Freestyle Aerobics in Hong Kong

I've been searching all over the internet for freestyle classes in Hong Kong. There seem to be plenty over there. What intrigues me is the names they give their classes.

Here in Melbourne, we're simply happy to call our Step Aerobics classes by one of several, fairly straightforward and self-explanatory names - Step (intermediate), Step Basic, and for the more advanced or those who like more full on choreography, Step Moves. Every now and then you might even still see Step Athletic which is like Step Basic, but traditionally guarantees lots of high intensity, high impact-style moves for those really focussed on high-caloric expenditure.

As for the names they use in Hong Kong...

• not Step Basic, but Step 101
• not Step, but 1 Step Up
• not Step Moves, but Steptacular
• and finally, the fourth level, super-choreographed is Freaky Step
• oh, they also have Duo Step
  

The names for hilo classes are just as outrageous, being, from beginners' to advanced - Aerobics 101, In Between Hi & Lo (or as James put it... does that mean medium??), Sweat Shop, Cardio Groove...

Whilst, yes, granted, the class names are highly creative, I wonder how effective that is in getting people in to the classes themselves? If it weren't for me looking up the list of names online I would not have realised that they classify everything into one of four levels of difficulty, and really they are all just the same class type but at differing levels.

The thing that annoys me most though is not the variety of un-exaplainable names, but that they appear to boast such a HUGE variety of classes and yet don't offer everything on their list on the timetable.

Clever marketing or just someone with too much time on their hands? I dunno, maybe it's some sort of cultural thing - let people THINK they're able to do many different types of classes cos each one has a different name, let them FEEL they're really smart and capable and all that, and they'll keep coming back.

Me... I think I still prefer the K.I.S.S. principle.

Bodypump release 68 is on it's way!

This time next week is the final quarterly Les Mills superworkshop day for 2008.
I'm looking forward to my first ever superworkshop! Yay, yay, yay!

On the menu for me next Sunday:-

09:30-10:30
Teaching a Hilo class (covering for another instructor)

11:00 - 12:00
Attending Joyce's freestyle Step class at Monash Uni Sports, Clayton

12:00 - 14:00
Hanging out and lunching with some awesome Pumpers!

14:00 - 15:30
Bodypump masterclass and technique workshop!!

15:45 - 17:15
Bodystep masterclass ... I'm not a Bstep instructor but they let Les Mills instructors attend any other workshops they want to provided there are places available after preference has been given to actual instructors of the program

17:30 - 19:00
Still undecided as to whether I'll stick around for the Bodybalance masterclass too.

What a massive day. It's gonna be a blast! Woo hoo.

More Exercise than I Need?

I taught 5 aerobics classes on Tuesday. Before I became an instructor I was doing well if I could manage 5 classes in a week! Yes they were all classes I did myself too, i.e. no circuit classes or anything.

Some sort of cold or flu is going around hitting aerobics instructors thoughout Melbourne. Ok I am sure it's also hitting others too but you notice it when it's aerobics instructors. Most of you who have office/desk jobs can take a sickie or holiday without needing to find someone else to do your job for the day. Not us. So despite not being sick myself I felt the effects of that sickness.

Then somehow I caught it myself and was out on Wednesday! I was already feeling it coming on by mid-Tuesday, but it was too late to find someone else to cover my classes so I just went ahead, did them anyway but thankfully had enough time to cancel my commitments for Wednesday.

Thankfully it didn't end up being too bad.

Haha... I know, I haven't been bloggin much lately (I still don't have internet at home!) and now my entries are sounding like excerpts from a diary rather than fitness tips. I guess what I am trying to say, or what I'm really thinking, is that when you all tell me that I'm so lucky cos I have a job that keeps me fit, well, at times I look at you and feel you're luck for having a job that doesn't make your knees sore and creaky or threaten to give you plantar fasciitis.

But then I still love my job more than yours, which is why I am doing my job and not yours!

P.S. by the end of this week I'll have a tally of 14 classes. I know an instructor who taught 25 per week at her peak... HOW THE HECK DID SHE DO THAT? :o)

A Saturday in the life of an Aerobics Instructor

It's Saturday morning. This weekend, a lot of other instructors are at the Mini Master Blaster. In laymen's terms, a conference full of workshops and therefore new ideas for us to subject our participants to. I'm not going this year. Just returned from a holiday in Sydney a couple of weeks ago so could do with the extra cash that I'll get this weekend doing a couple of extra classes by filling in for other instructors at the conference.

