I did something very different today. I tried one of Sats “red” classes.

It’s not a coincidence that Sats has chosen to use the color red to encode that the class is more demanding from a choreography stand-point. It is a color which denotes “danger”, a not-so-subtle warning to all us stiff guys to stay the hell away from these classes.

Afro is not an exception to this. It is red. It is not trivial. Which begs the question: what the hell was I doing there?

Well, several reasons, actually. I’ve been contemplating substituting one of my workouts for something easier, to use as active recovery. I’m not sure I really need to make this adjustment, but since I’m taking one week off from the strength training before I start my next six week period I figured I would try something different.

In fact, speaking of active recovery, I was thinking of picking up Yoga again. I think one of the reasons I was able to do four-five Body Pump classes every week back in Kista for so long was probably thanks to the one Yoga session each week. Thinking about it, I somehow managed to squeeze in some strength training and badminton on the side as well. I must have spent 6-7 hours per week in the gym back then.

But it’s not like Yoga doesn’t have its own associated issues. I suspect my shoulder flexibility problem might get worse with it. All those side-planks in Body Pump class has made me painfully aware of just how sensitive my shoulders are to certain forms of stress.

Another reason I wanted to try Afro was out of pure curiosity. I hear a lot of good things about it from time to time. But is it really as difficult as the “color” suggests? Is it fun? Is it a good workout?

Similarly to Power Step it is hopelessly difficult to get right on the first try and I can honestly say I failed miserably today to keep up with the instructor (who btw was absolutely brilliant). But since the choreography is fixed on endless repeat thru the session, I don’t think it’s impossible for me to learn the choreography within 3-4 sessions. So it’s definitely a step up from Power Step and Core Pulse but not quite on the level I thought it would be. After all I needed 3-4 sessions to get the hang of Power Step as well.

I’ve reacted negatively to “dance style moves” in the Power Step choreography before but that doesn’t mean I hate dancing, whether I like the choreography or not depends a lot on how comfortable it feels. Afro, as the name suggest, is sorta “primal” for lack of a better word, so I enjoyed the stomping and squatting and kicking and what have you. The ass-shaking was quite interesting as well. :-P It was a lot of fun to be honest. However, seeing how the whole session is set up on an endless repeat of the same moves over and over again I can see it getting a bit stale after a few sessions. But what class doesn’t suffer from this problem really? I should probably note that a major factor as to why this session felt like so much fun was due to the sheer charming power of the instructor. Overall the atmosphere of the class was very different from any other group training class I have experienced.

But maybe the most important question to answer is whether or not it is a good workout, and that is a difficult one to answer. I know I shouldn’t judge the intensity level of a group training class after the first session as the workout tends to suffer quite a bit when you can’t keep up with the choreography. Still, it doesn’t seem to be at the same level as Core Pulse and Power Step. The 20-something push-ups we did really didn’t do anything for me. It’s also not easy enough to really function as active recovery either. Today it would have worked as such, as I was completely lost but I figure the intensity once I get the hang of it is still way above that of a low-tempo run for instance.

Finally, as the newly formed blisters on my toes can vouch for, dancing bare-feet is not something my feet are used to. I felt it throughout the entire second half of the session, which was quite distracting.