Class #79/80 Step/Core Crunch Tuesday 8:30 a.m. (Lisa C.)

This is my second run-through of the wonderful anomaly on our schedule where we offer two classes for the “price” of one (see blogs 18/19 for the first go-round). On Tuesday/Thursday mornings we have an hour-long Step class followed by a 15-minute class called Core Crunch. Some people use the Core Crunch as a warm up for the Sculpt class that follows and some as an add-on to the Step class, which precedes it. The point is that in an hour and 15 minutes I get to count two classes toward my goal of 110 and this is good news for me.

The Step class is actually listed as “Step Basic”, which means that the choreography is easier to grasp than, say, Ronnie Stone’s class. The thing is most of the students here today are veteran steppers so the teacher, Lisa Cooper can challenge them with more difficult steps. By the way, I’m not including myself as a veteran – with six Step classes under my belt, I’m still a stone cold rookie. Still, I can follow along with about 80% of what Lisa’s doing.

Lisa Cooper

I should correct my 80% number by admitting that’s only for the leg portion of the show. There are accompanying arm movements for all Step routines and I only get maybe 40% of those. On many occasions I don’t even attempt the arms because they only make me lose track of what my feet are supposed to be doing. As far as I’m concerned, mastering the arm pattern while doing, say, an “L” step is akin to rubbing the belly while patting the head – it probably can be done – just not necessarily by me.

Step is a good hard workout and it’s wearing me out today. There are quite a few moves that are semi-high impact – where we jump hard but land relatively softly on the raised platform. In that way, it’s a good way to get in jump training without the pounding on the joints that normally would occur. In the 50 minutes between start and stretching I burn 400 calories with an average heart rate of 113 and a max rate of 135.

In Core Crunch we use the Swiss Balls to do crunches, criss-crosses (obliques) and lower abs by doing a jackknife. (See pic below). Lisa also has us do a long hard series of plank, elbow plank and side plank with no rest between any of it. At the end, my core has indeed been crunched and I’m ready for some R & R.

Lower Ab work (jackknife)

There are about 20 in the Step class and with some turnover around 18 for the Core Crunch. It’s mostly women in each class but there are at least 3 guys. The $25 gift certificate goes to Tory Young.

That’s 80 down and 30 to go. If you’re bored or can’t sleep tomorrow come join me at 5:45 a.m. to do CardioSculpt with Kris Mougeot and friends.