I Am A BodyFlow Instructor!!!

Well, I passed initial training! I still need to submit a video of me teaching an entire class.....but you know what? Dreams DO come true, and I know that I will work hard and submit a video worthy of passing. I have no doubt. I am not being cocky, or conceited, but confident because this weekend was SO amazing, I had SO much growth, personally and physically, that I know in my heart, this program was meant to be in my life right now. So yes, I will pass this video assessment. I have 2 months, September 15 is the due date. EEK.

This past weekend, just as I had expected, was amazing. ALL Les Mills trainings, and I have been to a few, are quality trainings. The initial trainings are now 2 days, and we receive our dvd's and choreography notes 14 days in advance in order to learn our tracks and be prepared. Day 1, Rachel, our AMAZING trainer told us, would be the hardest, and if we could get through it, Day 2 was going to simply be FUN. She was right.

Day 1.......I had thought that I would present one track two times on Saturday, and then the second track two times on Sunday, like other trainings. Nope. It was one track, once on Saturday and twice on Sunday, and it was TRACK 7. The one I had been dreading, the one I didn't like as much, the hardest track in the release!!! WTH??  I had been counting on track 3, which was hard with my lack of shoulder and hip flexibility, but track 7? with the hovers, the fireflies, the crocodile pose? AAAARRRGGGGHHH!!! Karin had to talk me down and convince me that I WANTED the hardest track at training, because I was going to get specific, one on one feedback on the hardest track in the release, so that when it came time to taping, I would nail it. Everyone else would not have had the same attention to that track that I had. So I tried to be positive, but deep down, I knew that I struggled with the firefly, which is this: when you are in a hover, on your toes and straight arms, you bring your knee to the same side elbow, as you come down halfway in a crocodile. Super hard for me with my upper body strength, which is stronger but still.

Day 1 was a lot of technique work, after the Master Class with Rachel. Megan from the Les Mills West Coast office (I had met her at the Sunnyvale launch) came down to do the class with us. Rachel is a wonderful instructor and it was fun to go through the class with her live instead of the DVD. We had a group of 11 people instead of the 9 I saw on our original list. I knew Karin and Yvonne, and had met Patty once, and knew of Jocelyn. It was nice to meet other instructors, both from 24 Hour Fitness and other gyms. Once woman, Nikki, was like me in my BodyPump training, a participant from Bladium, and had never taught anything before but loves LM and chose this as her first foray into Group X. She is super sweet, knows several instructors that I do, and was super nervous, but WOW. She was AMAZING at her track, and it brought back so many memories of me just 19 months ago in training. Being a participant going into training is like no one else - we have a passion, a love of the programs and it shows, even with our lack of teaching experience. Nikki will be a phenomenal BodyFlow instructor!

We did our first presentations at the end of Day 1. I was super nervous, of course. I went up and began my track, I KNEW my choreography and timing, but for some reason, I got off track within the first 2 sets and it threw me off. I lost my focus, lost my place, got off on timing, but got back on track. I finished O.K. but as soon as I sat down and Rachel asked, as she asked each one of us, one thing we thought we did fabulous, and one thing we could work on, I BLANKED on the fabulous. I literally could not get any words out, and when I did, I said I HAD the chorey, and I just could not come up with what I did right. I came up with a laundry list of what I did wrong and Rachel stopped me and said "Stop - I am taking over this conversation!" and she told me that I did a great job, that my coaching was spot on, but she could tell I was totally in my head, I made one mistake and then in my head it was over. She told me this is NOT CXWORX, it's BodyFlow - it was ok for me to show one option on my toes and then go down to my knees to do the rest. That it was ok to show members then options because most people will not be able to do the high option and do it with perfect technique. She told me to do the first rep on my toes and then show the option on my knees, and it was OK. Well, the whole time she was talking, what was I doing? Crying. Yep. Me, the blubbering idiot. I felt so stupid, like such a failure, and she made me feel so relieved that it was ok to take the lower option, especially in this program. If we only coach the lower option and only show the higher one, people will feel like they need to do the higher option because we are doing it or feel bad that they can't do it. It is important to SHOW them, for a good amount of time, the level one option so they understand how to perform the move correctly.

