Power Step – Not for men?

Posted on 2010-03-14 by Sam

Some people wonder why there are so few guys in Power Step class. If you just look at the concept you would think it’s the perfect fit for all those men who are already hooked on Body Pump and Spinning or maybe even Core Pulse.

Power Step is like a mix between Body Pump and a pure cardio class. With the added bonus that you use the same weights for many of the exercises, which means less down-time and thus a harder, more intense, workout. The sections where you use the bar are shorter and have fewer repetitions than Body Pump which means you can take on heavier weights than you normally do in Body Pump class. I believe this aspect in particular should appeal to men seeing that there seems to be a linear relationship between the weights you can lift and how macho you feel. :P

But maybe this is not enough to convince most guys to even try Power Step. And believe me. I have tried.

So is it the “Step”-part which feels intimidating? It’s not like the choreography would be that much harder for guys to learn. It takes two, maybe three times before you get the hang of it. I believe this applies equally to both men and women. So I don’t think men are at any kind of disadvantage here. After two or three times you will feel perfectly comfortable with the basic step aerobics style moves they use for the cardio and I think men can enjoy it as much as women.

Anyway, this was my view of Power Step until last Thursday when I tried the new choreography.

The core concept is still there, although I got the feeling this release was a bit less demanding than the last one so I think I need to increase my weights quite a bit to make it challenging. The good thing is that they removed the overhead lifts for the back track which means I won’t have to switch weights twice now which in turn means less downtime than for the previous release. So from that perspective it is OK.

The parts I’m having issues with are the warm-up and the cool-down. For me as a guy, these parts felt very uncomfortable. The previous release kinda had this same problem but now I think they really brought it one step further. The feeling I get is like I am not really participating in a group training class at all, instead it is like I am “dancing” in front of a mirror. A very feminine, kinda fruity, gay, dance. I suppose I don’t have to remind the reader of how uncomfortable men are with dancing in the first place? Let alone doing so in front of a mirror, in a room full of women, to a set of moves like the once in this choreography? Most men only experience this in their worst nightmares.

So I ask myself, what were they thinking?

Just think about the psychology here. What parts of a lecture do you usually remember the best? The beginning and/or the end, right? This is why public speakers are trained to place the important parts in the beginning and the end of their speeches to make sure their message comes across properly. The same principle applies to movies and plays etc. And I would assume that this applies to group training also. Which means that what guys will remember from their first Power Step session are the parts that make them the most uncomfortable. I mean, personally I believe I have enough self-distance so that I can handle these parts of the routine. But if my first time trying Power Step would have been to this choreography I doubt I would have returned. So good luck getting more guys to pick up Power Step. I just don’t see it happening.

They even have a track in this release where the lyrics go something like: “Dude, looks like a Lady”… I mean WTF?

New playlists for SATS group training classes

Posted on 2010-02-22 by Sam

SATS released the playlists for the new group training classes today. They will start rolling out the new classes in march. Of special interest are of course the playlists for Core Pulse (spotify playlist) and Power Step (spotify playlist). I see many of the usual suspects returning in these playlists but there are also a few interesting additions. As usual it’s quite difficult to draw any conclusions before I have actually experienced the new classes first-hand but the Power Step track-list seem to have the most potential.

I’m getting quite sick of the current classes now to be honest, so I’m really looking forward to the new releases. Thankfully it’s just one more week with the old choreography. I’m hoping for more deep lunges for the Core Pulse and generally more physically challenging exercises but I’ll be happy if only they manage to balance the strength exercises for one set of weights for the Power Step this time.

For the Spotify-handicapped, here are the track lists in old-school low-fidelity text format.

Sats Core Puls track list

Warm-up: Stay the night (Alcazar)
Warm-up: Morning after dark (Timbaland)
Cardio: Turn it up (Bomfunk MC`s & Anna Nordell)
Cardio: She bangs (Ricky Martin)
Cardio: She works hard for the money (Donna Summer)
Balance: Move (Darin)
Cardio: Just like a pill (P!nk)
Balance: Sweet dreams (Beyonce)
Cardio: Hide your heart (Bonnie Tyler)
Cardio: In the heat of the night (Star Pilots)
Balance: Use somebody (Kings of leon)
Strength: The man behind the mask (Alice Cooper)
Strength: Love game (Lady Gaga)
Stretch: Imagine (John Lennon)

Sats Power Step track list

Warm-up: Closer (Ne-yo)
Warm-up: Tik tok (Kesha)
Cardio: Girls and boys (Good Charlotte)
Strength: Sweet dreams (Beyonce)
Cardio: Million miles away (Charlotte Perrelli)
Strength: Starstruck (Lady Gaga & Space Cowboy)
Cardio: Good girls go bad (Cobra Starship)
Strength: Heartbreaker (P!nk)
Cardio: La la (Ashlee Simpson)
Strength: Dude (looks like a lady) (Aerosmith)
Cardio: Rockstar (N.E.R.D)
Cool-down: Stranger (Hilary Duff)
Strength: So excited (Janet Jackson)
Stretch: Impatient (Anna Abreu)

Pain begone!