What a busy morning.

07:30 - Woke up, got ready for the day. Ate lots of breakfast, will be burning a lot of energy today.
08:20 - Hopped in the car, drove to my first class of the day.
09:00 - 60 minute Step & Body Strength class.
10:10 - Quickly hopped in to car, running a little late, rushing to the next class.
10:40 - Arrived barely in time for second class. 60 minute Hilo class.
11:40 - Chatted to a couple of participants after the class.
11:45 - Hopped into car to rush to next class.
12:00 - 60 minute Beginner Aerobics class. Third and final class of the day. Whew.

Calories burned for the three classes combined: 1600+

Life is not usually as hectic as that for me, but it was fun for today. Don't think I could do it every week though, that would drive me nutty.

Step Routines

I know this will make no sense to anyone else except for me and possibly some other instructors who might be able to decipher my language, but I just absolutely love my new step routines and had to publicly declare them somewhere.

Both routines total 32 counts and change legs ready to repeat on the other leg for a second set of 32.

Routine #1:

• Reverse Straddle = 4 counts
• Switch Curl = 4 counts
• Chasse (around the step) x 2 = 4 counts
• Gallop Straddle = 4 counts
• Stomp Chasse x 2 (stomp on step first time, stomp on floor second time) = 8 counts
• Rock Back = 4 counts
• Single Knee = 4 counts

Routine #2:

• Stomp + Pivot turn = 4 counts
• Leap (sideways across step) = 4 counts
• Samba over Step = 6 counts (referred to by some as 2 x Quick Steps)
• Pivot = 2 counts
• Gallop Straddle = 4 counts
• Single Kick = 4 counts
• Side Tap Forwards = 4 counts
• Hop over Step = 2 counts
• Skip (like a Chasse on the Spot) = 2 counts

Instead of the Hop & Skip at the end you could choose instead just to do a normal "Over the Top" for 4 counts.

I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!
I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!
I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!
I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!
I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!
I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP! I LOVE STEP!

What does this Aerobics Instructor do in her free time?

She practises her routines for the next few classes she's teaching in her living room, wearing pyjamas and a pair of Crocs (because practising barefoot, even on carpet, hurts more than wearing some sort of footwear).

And she avoids Ab exercises at all costs.

Step Aerobics

I'm very excited this afternoon. Tonight I'm teaching a Step Class for the first time in a little while. It's an intermediate to advance class, so I finally get to re-showcase some routines I wrote back in March when I covered another instructor's Step class on Easter Saturday. I haven't had the opportunity to do those routine since, because the only other time I teach Step is on a Thursday morning for 20 minutes - not really long enough for me to delve into my beloved routines.

I love Step aerobics. I love it way more than Hilo. I mean, I do really like Hilo... but I absolutely LOVE Step. I can't wait until I get to regularly teach a full Step class of my own every week.

You get such a great workout whilst minimising the impact on your joints. You work up a sweat easily because for the entire class you have to step on and off a Step. For Hilo, I find I have to consciously work harder to try and get the same level of sweat factor.

Step absolutely rocks! If you've never tried it before and are considering it, do give it a go! But make sure you go to a class with a good instructor - in the world of freestyle aerobics, this makes a HUGE difference between whether you enjoy a class or not, whether it be Step, Hilo, THT, or any combination of these and other styles of classes.

My First THT Class

Just to explain up front - THT stands for Tummies, Hips and Thighs. A popular one amongst the ladies... but remember, girls, you can't spot reduce! If you have no idea what I'm talking about I'll explain that one in another post ~ just remind me!

Tonight was fun. It wasn't the most challenging class I've ever delivered, but that was to be expected, as I had already explain to my participants that it would take a few weeks for me to get to know them and cater the class more to them.

Half the class - basic Hilo stuff. Anyone out there wanting to learn how to do aerobics, this would be a good class to get you started as I'm sticking to pretty basic choreography for a few weeks to get the newbies into it.

The other half - lots of sweat, ab crunches, butt crunches, and more. Fun stuff. Love it. Didn't used to, but somewhere along the line I learnt to.

Anyway my reason for writing this has nothing to do with describing my class and everything to do with what happened after. I left my CDs in the studio! Anyone who is a fellow instructor knows what a disaster this is. And it wasn't just the typical, "oops, I left one CD in the CD player", I left my entire folder of 18 CDs, $350+ worth just sitting on top of the stereo! How silly of me. James told me tonight at least I'll never do that again... I have my doubts.