Karin, in the parking lot before we drove home, told me she knew exactly what happened with me. This is so dumb. I ALWAYS teach with my hair back - usually in two braids, because it is such a curly mess that I have to put it back. Well, most of the day, I had my hair down, or would put it back in a pony tail. I had the hair tie on my mat, but didn't have time to put my hair back before I went to teach my track. Karin saw me sweep my hair away from my face near the beginning, heard me sigh, and that was it. That little blip of my hair getting in the way got me off the music by one beat and then it happened - lost my timing, lost my confidence, felt like I failed. It is such a minor thing, but it was different enough for me - pulling my hair back. As we sat in the car, it just all poured out of me and I couldn't hold the tears back -  I was terrified of this track because I knew how hard it was for me, and I was dreading the fact that I had to teach it 3 times and this was the track I would be assessed formally on, when I was not confident in my ability to do so, because the moves were harder and I had my heart set on the other track. I had all these feelings of self doubt, being unfit, too fat, not good enough, blah blah blah.  I mean, good GRIEF, when was this going to get better? Why haven't I gotten this message by now? Why am I constantly crying at trainings? Is this part of the process, am I still going through the journey of self discovery? Apparently I am. And that's ok. I was just overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy around other people, although for the first time, I felt on an even level with the other people in the training. I was so mad myself for screwing up, since I HAD it. I had the difficult timing, and blew it.

I felt better after that, knowing why I blew it. I reviewed it one more time at home, but didn't want to focus too much on it since I was already overthinking it. I put on some soft music to go to sleep, but ended up not being able to turn my brain off. Karin and Yvonne were picking me up at 7:15am on Sunday and I ended up going to sleep at almost 1:00am and woke up several times during the night. Nevertheless, I woke on time and was ready to go when they arrived. I felt much better that the night before, so I was confident I would be able to nail it for the second presentation.

Day two began with perky Rachel saying how wonderful it was going to be because Day one was so much harder and we were just going to have fun! We started off with presos straight away. This time, we shadowed our alternate track so I was able to have fun with that. My own track - how did I do? NAILED it. I knew it and it felt good. I was able to get in my compulsory cues, follow up cues and a bit of fun. Rachel videotaped the morning presos, but we did the class as a whole and she didn't stop to give feedback after each one. She gathered us after and we did the individual feedback as a group, then she showed us all our videos. She told me that she had nothing to correct me on except my arms were coming back too far on the upper back extensions (like we do it in CX so I had to remember to modify the move), my coaching and cueing were on, my technique was great now that I showed the options, and the only thing was she wanted me to let go and have fun. I was so relieved!

The rest of the day consisted of connecting, fitness magic, the challenge, bonding...it was truly a great day. It's always hard to sit and we were all getting stiff and sore, but we moved around plenty, and by the final presentations, we were all exhausted but fired up and ready to be done. Again we did the class as a whole and didn't stop the music between tracks, we each went up to the front to present in order. It was obvious how much growth each instructor made in just two days. Always gives me goosebumps to see this.

Preso #3 - I think I was truly able to embrace the track, this difficult track that had me peeing in my pants for two weeks before this training. I nailed it again, corrected my upper body move and I really did have fun with it.

We started to clean up and waited for Rach to get our final feedback forms to us, packed our bags and started chatting. I was one of the last ones to get my feedback - Yvonne and Karin both got their passes! When I went up to Rach, she looked up at me and said "You know you passed, right?" and what did I do? Started crying. Geez. I had a feeling I would pass, after I redeemed myself in the morning, but the feeling of accomplishment, the knowledge that I have achieved the first step in becoming a BodyFlow instructor.....there are no words to describe it. She told me I was going to be a wonderful BF instructor, and I believe her. I had such doubts, because I am a BodyPump instructor, and have been told I am too high strung for Flow, but I have discovered that I can alter my persona, my coaching, to fit the program I am teaching. This program is going to be wonderful for me personally and physically and I can't wait to share my new passion with others.

This weekend was amazing. Today, I feel like I've been hit with a truck. A big one. My obliques are screaming at me with every twist and turn. I had a throbbing twitch in one hamstring that lasted over an hour. I am sore on the tops of my feet, the bottoms of my big toes, I have two new bruises on my knees, my upper back/shoulder blades are tighter than anything......this feels like it was harder than CX training.

