After what for me feels like WAY too long, I am officially back in a gym! With going from living somewhere where I could walk to my gym in 25 minutes, to living somewhere where we don’t even have a proper gym in town, its taken me a while to find somewhere that meets my gym standards amongst settling into our new home and getting back into work.

But I’m back! I joined my nearest Total Fitness gym, and I’m determined to get my money’s worth out of this membership (because its so much more than my old gym!) and I’ve always liked doing classes because they push me both physically and a little out of my comfort zone. One class I’ve been super interested in trying for quite some time now is BodyPump, so I booked in for yesterday’s class, and here’s how it went..

Because I knew nothing about the class other than a general overview, I went straight to the class instructor to admit that I was a first timer and had no idea what was going on, and I would 100% recommend doing this if you are trying this class for the first time. She told me what equipment I needed to get and what weights to start off with and reassured me that I’d easily be able to follow along.

BodyPump is a weight based class, but its more of a light weight, high reps sorta workout. I grabbed a barbell and two of each of the weight plates, plus we also had a step box and a mat each. As the instructor told me to start off light, I put the lightest plates on first, which felt a little too light for me at first by I stuck with it anyway because I didn’t know what was going to happen so I figured it was the safest bet, plus because I’d been out of the gym for about 6 weeks, I thought it was best for me to start with mainly bodyweight anyway.

After a short warm-up consisting of mainly squats, we were given a little bit of time to adjust our weights for the next section of the workout, so I did change up the plates on my bar to go a little heavier, although not by much because I was still playing it safe. That said, I quickly worked up a sweat as we went into the main workout! We alternated a bit between the bar and using just plates, and also used the box as a sort of bench for doing chest work.

There was a lot of lower body work, lots of squats and lunges etc, but I was also happy when later in the class we did come round to upper stuff – primarily overhead which I didn’t mind because I’m good with overhead – and we actually finished the class on abs before going into a cool down and stretch.

Overall I really enjoyed the class. Yes, it took some getting used to and it’ll probably take me a few goes before I feel really confident in knowing what I’m doing in terms of the weights to use, but I definitely will be going back! It wasn’t as cardio as I had expected it to be, but I liked that about it, and even though I went quite light with the weights, I am feeling it a little bit today so that’s a great sign that its working!

If you’ve been considering the class for a while, or are looking for a new class to start, I would definitely recommend BodyPump, and here are some tips for when you do:

• As I mentioned earlier, definitely speak to the instructor before the class starts and let them know you’re a newbie
• If you can, find a spot right in front of the instructor, or at least where you can clearly see them so that you can properly copy the moves they’re doing
• Start off light, even if you think you can do heavier – I’m a confident lifter and would normally lift a lot more than I used, but I’m so glad I went light because I did still feel the burn
• Enjoy yourself!

I’m on the hunt for other classes to try out so if you’ve got any recommendations then hit me up!

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