To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my lifestyle. I started with dancing Zumba on my switch, and I gradually made changes. Since the last challenge, I began working on mindful eating. I wanted to be more contemplative with who I am, and I wanted to trust my eating. I also decided to work on increasing my muscle mass while reducing my body fat. So, I started to look for exercise programs from home that include muscle training and cardio exercise. After some research, I decided to try LES MILLS on Demand.
I must understand how much exercise I should be doing. When I tried the first 45 minutes BODYATTACK, I barely made it to the 30-minute mark. At this point, I was not sure about my physical capability. This round, I wanted to try few different types of LES MILLS exercise classes. Then, I would customize workout programs in the future.
Procedures:
(1) Experiment with a 45-minute class and stop when I could not do any exercise. After the first week, I changed to a 30-minute class.
(2) Try a class per day until I needed a rest day.
(3) Change the time of exercise to find the best time for exercising.
I used this trial period to evaluate my physical strength, flexibility, and endurance. My main goal is to figure out my workout program. I started with BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW since I did not have any equipment yet.
I monitored my total body weight and muscle mass to see the progress.
I will briefly introduce BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW.
BODYATTACK reminds me of a Bootcamp class I used to take. It consists of athletic movements such as running, squats, lunges, agility, push-up, core exercise, and plyometrics. It is a high-energy exercise. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 305-310 calories for 30 minutes of this exercise. The class is intense, but you can always pick a more accessible option. For example, I can choose to do squads instead of burpees.
BODYCOMBAT is like kickboxing. It used to be called BODYATTCK. When I did my first instructor certification course with LES MILLS 15 years ago, I lost 8 pounds just practicing videos every day. Muay Thai exercises were always the hardest one for me, so I was happy to do some Muay Thai exercises. Their high knee exercises give me good muscle pain. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 325-330 calories for a 30 minute-class.
BODYFLOW contains Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, and meditation. I usually do their 20-25 minutes body flow class before work. I am not very flexible, so I try to imitate the instructors’ poses as much as I can. BODYFLOW is not a high-energy class; however, my body feels good from stretching.
I told my husband about getting Les Mills on-demand subscription. He knew that I had instructor certifications from LES MILLS 15 years ago. So, we agreed that we would purchase equipment for BODYPUMP and BODYSTEP. Since we received the equipment kit in the 4th week, I only tried BODYPUMP twice last week.
Finding
To find out how many days I can exercise per week, I did a workout every day. As a result, I started to have pain in the arch of the foot. So, I had to take two days of rest and light exercise the following days. After three days of rest and a light workout, the pain was gone. So, I need to be more mindful of how much I exercise. I found out I could do six days of workout; however, one day must be BODYFLOW. I added a 17 minutes BODYFLOW class in the morning in addition to a 30-minute exercise, which seems to work for me. I felt much better when I stretch in the morning.
A 30-minute of exercise per day is adequate for me for now. If I do more than a 30-minute of training, I get tired. I struggled with how to fit the exercise routine into my schedule. The first week, I was so tired from the exercise that I slept in on both weekends. Then, I was not as productive on weekends either. Furthermore, I forgot to practice the piano for two days.
Benefits
It is convenient since I can exercise in my house. It is not my first time trying LES MILLS’s program. I used to go to their BODYATTACK, RPM, and BODYSTEP classes at a gym a long time ago. I loved their program, but the program was available only at GoodLife Fitness, where I lived. Since I was always traveling, it was challenging to attend some classes, such as BODYPUMP classes. I loved their BODYATTACK and RPA programs so much that I earned instruction certificates. I did not have time to teach the classes, but I could get instructor videos for the programs. When I realized that I can now do this program on demand, I was excited. It came with a 30-day trial period, but I have already known that I would enjoy their program. Now I can do their exercise program any time I want to.
Accessing a variety of exercises prevents us from becoming obese. Among nearly 1.7 million US adults, people regardless of their sexes who engaged both 150 minutes or more per week of aerobic physical activity and twice or more per week of muscle-strengthening exercise with different classes had the lowest incidence of obesity (Bennie et al., 2020, p. 332). When people engage in various activities, they tend to accumulate more minutes of total exercise time. It is recommended that you will need between 150 and 250 minutes per week of exercise to prevent weight gain, and you will need between 225 and 420 minutes per week of exercise to lose weight. Bennie et al. explain that Americans who exercise with two or more activities tend to do more than 150 minutes of exercise (p. 341). I had more than 400 minutes of training from all four weeks.
The class choreography is easy to understand. Instructors perform all routines as mirror images to the students so that attendants can follow the instruction easier. For example, an instructor performs left side steps and tells students to do a right sidestep.
Every class seems to contain squats. In addition to regular exercise, squats promote our body to lose body fat and gain lean body mass. For example, after observing 94 athletic adolescent boys, they found the group who did 100 reps per day of squats 45 sessions over eight weeks increased lean body mass by 2.7%and decreased body fat by 4.2% (Takai et al., 2013, p. 61).
Impact of my Total & Muscle Weight
I started caring more about my muscle weight than my total weight. I continue with my mindful eating. I gained 0.6 lb. of the total weight and 0.2 lb. of muscle mass during the first week because I ate more. I think I was hungrier because my body was going through sudden trauma from all the training. During the second week, I was more careful with my eating. I lost 1.4 lbs. I also lost 0.2lbs of muscle. During the third week, I made sure I ate enough protein and carbohydrates, and I lost 0.2lbs of the total weight while gaining 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. In the 4th week, I regained 0.2 lbs., but I also gained 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. I lost 1.0 lb. of total weight, but I gained 0.4 lbs. of muscles.
Losing fat without losing protein is more challenging than I initially thought. I may need to investigate how to eat appropriately to retrain my muscles.
The Next Action
From my 1-month experience, my approximate time of exercise was 5-6 x of 30- minutes of class. I must rest my body at least once a week. I will start with six days of exercise, but I may reduce it to 5 days.
Since I want to gain more muscle, I am considering more BODYPUMP classes per week. I will rotate BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, BODYSTEP, and ZUMBA on cardio days. In addition, I may continue 20 minutes of BODYFLOW before work because little stretches in the morning made me feel good.
I am considering implementing the following schedule for the next challenge.
| MON | TUE | WED | THR | FRI | SAT | SUN | |
| Class | Rest | BODYPUMP | Any cardio | BODYPUMP | Any cardio | BODYPUMP | BODYFLOW |
References
Bennie, J. A., Cocker, K. D., Pavey, T., Stamatakis, E., Biddle, S. J. H., & Ding, D. (2020). Muscle Strengthening, Aerobic Exercise, and Obesity: A Pooled Analysis of 1.7 Million US Adults. Obesity, 28(2), 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22673
Takai, Y., Fukunaga, Y., Fujita, E., Mori, H., Yoshimoto, T., Yamamoto, M., &Kanehisa, H. (2013). Effects of Body Mass-Based Squat Training in Adolescent Boys. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 12(1), 60–65.