Posted on 2010-02-12 by Sam

The injury from last week seem to have healed up completely now. I played it safe and rested for five full days. I always find it hard to determine when it is safe to try exercising again. Initially the healing proceeds rapidly, but after a couple of days the healing process seem to come to a complete halt where it feels like most of the pain is gone but there is still this awkward stiffness which may or may not indicate that the injury is not fully healed yet. So I figure that all I can do in this situation is hold on for a couple days and then take a chance that the pain will not come back when I try exercising again. This time, last Wednesday, I was happy to find that the last bit of stiffness seemed to float away during the Core Pulse session.

The real test for my bad back came from the strength session I did today. While I felt a bit stiff after the workout, it is a different kind of stiffness, not like the pain I suffered last week. I take it that muscle soreness from strength training feels a bit different from the soreness you get from running or Group Training? In any case, this stiffness seem to be easing off as I type this. I was able to increase my weights again for the third week in a row and it seems I have developed a sort of awareness of how much I can lift for each exercise, which means I can go straight from my warm-up set to the correct weights for the work set.

As a result from not exercising for a few days, that Core Pulse session sure hit my thighs and glutes pretty hard. Haven’t had this much soreness in my leg-muscles in six months. So today I went to the lunch-time Core Pulse session thinking I would take it a bit easier this time. But as usual, anytime I go to Sats Jakobsberg with this mind-set the instructors seem to over-do themselves and inspire me to push myself to my limits. Today’s session got me thinking how different the instructors are in terms of how they create “Focus” for the group. “Focus” in this case, for lack of a better expression, is my term for the “energy” or “fighting spirit” or “atmosphere” created by that feeling that everyone around you, including yourself and the instructor, is really pushing themselves and enjoying their workout. It’s quite obvious to me that most instructors are reflective, in the sense that they seem to reflect the Focus expressed by the group, instructing with more energy if the group is expressing that they are enjoying themselves. And I would assume that most people who enjoy Group Fitness are reflective as well, so one could assume that it would not take much effort to get a good wibe flowing in the classroom. But this is not the case always, and the question I ask myself is why?

The answer I think lies in how perceptive the instructors and the participants are to the reflective signals they are getting from the group and how we perceive this concept of Focus. Some instructors like to keep a two-way verbal communication going during the class, with the usual “Are you with me?” and with everyone expected to answer with a resounding “YES!”, while other instructors communicate true non-vocal, almost empathic, communication. My assumption is that people respond to these different forms of communication differently depending on their personality and other influences. For instance, men tend to respond positively to vocal communication, especially in the presence of attractive women. :-P

While I do also respond to verbal communication, as a typical introvert I sometimes find it awkward. In fact, it sometimes feels forced, as if I am expected to respond to every queue and shout simply because I am a man. I even get the feeling that when I am not responding to the verbal communication, this causes the women to stay silent as well for whatever reason (Cultural norm? Gender-based shyness?). As a man, I obviously don’t know what happens with the communication when the class consist entirely of women so I can’t really know if this feeling I have is true or not. Sometimes I get the feeling that the instructors like seeing me there in their class for the very reason that I am a man but sometimes the feeling is the opposite. I really don’t know what conclusions to build out of this.

What I do know is that during today’s class the verbal communication was minimal. The instructor just sort of radiated energy, and I don’t believe I was the only one to pick up on it. And it’s a good thing the communication wasn’t verbal, I was working way too hard to have been able to shout a single word, even if I wanted to. But I would assume that the veins bursting on my forehead would communicate just plenty about how much I was pushing myself in case the instructor would need some kind of reassurance.

And this is exactly where our perception of the concept of Focus comes into play. Some instructors often say things like: “You all look so angry, where are the smiles?” and while that might be meant to be sarcastic, I sometimes feel that maybe they expect you to sort of look like a show dancer or something. But that just feels so weird. This is not a Dance Aerobics class we are talking about here. If I am truly enjoying a Power Step/Core Pulse/Spinning/Body Pump session, I will have my fighting face on. And that is not a happy face.

Back pain

Posted on 2010-02-04 by Sam

Who would have thought sitting down and typing up a post on your blog could be this painful?

I am an idiot. I did a Power Step class today knowing that I had some kind of minor injury in my upper back muscles in the right-side Rhomboids and the lower parts of the Trapezius. And I didn’t even reduce my weights to compensate. I actually hurt my back earlier in the day when I was bending down to wash my face in the bathroom sink. Ironic isn’t it? It’s such a simple movement, not at all unusual as I do it every day. But non the less capable of doing damage. Maybe I already had some kind of injury in my back which I had not noticed before, which was triggered by this random event. Anyway, the mistake I did was to assume the minor discomfort I felt would go over by itself and proceeded with my scheduled Power Step class.

