Do it yourself: Body Pump

I love Body Pump classes. You might recall the ones from my recent gym visit and I also took them at the YMCA last year.

Body Pump is literally a full body workout! In other words, you are isolating one muscle group at a time for an entire song.

I haven’t joined a gym yet but I figured while I keep thinking about it, I could try to do a Body Pump workout on my own. I had the necessary tools:

• Body bars (not the same as the barbells but it’ll do) – 9 lbs and 12 lbs
• iPod with Lady Gaga, No Doubt, Pink, etc.
• An hour to kill

Basically with each song, I started out slow, doing the exercise up for 2, down for 2. During the “bridge” of the song, I changed from 3:1, and then during the chorus, I did single counts.

This is similar to what you would see in a Body Pump class. I tried to recall the sequence of exercises as best I could and included the songs that I specifically remember (next time I’m write it down).

• Chest – Chest presses using 9 lb bar (Kevin Rudolf, “Let it Rock”)
• Squats – Regular squats using 12 lb bar on shoulders (Lady Gaga, “Just Dance”)
• Back & shoulders – dead lift, bent over row, and clean & press
• Lunges – Used bar for stability, alternated legs (Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”)
• Biceps – Bicep curls using 9 lb bar, my arms were on fire! (No Doubt, “Spiderwebs”)
• Abs – Regular crunches, bicycles, and reverse crunches
• Triceps – Tricep bench presses (aka don’t hit yourself in the forehead!), Close-grip bench press (all lying on bench) 9 lb bar
• Abs – Side crunches, Straight leg toe reach, regular crunches
• Side bends – Using 10 lb dumbbells (Pink, “So What”)
• Stretching (Rhianna, “Disturbia”)

It was so much fun to try and recreate Body Pump on my own. Of course, the class dynamic is more fun and having an instructor always helps. But it’s good to know I can sort of do it on my own if I get the urge!

I was feeling it at the end and right now my arms are tired and my quads ache a bit, so I definitely gave my body a workout today

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