Kirsten Captures

First of all, Happy Easter! I hope you had a wonderful day with family, friends, or just by yourself. Nothing wrong with that! I do it all the time ;-).

So yesterday marked two important milestones in my fitness journey.

Fitness Milestone #1:

I taught my first group exercise class

And it was entirely by accident.

I convinced Morgan to take my favorite Saturday morning spin class with lovely instructor Dorothea. About 30 minutes into hill climbing and speed work, Dorothea announced that she was having heart palpitations and had to stop to control her breathing. After many apologies, she pointed to me and asked me to take over the class.

My first response… “Who me?”

My second response… “Are you serious?”

And in my head I thought… “Oh crap”

I was so shocked and immediately terrified. I was just certified as a personal trainer not a group fitness instructor. I can lead people through workouts but I have no idea how to cue a spin class. Plus I hadn’t been to her class in over a month and was unfamiliar with her routines.

Dorothea then directed me to mount the instructor bike at the front of the class. Oh hell no. It takes 10 minutes to set up my bike so I insisted on staying put. She then gave me her headset microphone and instructed me that this song is made up of 3 hill climbing sections with increased resistance within each section.

Then she left the room. The techno music began. We started to spin.

It was hard. I was faced with the challenge of motivating a room of people to spin harder and faster with each passing minute. However, I was unfamiliar with the song which made syncing the intensity to the tempo very difficult. I also struggled with giving clear and direct cues. I have always been shy and did not have the courage to take control of the class with an enthusiastic and strong voice. If it was my own class I would definitely have a stronger voice (and be prepared!) but for my first time I felt like an impostor.

The next song was the cool-down and I felt confident leading the class through some stretches. At the end of the class everybody said I did a good job and Dorothea thanked me so much for helping out.

It felt pretty great! And I felt empowered. But most of all, I felt so much respect towards all group fitness instructors out there. You are an enthusiastic, energetic, and knowledgeable bunch. I hope to one day be like you! But first I need to learn more, practice hard, and be more confident! Then maybe I can teach spin for real.

Fitness Milestone #2:

I visited Lululemon for the first time

It was a revelation. The clothes felt like heaven, the staff was incredible, and I wanted to stay and try on clothes forever, striking yoga poses in the process. The girl helping me in the fitting rooms actually started doing some yoga in the middle of the store. It was awesome. I could totally work there.

After mentioning that I am a certified personal trainer, she told me to consider working at Lulu. First of all there are some amazing perks such as that little thing called a staff discount (!!!). Her job also sounded pretty cool as a fitness and product educator who works in the store and in the community. It seems like Lululemon really considers customer experience and feedback which is why people are willing to spend $80 on a pair of pants. They also make your butt look good. Seriously.

Plus you feel so comfortable you strike crazy poses in the middle of the kitchen.

I bought the Power House Crop pants, Embrace Crop pants, Cool Racerback tank in gray, and Swiftly Headband in blue. Obsessed. I wore the racerback tank and embrace crop pants during my full-body lifting workout today. I felt so awesome and snug that I must have lifted better. I wish.

Lululemon is certainly pricey but such high quality is worth the price. I just call it investing in my fitness future 🙂

So there you have it. My two fitness milestones from Saturday. Who knows what will happen next?