I discovered this about 10 minutes before the gym's closing time, frantically called them, threw on a jacket and raced out to get my precious CDs, arriving within minutes of closing time. Knowing they were closing soon I didn't even get changed so there I was, my first night on the job rocking up to reception in pyjamas, a jacket and crocs.

At least I happened to have my nice pyjama pants on tonight.

A New Career for A New Year

Thanks for those comments, Devi, Lowell, Athel, May and Chandre. Apologies if I missed anyone. I promise it wasn't just a cheap ploy to get comments, unlike my previous attempts. I forget though that sites like Multiply are good for letting people know you've actually written a post despite 6 months' silence.

Anyway I don't really know how to write this next post without it being really long so here it is in point form. If you have any further questions, you can comment, or message or email me, and we'll go from there. But who knows, a succinct series of bullet points may just about answer all your questions.

**I'm not longer working for Donna. I stopped about a month ago. I'm not exactly changing careers, in the sense that I'm still working in the fitness industry. But rather than being a personal trainer full time I want to split my working hours between personal training and aerobics instructing.

**I'm not currently working full time. In fact I seem to be playing a combination of house wife and aerobics instructor whilst I work on re-building a new client base on the personal training side of things.

**I've been teaching on average about 5 aerobics classes per week - which is more than enough for me right now. Mainly because my feet can't really take much more at this point ... I'm waiting for the blisters on the balls of my feet to turn into calluses. That's when I'll truly know that I have tough (and slightly ugly) feet. haha.

**For anyone who might be interested in coming along to one of my classes, my weekly regular classes are:

1. Tri 20, 10am Thursdays at Bennettswood Fitness - a combination of hilo aerobics, step aerobics and upper body exercises using hand weights
2. THT (Tummies, Hips & Thighs), 7pm Tuesdays at Aqualink Nunawading
3. Coming soon... Aerobics, 6pm Wednesdays at Deakin Uni YMCA - for all students out there this is a 6 week class starting April 9th.

My days as a personal trainer are, however, far from over. More will be revealed. I must admit though that teaching aerobics is such a refreshing change.

A commonly believed myth by many is that it is easy for personal trainers to stay in shape because we are around exercise all the time. This is FALSE. Like any job it can be easy to get so busy working that you don't set aside time to look after your own health. In case you haven't noticed, most personal trainers spend their days prescribing exercise and then supervising their clients ~ we don't exercise all day long with them!

Aerobics instructor world is, however, a completely different ball game. A personal trainer can work for 40 hours per week and not necessarily do much exercise, albeit the job is more active than a typical desk job. However if an aerobics instructor works for 20 hours a week, you can safely bet that he or she exercises that many hours too!

So a combination of the two will work nicely for me. I will no longer have to go to the gym or for a run just for the sake of getting some exercise. In fact, I find I work harder in a class that I teach myself compared to one that I participate in, because I'm setting the example. Fun stuff! I know, for some of you readers it would probably be your idea of hell on earth.

Group Fitness Instruction

Today, I faxed my enrollment for the Group Fitness Instructor part of my course, which is the final stage of my learning.

However I was disappointed to learn that there is a possibility the course will not go ahead because there are not enough people enrolled for the course at this point in time. There are still 3 weeks to go before the course is schedule to begin, so maybe there will be a bunch of last minute enrollments.

I really hope so!!!

I am just so disappointed. The reason for the growing lack of interest in this course is due to recent changes in the industry, in particular the growth in popularity of Les Mills classes. Les Mills is a company that pre-choreographs group fitness classes to pre-determined music tracks and sells the music with accompanying choreography to group fitness instructors. This means that in this day and age, the average group fitness instructor no longer needs to employ his/her personal skills and creativity to choreograph a unique class. Instead, ANYONE can teach the class if they buy the instruction manual and matching music tracks.

If you have been to any class labeled BODY-something (e.g. BODYpump or BODYstep) you have been to a Les Mills class. I have been to BODYpump classes and I do think they are great. But in the end, it is mass-produced fitness that does not involve individual and unique creativity.

Pros: an average or even not-very-good group fitness instructor can take one of these programs, teach a class and be great at it. I guess the level of choreography in every class becomes more standardized because someone else out there is doing all the choreography for everyone. You're much less likely to go to a "bad" class.

