Stepping out of the comfort zone

As many of you know, Genine goes to Yoga, Kickboxing and IntenSati each week with our instructor/friend Tiffany. She has a great time with it. I've considered going many times but it's tough to make it fit the schedule. My train doesn't get me home in time for Kickboxing Wednesday night. IntenSati is on Saturday mornings and for the longest time that was when Todd and I would run. Also weekends are also when I usually do at least 2 workouts already. Then of course there is the fact I just haven't taken group fitness classes. Also intensati doesn't include swimming, biking or running, would I even be coordinated enough to do this?

Genine and Tiffany were going to Equinox in Manhattan Friday night to attend a special IntenSati event. Workout schedule wise for me, I had been planning to take Saturday off before the Sunday race. Tiffany had offered a ticket for me to go. I had to decide if I wanted to go to an 80 person workout with the Inventor of IntenSati, whom Genine thinks is just fantastic. I decided to give it a shot.

I had teased Tiffany that I was going to show up wearing a T-shirt ripped 80's style, leg warmers with matching headband and wristbands. This was not a joke being made about the workout I was about to do. I knew going in that there was a very good chance I was going to be hurting the next day.
The studio filled up. It was going to be tight. Patricia first talked about what inspired her to write the workout we were about to do. She explains where she is/was and how she had to work on removing certain fears from her subconscious in order to become the person she wanted/needed to be. Then we began the workout.
The music starts rockin and she shows us the first couple moves that we are going to do. Once we started moving we didn't stop for 75 minutes. What started as a 2 moves she continually added to until we had 19 different moves we were doing. Everyone was into it. Nobody was slacking. There were people that had to take breaks but you could tell that everyone there was giving it 100% and in some cases more. (seriously)
The other day I joked about the splash zone at yoga. It would seem I posted that joke too soon. As I had said the room was packed, I eventually became the splash zone I joked about. Maybe the headband and wristbands would have been a good idea after all.

This video gives you an idea of what the workout is like.

After the class, Patricia invited people up to the mic if they had anything they wanted to share with the class. The first woman to speak told of how she wanted to meet the man she would marry and be engaged within the year. Which was going to be quite difficult seeing how she hardly ever dated anyone her entire life. She credited Patricia/Intensati and gave an assist to Lou Gramm of Foreigner with her success. (She would rock out to "I want to know what love is"). I suppose to some of you reading this, that sounds pretty cheesy. Yet if you think about it, it really isn't at all. During the intensati workout, Patricia asks you to think about what you want in your life, then tells you to focus on it, and is building your confidence in yourself and your ability to succeed. At the very least, during that workout is an hour a week where you are thinking about yourself and who you want to be. I couldn't help but think of how it's the exact opposite of why many people go to workout. There are many people that go to workout because it is an escape. Perhaps they are putting off something they don't want to do or just gets them away from a situation they don't want to be in. While they are training they are in a zone and free from those problems for a short time. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with doing that. I'm just saying that I see how intensati is much more than a physical workout.

I learned a few other things as well. I found out that Genine knows how to throw a punch whereas me? Well not so much. Maybe it's just because Genine was rocking those sequences and I knew I wasn't matching her intensity. Genine always tells me her definition in her back and arms is because of the punches during her workouts. Now I see why.

I also expected this class would show me where some of my weaknesses are. Much in the same way yoga does for me except this is kinetic rather than static. Sure enough here I am the next morning and how am I sore? Glutes and Hamstrings, nothing new there. The class definitely would be good cross training for me for those two things alone. Doing 100's of squats and lunges during this class would be more enjoyable than standing in the basement doing 100's of squats and lunges. (which is why I don't ever seem to get around to doing them at all)

So the barrier has been broken. I've taken IntenSati. Tiffany may have to come to class prepared to mark off a splash zone for me from time to time. I'll be sure to take some punching lessons from Genine before I go. ;-)