills, Calif., says I need to not only change up my routine, but my thinking. How, specifically, can I do that, I ask?
Work with your tendencies, not against them: Typically I feel much better in the morning than I do after a long, grueling day of work. Dr. Rogal says to plan physical activity for times of the day when I'm naturally feeling energetic, which means switching my Physique classes from evening to mornings.
Team up: Remember how I said my friend Tricia attends Physique too? Well Dr. Rogal suggests I start going with her. Not only will the camaraderie and encouragement keep me going strong, it will make working out fun, too.
Set realistic goals: If your mental bar is too high, you're naturally going to want to give up, says the doctor. The fact that I started this journey with the mindset that I was going to get a body like Kelly Ripa's, or any celeb's for that matter, is ludicrous. "It's your body," says Rogal. "Make it strong and make it healthy, that's all you need to be concerned with." Touch�, doctor, touch�.
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And the eureka moment I've been waiting for happens
It's three weeks in and I'm finally starting to feel better, stronger, and leaner. I followed the doc's advice and now go to class in the mornings, with my friend, and have stopped imagining that by the end of this month, I am going to look like Kelly Ripa. Other behaviors of mine have changed as well.
I've stopped caring as much about food. Before I was working out on regular basis, it wasn't a big deal to eat the bagels, donuts, and cupcakes that make an oh-so-often appearance in the office break room. Now that I have to feel that devilish burn between my thighs every morning, a chocolate donut just doesn't seem worth it.
I've also started doing other exercises. Since I typically go to Physique during the week, I find myself getting antsy on the weekends and wanting to -- get this -- work out more. Weird, I know. I've started hiking and finally riding my bike that's been collecting dust.
And I've picked up a few tricks that help me get through each class like a champ ...
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Why breath is my BFF and stretching is important
I've never known how to use breath to enhance my workout and it's only with Physique 57 that I have really started to see how important proper breathing is to getting through a strenuous activity. I used to hold my breath at the gym when I was lifting weights or even running, but now I use breath to get me through the movements and keep my energy up. "The more oxygen you can take in, the more energy you will have for the workout," says Becker. Generally, we inhale as we lengthen the muscle (rest) and exhale as we contract the muscle (exertion).
I also used to only stretch before a workout, which is totally wrong and a mistake many women make. "Stretching before a workout doesn't do much for you," as your muscles are stiff and not malleable, says Johnson. After you've worked the muscle during strength training, stretching the muscle guides it in its re-growth. Then over time, you become more flexible, and the line of the muscle will lengthen to create those long, lean muscles every woman wants, she says. Why be flexible? "When your body is flexible and supple, the recovery from your workouts is a lot quicker and your range of motion is greater," says Johnson. Translation: It means you'll be better able to push your body to the max during your workouts, which is when you torch the most calories and have the best shot at changing your body's shape.
But the best lesson I have learned so far from Physique?
Before you judge me on wanting to look like the five-foot-two, less-than-a-hundred-pounds Kelly Ripa, hear this: I fully understand on a fundamental level that I will never, ever look like Kelly Ripa. I'm sane. Reasonable. Not short, or naturally thin. Oh, and I'm a brunette (wink!).
Seriously though -- do I want arms like Ripa's that don't flap in the wind? Yes.
Should my ass be less obtrusive? Probably.
Would it be nice to sit and not have a jellyroll slowly unfold over my jeans? Ab-solutely.
But above all, as a twenty-something woman, do I need to stop considering the walk, I repeat w-a-l-k, up the three flights of stairs to the office my fitness routine for the day? That, my friends, would be an affirmative.
I came to these revelations after a recent visit to the doc. I was sitting in the waiting room and spread across the coffee table were a bunch of "Fitness" and "Shape" magazines with bikini-clad celebs glaring their shiny teeth and flat bellies at me.
There she was -- little-but-larger-than-life Ripa posing in a neon orange two-piece. I picked up the mag and as I thumbed through the pages, reading about her adventures in motherhood, how she never exercised in her twenties, and her "new" love of Physique 57, a trendy workout my friend Tricia was just raving about as I shoveled in a cheesy omelet at brunch, I had a thought.
Do these high faultin' celebrity workouts splashed across glossy magazines actually work for real people? Could I, the former chubbiest girl in the 5th grade whose thighs have never not touched, get the toned body of a celebrity? Could this fitness fad really be as life changing for me as it was for Miss Ripa?
I was determined to find out, to make a change. I was determined to try this Physique 57.
