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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.