I took a kickboxing class for the first time in over a year! Yep! I’ve been a group exercise fan ever since I was an itty, bitty girl. BUT! Depending on my attitude - I either can enjoy the energy being in a class or I need to train by myself. Lately, I’ve enjoyed training by myself.

However, I decided to follow through on my action plans created earlier and there I was: at the gym: for the 2nd time today, circuit training and taking a class that almost killed me! ha! I’m usually the one in the front row performing strong punches, high kicks and demonstrating my awesome coordination skills. But today, I was the one stopping every 20 minutes to get water and check my heart rate that was going through the roof!!

As some of y’all know, a lot of ‘group class junkies’ are most often still ’skinny fat.’ In fact, a lot of instructors are actually not ‘hard’ and are most often soft. That is the biggest myth/fact/truth - and here are the reasons why:

- you NEED to change up your program. Your body easily adapts to the physical strain you place on it so it’s very important to overcome your plateau by doing something DIFFERENT.

- Do not underestimate the power of STRENGTH TRAINING. That means working out with weights! I love it when I see instructors before class working out in the gym floor performing strength exercises.

SO! If you are a GROUP X class junkie, my biggeset tip for you is to do something you will not like to hear:

STOP - and do something very challenging: that could be running at the bleachers, getting on the stepmill, performing plyometrics or taking a different class like yoga, pilates or spinning. YOU need to change up your program.

Since I stopped attending classes for over a year, I really started feeling it today. And I know I will feel it tomorrow! wooohoo! However, when I was in classes before, I can easily predict the next sequence and my heart rate was not challenged.

Here are some things you can do to change your program:

- Perform higher reps

- Perform with heavier weight

- Do a new exercise every time you enter the gym

- Workout at a different time of day

- Increase the intensity of your cardio on machines

- Begin a circuit training routine

- Start incorporate balance exercises with the bosu and stability ball

- Play with a medicine ball

- Perform double sets

- Perform triples sets!

- Take the workout outside!

- RUN! RUN! RUN!

If you want things to change…SOMETHING’S GOT TO CHANGE!