Cons: less individuality (e.g. I have favourite instructors who have their own style of choreography and teaching - if these instructors had limited themselves to Les Mills I would never have experienced their wonderful creativity in one of their classes).

I guess it's like the difference between James and I at a restaurant. James will try new things, but he is more likely to find his favourites on the menu and stick to them most visits. I, on the other hand, will always want to try new menu items. Sometimes I will get a complete dud of a meal, but when I stumble across that never-to-be-forgotten dish, it makes all the duds well worth finding that delectable gem.

In my opinion, pre-choreographed classes are mass-produced fitness. They are the convenience of this day and age - convenience for instructors who want great results (an excellently choreographed class) without putting in the study and preparation required to create their own classes.

It disappoints me, because I feel it makes it more difficult to distinguish truly excellent instructors from the "good" or the "average". Yes, at the end of the day, group fitness instruction is a job for many - a way to put food on the table. But it can also be so much more than that!

Finding your exercise love

I headed to the gym this morning for a Cross-Trainer aerobics class. For the first time since October, I felt excited to be going to the gym for a workout.

That's when I re-discovered my love for aerobics. Yes, I am starting to enjoy running, largely due to the fact that I am now able to start and more importantly finish a run. However, the prospect of a run does not excite me anywhere near as much as the prospect of going to an aerobics class.

For the last few weeks I have been thinking and re-thinking through whether I should become a Group Fitness Instructor in addition to Personal Training, or just do Personal Training only. There are various arguments to support both options. Today I realised that if I love aerobics so much, I will probably love teaching it, especially because I am presented with the unique opportunity to be the very sort of instructor that I love.

In my entire aerobics-class-attending-career (this being my 8th year) I have come across five instructors - Chris, Rachelle, Carol, Jenelle & Cheryl - that I think are outstanding, in each her own way. I want to be a combination of all of them ~ excellent choreography combined with an amazing ability to teach, combined with the ability to challenge, inspire, and push (!) people to work hard during a class.

For all those of you who have made New Years Resolutions to exercise more, a word of advice: find something that works for YOU. Yes, you do need discipline to maintain an exercise routine, but you will find it so much easier to achieve if you ENJOY what you are doing! I first discovered aerobics in 2000, and ever since then have gradually moved onwards and upwards in my fitness levels and subsequently my personal goals in this area of my life.

Had I not discovered this love, I might never have started the journey. If you want to start your journey, start by finding out for yourself what you love (or could love) to do. Experiment! Try something new! Don't allow yourself to be intimidated. I could barely keep up with the instructors commands in my first aerobics class... and that was a beginner's level class. But I enjoyed myself, kept going, got better, and loved it the more I did it. Did you know that there are new types of fitness classes being invented every year? So don't be afraid to think out of the box. Or you can ask me for ideas!

Running regularly helps me to maintain my fitness and train myself to be disciplined, because it's something I find difficult to do. But aerobics is what keeps me passionate about exercise in general. In this day and age, our sedentary lifestyles mean that it is not an option for us to not be active. So find your niche, your passion, your love... and do it!

Health & Fitness workshop

Last night at my church's youth group I conducted a health and fitness workshop. I have been excited about doing this workshop ~ it was a small opportunity for me to give some input into these young peoples' lives.

When I was a teenager, "fitness" was very daunting to me. It was more of a burden than an enjoyment, and "being fit" was something I felt I couldn't achieve... so I didn't try. Because of my own experience growing up, the main message I wanted to get across to the youth last night is the same message I want to get across to everyone: we each have a personal responsibility to maintain our health and fitness. As a Christian, we do so to honour God, and as human beings in general, we do it for the sake of our families and ourselves. But it doesn't have to be boring or difficult or scary ~ it can be fun, and anyone can do it. If you've never started a fitness or exercise program before, you just have to start somewhere, start small, and gradually build up your stamina.

My favourite part of course was the practical stuff. We started with some aerobics, and whilst the boys were initially unimpressed or surprised by this idea, they did us all proud!

Unfortunately a lot of the pictures came out quite blurry because of all the jumping and running around we were doing, but I managed to find a few good pics.

Leg squats:

Lunges:

Everyone's favourite ~ sit-ups! :

And finally, here they are - the toughest youth in all of Melbourne!

They did such an awesome job, and did me proud!

P.S. More photos are available at my Picasa web album.