Yay for Yoga

I am beyond excited about my gym opening a Hot Yoga studio there this fall. I've been doing hot yoga on and off the past year thanks in part to the affordability of groupon/living social vouchers. Which unfortunately has lead to not practicing with any consistency, mostly because yoga is not cheap. Single classes can be about $20 per session (slightly less if you buy a package.) Most recently, my friend Lauren and I have been using a voucher we bought for a place in Ridgewood, but it's kind of a hassle to get to, at least 20 minutes each way, parking is difficult, the classes can be quite crowded and there is no shower there (which is crazy right?). Even with all that I still love going to the classes. But now I will have a much more convenient option, right at my local gym!

I can't wait to finally be able to practice yoga on a regular basis. They posted the information for the types of classes they're going to offer and they all sound great, a nice mix. I'm excited to try each of the classes, they will offer the Bikram yoga which is heated to 105 to restorative yoga classes. I hope they're as good in person as they are on paper. Plus I am looking forward to going to classes on the nights I don't take step (Tuesday/Thursday). And they will have weekend classes as well that are early!

I went to a hota yoga class this weekend and I felt like a totally different person afterwards. Hot Yoga is such a great workout both mentally and physically. Plus you sweat your butt off, I went on the scale once before and after class, I had lost 2 pounds worth of sweat in the one class alone. It is ridiculous how much you sweat in class, but it feels so good. It's amazing to think of all the health benefits associated with practicing yoga, I've seen articles that talk about the benefits from lowering blood pressure to calming the mind and helping with anxiety and depression. I know yoga has helped me feel so much better when I am having a bad day and helps clear your mind and put you in a better mood. I can't to improve my flexibility and stamina. Less than a month till the studio opens, and I am already signed up and ready to go!

I Did It

I'm way behind on writing this post but I still wanted to acknowledge it. I taught my first real, paid, step class. Well now I've done it more 4 times actually, but when I was starting this post it was to commemorate my first real class. The day of my first class I was such a ball of nervous energy that entire afternoon. Lauren had asked me to cover for her. I was so nervous trying to make sure that I knew my whole routine, I was trying to learn some new songs as well.

Even when I got to the gym (quite early I might add) I was still all kinds of wound up. I think it came out on my first song, which was a new song I was trying to learn because I totally messed it up, I lost my spot and couldn't recover. Once I got past that and moved onto track two which I know really well it was much better from there. I built up my confidence and got past it. I was so happy when I made it to the of track 8 which is the cardio portion of the class, I literally said "we made it." That was a huge relief, aside from that first track I had made it through successfully and given a full class to actual members.

Since then I've now taught 4 full classes and team taught with Lauren a couple of times. As it turns out that first class lead to me teaching the next 4 consecutive classes. I taught the first two using the release I got trained on and then the second two using the April release and I even learned a couple new tracks to substitute as well. Aside from that very first song the rest of the classes went really well and I got less nervous each time I taught. Plus I learned even if I mess up but I don't let on no one else will notice which has given me more confidence and worry less about messing up.

The other instructor that teaches on Tuesday nights actually wound up tearing her ACL!!! Which is really bad news for her but it does work out for me that now I am getting to help teach her class while she is out for the next 6 months which will really help me get experience. Lauren and I have been team teaching and rotating her class. Plus this week will be launching the new July program which I'm really excited about! No matter what it has been a good experience teaching the classes, it is a lot of work and a lot of pressure to keep learning more songs but it has helped me get into really good shape and lose the extra pounds I had put on which makes me really happy. I'm def proud of myself for doing this and I look forward to getting better at it and continuing with it in the future. And hey I've already worked off the first $100 of my $700 that I paid to get certified, I'm on my way, and you def can't put a price on fitness.

Since my mom wasn't there to take a picture of me on my first class, I made Mike take a picture of me before I left for the gym on that first day. Here I am in my orange sneakers and my bright orange shirt. Orange is the official program color for BTS Group Step classes!

Best Not to do Math....

Since the gym officially hired me, contingent on me completing CPR training, next Thursday I will be teaching my first real-paid step class! I'm pretty excited about it, I just hope it goes well but I figure it has to be better than when I had to do the video assessment since there was a lot more being critiqued but I'm sure the members will critique me as well.

Mike has pointed out that I have some expensive hobbies/interests. I'm not going to lie, he's def right on that one. I had mentioned at one point in casual conversation how expensive this little endeavor has worked out to be, and he overheard and couldn't believe it, but it added up pretty quickly. To get myself certified it has cost almost $700, and I wouldn't be surprised if I underestimated this figure either. It has quickly added up, here's how the costs broke down so far:

Training -                                         $199
Lodging/Food/Transportation -     $325
Microphone Tune Belt -                  $15
Video Assessment Fee -                   $35
Tapes for Video Camera -                $28
CPR Certification -                           $75
Grand Total (so far) -                       $675!!!

At earning only $25 a class, it will take me approximately 27 classes (which doesn't factor in taxes either). If I was fortunate enough to even teach one class a week (which won't actually happen for a while mostly likely) It would take me almost 7 months to just break even. I better not tell Mike that figure either, but if I did teach consistently for that period anything beyond that would be extra in my pocket, although not much, but still something.

It's not like I went into this for the money, by any means. I really and truly enjoy my step classes. It has certainly helped contribute to me living a healthy life, and it didn't hurt that getting certified helped me to lose weight this year as well. I am optimistic that if I get good at it and the members like my class, maybe there is the potential they will put the Sunday step class back on the schedule that they took off literally the week that I went for the training and then maybe it could be my class to teach. I am also scheduled to teach a second class later this month as well, so thats 2 classes right there, working down to only 25 more classes to go till I break even.... In any case I'm looking forward to teaching my first two classes soon, here goes nothing!!!

Officially Certified

 It wound up being a good thing that I taped my step class for my assessment so early. Getting it done and out of the way turned out to be only half the battle. It wound it taking me almost another whole month to get my video tape converted to dvd format so I could send in my submission for evaluation. That was a whole other long story, my tape made its way around in an attempt to get it converted. It turned out the guy that was able to convert it for me is one of my neighbors, he literally lives about 10 houses down from us and I never knew, small world. Anyway, once I had the dvd I could finally send it in, I only had less than a week before it was due to get it in to meet the deadline (3 months from when you take the training).

I happily took the dvd to the post office on Monday at lunch time and dropped it in the mail. I was happy enough when they sent a confirmation email on Wednesday saying they'd already received the dvd and it would be 4-6 weeks before I heard anything back. Needless to say I was shocked when I got an email the very next day stating that I passed the assessment! I am now officially a BTS Certified Group Step Instructor :-) 

My assessment wasn't perfect by any means. There are a total of 10 tracks (songs) that are pre-choreographed that you have to teach. For the assessment you have to pass 7 out of the 10 tracks. I just made it, I wound up failing 3 of the tracks, but in the end it doesn't matter. I know I am hard on myself and of course I would have liked to have passed all of them but realistically I realize that it was my first class I taught ever and I still think I did pretty well. Now I can focus on getting better at teaching now that the hardest part is behind me with the assessment. And I finally have an interview at the gym tomorrow night so they can officially hire me and I can hopefully get paid to teach as well, since this was quite an expensive endeavor. Anyway I'm looking forward to teaching my own Group Step class soon!