But it was SO worth it.

Program #3...About to Commence!!!

You'd think with it being summer vacation, I would be caught up on my blogging. Well, the last two weeks have been crazy with learning my 3rd program, BodyFlow. I am SO happy I chose this to be #3, as it has already helped loosen me up and made me stronger. That, plus BodyPump 82. What a RELEASE!!!

I never wrote about my experience with launching the Premier club in Sunnyvale next to Steve Renata! It was definitely an A-Mazing day and experience. I don't know why I was so nervous...other than the fact that he was one of the original founders of BodyPump....very down to earth and he spent time before the launch going over stage position with me and Orna so that we knew how to move between the tracks we had divided.  The room, the basketball court, was filled with almost 100 people!! It was truly energetic and even though I spent the warmup (that Steve taught) going over my back track chorey in my head, once I just gave up and trusted that I knew what I was doing, I was able to smile and have a blast! I had a chance to talk to Steve before he taught his second RPM class and found him to be just as down to earth and funny as his wife, Susan. He also told me to email him and he would give me some feedback once he had time to decompress. I had someone ask me if I was actually going to do it.... Duh.....of course! I am all about improving my teaching, getting feedback, no matter how hard it is to hear. I may moan and groan but I DO listen and apply feedback as best I can.

The rest of the day was spent working the crowd and the red carpet, meeting members, talking up the classes. I got to wear a 24 Hour Fitness nametag! Made me feel so official! hahaha. I then taught CXWorx with Wendy, and did the technique portion beforehand.  Wendy is awesome, we did our initial training together and we had a blast. The room had over 100 people!! Including a few regular pumpers from San Carlos, as well as two co-workers from Hoover. We increased capacity in the room because the Zumba people were told if they came to our class, they would get to keep their spot for Zumba! It worked, and we worked them HARD! Some came up to us later and told us they never felt so out of shape, but they had fun and wanted to keep trying the class. That's all that matters - that people are moving, trying new things to shake up their workout, and working hard.

All in all, Sunnyvale's launch was a HUGE success. The acoustics are not great in the basketball court but I made sure to tell people to come back and try the classes in the smaller Group X room. I'll sub there if the need arises but there are great instructors in the South Bay so they are in great hands.

BodyFlow - I am so amazingly excited for this weekend. More than I thought I would be. This program is not an easy one. This release, however, has fairly simple choreography, and while I have spent most of my time  learning my two presentation tracks - 3, a standing strength track, and 7, a core back track, I have done the entire release many times and have a few other tracks almost memorized. There will be 9 people in our training, so that  is exciting because it is a small group, which means lots of opportunities for feedback that might be more difficult with a larger group. I have never been to a Les Mills training, though, even larger ones, where I felt ignored or like I didn't get enough feedback or personal attention. The trainers are top notch, and our trainer for the weekend, Rachel, is amazing according to some close friends of mine. I am very excited to meet her in person and learn from her.

I definitely have to work on my fitness - I am still dealing with hip flexor and shoulder flexibility issues, but I have improved over the last two weeks of training, and my deep tissue massage yesterday really helped loosen me up, after neglecting my monthly massages for over two months. I will not do that again!  The more I train and practice, the better. The good thing about  BodyFlow is that unlike BodyPump, there is no limit to the amount of times per week that is recommended to do the class. There is a lot of strength involved, but since it is a Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates program, there is plenty of stretching and muscle lengthening going on. The fact that I am focusing on my breathing more has helped to slow me down and this will be a good complement to what I already teach.

August 18 - the San Mateo and Millbrae Super Sport Premier Launches....my goal is to pass this training, learn the rest of the release, and be ready to launch BodyPump, CXWorx and BodyFlow on that day!! I'll have to do a video for this program, but hopefully I will have a class or two to teach and be able to do that like I did with BodyPump.

For now, tomorrow will be essentially a "rest" day, only going over chorey and my cueing to allow my body to be fresh and ready for an  AMAZING weekend!!!

Program #3 .......HERE I COME!!!!!