Fitness related trip | Nelly's Musings

The trip to the V last weekend

Nov. 8th, 2006

As most of you know by reading my bulletin, I went to the V last weekend. I arrived in Charleston on Friday night. On Saturday, I went to the V to buy one day passes for myself and Sandra (Rockbox). We planned to go take two classes at the V on Sunday.

In the meantime, I did some sightseeing and then left Charleston at 6:00 PM to travel to Columbia to pick up Sandra . She was attending the 10th annual Firm Believers exercise weekend trip. I got there around 8:00 PM. Little did I imagine that many people that attended the event wanted to meet me.

Well, I got there and was soon surrounded by most of the members who attended the event.

Here is a picture of the Firm Believers and I.

I had a great time meeting everyone. I especially enjoyed meeting Leigh and she looked great. Leigh was just one of the sweetest Firmies I have had the pleasure of meeting and she gave me three hugs.

Sandra and I then drove back to Charleston. She had arranged to fly back to Montreal, Canada from the Charleston Airport so I was able to also take her to the Airport before I left to return home. It was really great finally meeting Sandra in person. She is one of my closest online Firmie friends.

On Sunday, we arrived at the V for our first class. To our delight, our instructor was my old time legendary fitness idol, Susan Harris herself. Wow, her class was so hard but so much fun. We took a Functional Strength class with her. After the class, we introduced ourselves and took pictures with her. She has such a great personality and I thought she was so down to Earth. She was floored that someone would travel from Florida and Montreal just to meet and work out with her. Well, she still looks as great as when she filmed the very first Firm exercise video tape back in 1986. Here is what she looked like then:

Here is a picture of Susan and I now. Please excuse our flushed faces as she had just gotten done teaching her exercise class and I had just gotten done being her student:

We noticed that Jenn Carmen was also there. As you know, she is another one of my fitness idols. So Sandra and I took pictures with her. Here is a picture of Jenn Carmen on the cover of her 2003 exercise video tape:

Here is a picture of Jenn Carmen, Sandra and I. I think she still looks great.

Here is another picture of Jenn Carmen and myself:

We went back to the V later on that same day and did Jivamukti Style Yoga. Jivamukti is one of the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha Yoga, and is based on 5 Tenets:

1.Scripture Exploration of the foundational texts of yoga

2. Bhakti Cultivation of devotion and humility

3. Ahimsa Peaceful lifestyle that emphasizes the integration of ethical vegetarianism

4. Nada Yoga Deep listening, chanting, elevated music

5. Meditation Connecting to inner stillness and understanding the mechanics of the mind

The instructor for this class was Andrea Boyd . She is a certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher It was an amazing class that leaves everyone feeling energized, renewed and at sync with the environment.

Here is a great picture of Sandra and Andrea. They are posing in front of the alter used during this class:

Well the exercise part of my trip was fabulous and today I am experiencing major doms. I will write another blog about the Paranormal part of this trip soon.

My Charleston and Georgia Fitness Related Trip
7-26-2006

As most of you know I spent the last 10 days on vacation. I went to Charleston SC and Stone Mountain Ga.

My favorite part of my Charleston trip was going to the V for the first time and getting to meet Jenn Carmen, Tracy Long and Carissa Foster. Also, having my picture taken with these three ladies who have been my fitness idols for a long time. My favorite part of the Georgia trip was hiking up and down Stone Mountain.

I went to the V on the first Monday and Wednesday of my vacation. I was able to get two one day passes for $25.00 each. On Monday, I got there just in time to take a class with Tracy Long herself.

As most of you know, Tracy was in the June issue of Self magazine.If you missed reading the magazine, here is a link with a slideshow which show the pictures of the 12 Speedy Shapers Exercises she demonstrates in the magazine:

Tracy Long Slide Show

I felt so lucky to take a class with her. The class I took was called Functional Strength. Here is a link which explains a little about this type of workout:

Functional Strengh

I then took a picture with Tracy and chatted with her for a while. They will be filming new workouts in either Sept or Oct of this year. Here is the picture of Tracy and I:

Tracy’s class kicked my butt. Even though I used anywhere from 5 pounds to 12 pound weights for the entire workout, it was so hard. As most of you know, I usually use weights as high as 25 pounds. I did not think I would make it through the workout.

I went back to the V on Monday evening to take another class. This one was called, “Core Cardio” and the instructor to my surprise and delight was Carissa Foster herself. As most of you know, her picture is on the cover of the Firm Maximum Cardio and Firm Core Cardio 1 workout video tapes.

Well, I thought this class would be easy because of the Firm Core Cardio workout that I mentioned above. The girl at the counter told me, it was the hardest class they had. At this time, I am thinking to myself, yeah right!! Boy, was I ever wrong. This class is based on the new core cardio type workouts that work your waist area to the max. Here is a link of a review for a similar workout to the one I did:

Core Cardio

I did not think I would last throughout this workout. It worked core muscles I had no idea I had. I was completely toasted by the time the hour long workout was over.

After the class, I took a picture with Carissa and to my delight, Jenn Carmen also joined as in this picture. Here is the picture:

I also decided to buy all four of the new TLT workouts. I was so excited because Tracy Long autographed both of the workouts that she leads and Jenn Carmen autographed the workout that she leads. Unfortunately, Susan Harris was on vacation and I did not get to meet her.

On Wednesday I went back to the V for more workouts. I met up with Nancy Williams who is a fellow Firm Ya Ya member and just happened to be in town for a vacation herself. Her user name is jesemy.

I thought I would take easier workouts then Monday since I had major DOMS on Tuesday and found out I had more muscles then I ever thought I did. I took a 90 minute Satsang Yoga class with Jeffrey Cohen. Here is a link with pictures of Jeffrey and information about this class.

Satsang Yoga

To our delight, Tracy Long was a student in this class. I thought it would be easy like the Firm Power Yoga workout. How naive I was, it was nothing like it. The Yoga moves were so tough and it was hot in the exercise room. I thought I would not make it through this class. Jeffrey had to help Nancy and I with a lot of the moves. Our bodies felt like twisted noodles when we were done.

Next Nancy and I decided to take another class which was easier. It was called, ” Back to Basics”. It used a Stability and a Medicine ball. This class would have been challenging for beginners but for Nancy and I, it was just the class we needed after getting beat up in the Yoga class.

Nancy and I then purchased some V baby T-shirts and got to chat with Tracy and Jenn Carmen for a while. We also met Tracy’s husband who also works at the V. He was super nice. Nancy and I also took another picture with Jenn and Tracy. Here is the picture:

After the first week, I left for Stone Mountain in GA. On Sunday, I decided to hike up the mountain with my entire family. This was the first time I had ever hiked on a mountain and it was so challenging. I however thought it was great cardio workout. After we got to the top, I wanted to hike back down. Well, my whole family whimped out on me and I hiked down the mountain by myself. As you can imagine, it was a whole lot easier to hike back down the mountain. Here is a link to the mountain:

Stone Mountain

The next day, no one in my family felt sore. However, my buttocks area felt sore and it might have been because I used different muscles hiking back down then I did hiking up the mountain.

Well, that sums up the Fitness related part of my trip. I will write another blog later to talk about the Paranormal related part of my vacation.