Feel the burn!

Although yesterday was a holiday I stuck to my resolve of following the six week fitness plan for Carnival. In the afternoon the hubby and I made our way to the University of the West Indies (UWI) campus to start walking, the first phase of aerobic activity. Let me tell you, in addition to our walk/jog around the campus we also ran up and down the stairs and finished with a sprint which leaves my legs feeling quite sore this morning! I prefer to do brisk walking but hubby likes to run so we mixed it, alternating running and walking around campus

The work out was difficult for me only because I suffer with itchy leg syndrome when starting any type of running or walking. It never happens when I am in the gym using the machines such as the bike or treadmill, but once I am walking or running outside my legs start to itch like mad after a few minutes. Don’t laugh, it is a documented phenomenon and there are several explanations for why it happens. One is that it is an allergic reaction to exercise (though I don’t think this is the case with me) another theory states:

The itching is not on the skin, it's inside the actual limbs. There are millions of tiny capillaries and arteries inside our muscles which expand rapidly due to the demand for more blood that is brought on by exercise. When fit, these capillaries remain open allowing maximum blood passage, but when unfit and inactive they tend to collapse, allowing only minimal blood passage (which is sufficient for a sedentary person however). The rapid expansion of these vessels causes adjacent nerves to send impulses back to the brain which are interpreted as an itch. That's why after a few sessions the sensation tends to go away.

So basically the itching is a sign that I have lapsed on my workout and it will cease once I do some more walking. I read on another forum that a personal trainer said it is a sign of burning fat! The strange thing with me is that it never happens when I do aerobics in the gym, only with walking or running outside.

Anyway, I suffered through the itching and managed to finish my walk/jog and returned home pumped up to face the “beast”. Unknown to me my husband has a variety of fitness machines that were stashed by my mom in storage so yesterday we freed them from their state of inertia!

The Beast


It looks simple enough but try doing abdominal work on that baby and you feel the burn! I did three sets of 8, each set consisted of sit ups, leg lifts and crunches. After which the sweat was bucketing out every pore on my body. After that I attempted to use this rolling machine that my hubby uses to do some more abs but that was very difficult, and I only managed a few attempts of trying to make it all the way down and back up on the roller. I finished up the workout with some leg and upper body work using this thigh machine we have that can be used for either part of the body.

I did not even get around to using my Pilates DVD , maybe I will try that today though my legs are sore as hell! But I am really happy I started back exercising after my gross lapse over the holiday season! No more excuses for me not feeling like hitting the gym or that it is raining (though I have to start back the gym next week for weight training per the fitness plan), I got my ass out the house and started working out even though I could have found a million reasons not to; it was a holiday, I have the flu, it’s that time of the month, I overlooked them all and saw only my goal at the end of six weeks… FIRE for them in Fireman!

Fire Bam Bam!