Les Mills fitness

I have been exercising for years now.

I am a professional 37 year old female. I am a petite person who is slim and within the target weight range for my age and height. However, I wanted to work out for health reasons and also for toning.

During my college years, I lived in the Mid- Atlantic states along the east coast where I had to take public transportation and did a lot of walking. That along with a great metabolism, helped me maintain my weight.

After I moved to the south and began working a 9 to 5 job, it became much harder to get exercise into my daily routine.

I made a great effort to maintain a healthier life style about 5 years ago when I moved into my home. Before then I would only go to my apartment complex gym sporadically.

Within a year of buying my home, I bought a Norditrack elliptical in order to start back to working out.

I would spend anywhere between 30-45 minutes about 3 or 4 times a week on it. However, within a year I was starting to get bored with that.

So I started a walking routine using the 10,000 steps per day program. I bought a step counter and started walking in a local park that had a bike/walking path that was 10 minutes away from my home.

I did a mixture of elliptical programs and walking for about for about 6 months. However, even though I was exercising, I did not feel I was doing enough or had enough variety in my workouts because I was getting bored again.

A close friend of mine joined a local fitness club about 2 and ½ years ago. Within a matter of 2 days, she inspired me to try it out. So I signed up and started going with my friend.

Two and a half years later, I am still going. I LOVE IT!

In fact, I think I am actually addicted to working out.

I now get an adrenalin rush from it. I have finally found the exercise program that works for me and keeps me entertained and going to the gym.

My gym has the Les Mills 55 minute group exercise programs and I have tried all of them. The majority are cardio programs designed to get that heart weight going. Each program consist of an abdominal and upper body strengthening segment and lastly a cool down which consist of stretching your muscles.

My favorites are Body Combat (a martial arts based program) and Body Step (uses a step) and Body Attack (a sports based program). I also attend a Body Pump class which is a weight lifting class that focuses on the whole body. I now attend the gym 5 to 6 times a week (in the evenings right after work works best for me) and have no plans to stop.

I think the key is finding a program that is actually fun and something you can look forward to doing despite that it is “exercise”.

That is what keeps me going back week after week and making time to do it.