monthly sporty tryout - real high jumping jacks January

In light of my road to a fitter life and body, my significant other and I decided to try out a new sport every month. It's a perfect new year's resolution, my monthly sporty tryout combines trying something new with working out.

And this month we had a great start with a body bounz lesson in a massive hall filled with trampolines. Body bounz is a combination of bootcamp and aerobics all smashed into an hour and a half workout. And boy is it a work out!

The hall we went to is Bounz Amsterdam, in the West of Amsterdam, but they have multiple halls throughout the Netherlands. The place is, for a location in the big city, pretty much still in the middle of nowhere. But the atmosphere is great, studenty and low key. Immediately, as soon as you walk in, you cannot help but grin. And you will have a smile on your face for the rest of the night. 

The last time I was on a trampoline, I must have been 10 years old. I loved it then, and I love it now. Unfortunately the childlike fearless tricks have made place for a stiff, scared 30 year old. But jumping around and carefully trying tricks just lifts your spirit. And it's exhausting. I cannot remember it being this tiring at all. All your muscles ache; your entire leg and glutes, your core, your arms will feel like they are burning off and your shoulders have never had this much movement. Guaranteed!

I genuinely say, go try this out. Whether it is free jumping, most places offer to let you free jump (at a set time, like swimming laps in a pool) for an hour for a small fee, or a lesson in tricks, a bootcamp, go wild! Great for office parties too I would say. Who wouldn't want to see their colleagues filled with glee?

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a tryout lesson at Bounz is only EU5,00

free jumping on workdays is only EU6,50 and EU7,50 on weekends

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In the last week of February the new monthly sporty tryout!

The Run, The Kettle Bell and the Zero Waste Podcast

As mentioned in my previous post, I signed up for a running class to get me back to the 1 hour run. Because, I ain't there yet. I used to be, however, you know, after more than a half a year injury, it's been tough to get a solid foundation back. I have been able to get back to long distance running, but my pace is soooo low. And so I'm going back to basics.

The class is for people who are already able to run for half an hour, aka 5K. Which I got down, sort off. Basically I have 3 weeks to get comfortable in my 5K run. And if that is not motivation enough (who wants to be the loser not able to run 5K in the first week of class?), today left me some emotions to run out, hair to blow loose in the wind and stressful feelings to level out with some endorphin. Plus, as it is dark out when I get home after work, I get to bust out my shoe clip lamps.

While running I got to listen to an amazing podcast I just discovered, Jess Lively. I'm still catching up, but the podcast on zero waste lifestyle was mind blowing, eye opening and totally took my mind of my half hour run (can you imagine only having a mason jar of waste a year? A year! Yes, one whole year!). I was home before I knew it.

I finished off my short run with some weight training, using my kettle bell and a 10 minute kettle bell workout on YouTube. Got to love the internet. 

Vinyasa Yoga Tuesday

Tuesday, yoga day. I once started yoga during a yoga challenge (two years ago?! Time moves fast). I was suffering from a knee injury from running a half marathon and according to my physical therapist all my hip and leg joints were too short. And thus...yoga.

And although I am still not able to rest my leg in my thigh during the tree pose, I have seen progress. Stronger arms, from all the planks, straighter legs in all the warrior poses and more ambition to once be able to do a head stand. 

There are some great places to do yoga in Amsterdam, a lot of which I got to see during the yoga challenge two years ago, such as De Nieuwe Yoga School and the Yogagarden, but I love my little Sukha Yoga room on the Ceintuurbaan. Sukha's yoga room has beautiful high ceilings and the interior is always slightly different, which keeps you guessing where you can find the yoga blocks. I always love (small) surprises.

Not only is yoga great for posture and flexibility, but it really focuses on core strength, which is essential for a good long run.  

New, small goal, for 2016 finally getting that unobtainable head stand in my yoga portfolio. Especially after today's class, where legs were flying into the air all around me all the time. 

Getting Started

New year's eve was mindblowingly gorgeous. We were lucky enough to be invited to a house party with a balcony on the 12th floor overlooking the entire city of Amsterdam! The view was amazing, seeing all the firework being blown up into the air above the broad Amsterdam skyline really inspires  a person to learn from the past en look towards the future.

As we did spend too much time looking at the fireworks, lasting for over an hour, and drinking champagne, today was a little slow to get started. Quiet, still, with a hearty omelet du fromage breakfast.

But, no worries, the plan for fitness was started today. As I haven't run  as much as a mile in a while, I applied for a course of 12 weeks to get from a 30 minute run up to 1 hour at ZOEV, as the thought of having to run for an hour at a reasonable pace kind of freaks me out. The course starts January 25th, so I still have 3 weeks to get comfortable with 30 minutes.

And to add in a little fun, me and my sweat mate decided to try a new -and hopefully a little odd- sport every month, like trampoline jumping, circus workout, a bodytec session... Now off for a short walk, then a lovely non-running pasta party. Let's get this year started!