Pump Class - Weight Toning

by Leona Gibbs
(Victoria, Australia)

Over the last few weeks I’ve been attending a fitness class at my local gym. It’s called a Pump Class, 30 - 40 people doing strength training to music.

As a 27 year old I haven’t done much fitness training before. I’ve been unsatisfied about my weight. I’d like to lose a few kilos and thought that this class would be a good way to tone up and boost my metabolism.

The sessions go for an hour and include about 7 tracks during the session. The instructor takes us through the workout.

The group starts with a warm up track where we start with a medium weight and do exercises like upward rows and clean and presses at various speeds.

The first set might be down slowly for three beats then up in one beat, then the second set two beats down and up. Each of the sets follow the music and go for the length of a song.

Other training in the session include a biceps track, a triceps track, back and chest track, squats and lunges track, a situps, pushups and laterals track and finish with a cool down/stretch track.

I have had a few different trainers for this session as I’ve gone at different times of the day. They are great in helping you work out what weights to use for each track depending on your current level, suggesting to go up a third or down by half to get set.

During the workout they have the microphones on to help guide you through the changes and push you to try harder.

After each session I feel really tired and sore in some places. From the lunges and squats I can really feel my thighs hurting and my abs hurt as we focus a lot on keeping the core muscles active through each track.

After a few weeks I still find it hard to get to the end of the lunges and can’t do many push ups at all.

I find the stretches at the end of the session very relaxing and have started using them after other activities like running or riding.

After each workout I drink 30 grams of protein in 250ml of milk to help the muscles heal and grow.

I recommend this kind of workout to others as it is very easy to stay focused, enjoyable to do to music and takes place in a set time frame. This kind of workout is fantastic for everyone as the extra muscle toning helps to use more energy and thus burn more fat.

Women should not be afraid to do weight training as they tone rather than bulk. Also the low weights/high reps will tone muscles rather than bulk them up.

The hardest thing is making sure that you get to the gym on time and fit it into a busy weekly schedule.

Leona

Note from Dr. Dan

Leona,

You make some good points. Women can benefit greatly from weight training.

And joining a gym can be a great motivator. Once you're there you have all the other people and the trainers to help inspire you.

Recent research has shown that the need for exercise is much higher than was previously thought. Thirty minutes 3 times per week is no where near enough. An hour every day is more like it.

Dr. Dan