That minor discomfort turned very quickly into bucket-loads of pain. It wasn’t as bad during the workout as it is now. I had to rub a Ketaprofen-lotion (known in Sweden as “Zon salva”) on my back to ease the pain a little. The pain sort of radiates into my arm as far as the right forearm.

Another twist of irony is the fact that I had reduced the number of sessions this week to cope with the feelings of over-training I had last week. It’s Thursday today and I’ve already had two full rest days this week, with the intent of having one more rest day on Saturday. Besides this shoulder/back pain, I was in excellent shape today, rested, well fed and hydrated. Here I was thinking I was back on track again. Now it seems I might not be doing any training for several days until this heals up!

I also almost spit on the instructor today. Thank god it missed. It’s bad enough I sweat like a fountain. Sometimes I feel like that guy from the Axe-commercial. Note to self: check if they also make a deodorant for the mouth. If not, I may have to find a new spot in the corner of the classroom, facing the wall.

Power Step musings

Posted on 2010-01-31 by Sam

Power Step class at Sats Jakobsberg started ten minutes late again today. This due to the instructor for the class before pulling 15 minutes of overtime. For the third week in a row. Jackass. I was so irritated by it that I had a hard time enjoying the Power Step class that followed. And I ended up in a really bad spot as well, so I hurt my hand on the ventilation-shaft-thingies they have in the ceiling due to this sub-optimal position. Again.

With the resent flood of new members at the gym (fulfilling their new years vows), it is absolutely packed in Body Pump and Spinning class. Incidentally the evening Body Pump classes at Sats Jakobsberg are placed directly after another class which makes it even harder to find a good spot when people rush into the room at the same time to grab the best spots. So I tend to prefer the classes where I can set up my equipment a few minutes before the class starts.

However, despite this annoyance I was able to build up enough focus to increase my weights for the back-track after struggling with the same weights for about a month. I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed the class and decided you should have the same weights on the first three exercises. If I put on enough weights to make the squats challenging I can barely manage the chest press, but the over-head lifts during the back-track are absolutely lethal with those weights. If I would use the same weights for that exercise I would hurt myself. Badly. Especially considering the low ceiling at Sats Jakobsberg. Hopefully the next release will rectify this.

Going down from five to four cardio sessions per week has already had a noticeable effect on my endurance. I feel more fatigued at the end of a Core Pulse session than I used to. Paradoxically the feeling is the same as that of over-training. I suspect it has to do with the fact that lately I have opted to drop Body Pump for an extra Power Step and Core Pulse class, and thus actually increasing the total amount of pure aerobic exercise.

Consultation with a personal trainer

Posted on 2010-01-11 by Sam

A month back I was awarded a free session with a personal trainer for showing up twice a week at the gym for 12 consecutive weeks. Not very difficult to achieve seeing that I normally exercise 5 times a week. And so today I had a one hour long session with one of the personal trainers there at the gym.

And it was quite an interesting chat. It was nice first of all to have the conclusions I’ve come to on my own verified by a professional. I also got some answers to practical questions I had. I must say she gave a very professional impression on me. She managed to squeeze out quite a lot of information about my exercise habits and needs in a very short time. She showed me how some of the exercise machines worked as the once they have there at S.A.T.S. Jakobsberg are different from the once at my previous gym. She also gave me some tips about nutritional supplements. All good stuff. The only negative was that she spent a lot of time trying to sell me more PT-sessions. I guess it’s to be expected when you get something for free…

The main conclusion was that I should try to get more strength training into my schedule. Seeing that the various forms of group training that I do is very focused on the lower half of the body, I will start out by focusing on my upper body strength.

My only problem with weight lifting is that there are no set times or classes for it that you need to book in advance. When I’m booked to a group training session it becomes trivial to get my lazy ass to the gym due to the very fact that if I’m not there on time I will loose my spot and not get any training for the day. A meeting booking in my calendar is a binding contract in my mind, but anything that is not in there is flexible to the point that it can be skipped all together. In engineering we call this time-management :P So to start out with I will probably hook it up so that I’ll book myself on a 30 minute spinning session when I want to do my weight lifting, thus getting a trainer instructed warm-up as an added bonus!

The most interesting thing about the session however, was what happened when I was trying one of the machines where you do an overhead shoulder press. I noticed that my shoulders “snapped” at both the top and bottom end of the motion, something which I have noticed before when doing similar exercises in for instance Body Pump class, but this was quite painful. She asked me if I had had any injuries in my past. And that’s when I figured I’d show her how far I could extend my shoulders and to my surprise she told me this was not normal. It’s funny how I have always known that I am more flexible in my shoulders than most people, but I have always thought of it as a sort of bonus. Because flexibility is good right? But she told me she didn’t know what to recommend that I would do about it since the shoulder is not “supposed to” be able extend as far back as mine does. At least I’m aware of it now so I can be mindful about it.

So all in all it was a very good session, I learned something about myself and got some good advice. I can definitely see the usefulness of PT-sessions, and I think I will buy some more sessions, though not in the immediate future.