Wheeler Weekend Warriors - Three and Out

One weekend, Lisa got an idea. Lisa got a wonderful, awful idea.

Lisa doesn’t have a lot of free time, but with what time she has, she scours ClassPass for ways to kill us.

Her idea is quite reasonable, on the face of it. She figured we’d start by working our large muscles in one class, and smaller muscles in the next. We’d finish off at Bash on Sunday. She sent ClassPass invitations to John, Mendy, and me.

A note about ClassPass: I got the invitation to the Sunday class, and then the second Saturday class. By the time I saw the invitation to the early Saturday class, it was full. I was thrilled.

Lisa wouldn’t hear of it. She bombarded the gym with pleas for an exception for me. In the end, in the interest of all riding in John’s car, I went with no appointment.

It worked out great. The drop-in cost is only $15 and there’s really no size issue. Lisa chipped in, always willing to put her money where her mouth is.

The first class was at Foundation Fitness in Georgetown on Saturday morning. The gym is in an area of Georgetown called the Palisades. It’s a rich area of Georgetown, which is like saying a cold area of the arctic. This simply meant we’d be sharing sweat with rich power brokers in cheap gym clothes.

Foundation Fitness is in the basement of a strip mall in Georgetown. In order to access the innards of the mall, we had to find the unassuming double glass doors with a family milling about nervously in front. They smiled sheepishly and made way for us. The doors were open, and the lobby area is nice for a strip mall.

John had the directions and lead us to the stairs. The gym was easy to find at that point.

It’s a bit of a boutique gym. There are convenient cubbies with fabric Container Store baskets for your stuff. It’s not a large gym, but there are cardio and weight machines in addition to the ubiquitous TRX.

We met our Meg for the day. John and Lisa remembered him from another gym he worked at. He’s very friendly and accommodating.

The class itself is a bit of a boot camp. Various stations with moderate weights we were directed to select. We worked in pairs, which simply meant there were two people at each station.

The first round was timed leg-based stations. Dumbbell squats, deadlifts. Side lunges, and reverse lunges. We did three rounds at one minute per station, and it was effective.

The next round was upper body. Laying on the floor chest presses, kneeling rows, standing curls, and shoulder presses. We didn’t have to rotate stations for this since the exercises required less room.

The chest and back work at that weight didn’t challenge me, but the curls and shoulder work did. I chose 30 pound weights and that’s about the top of my curl weight. I press more with my shoulders, but not that long. I counted 15 – 20 reps each cycle. I had done shoulders Friday as well, but really it was just tough.

By the time we got to the abdominal floor exercises, my sweat was pouring freely. Lisa was quick to point out the gym is in the basement and may flood.

The ab exercises were great. They were intense, and like the rest of the exercises, added up. The first round seems easy, but by the third we were struggling. I sweat more than everyone, but some others did start to glow.

Meg is very attentive and helpful both with instruction and encouragement. He wants you to get the most out of the workout you can. It’s worth the price, even for drop-in.

Regulars ran the gamut of older, fit people to younger, fit people. They are likely very busy people who are attracted to the consistency of the workout. I say that even though we’ve only gone once.

The music selection was a bit generic. Similar to a cable TV DJ mix station. It’s good, just tough to compare to the thumping, dance club themed workouts we’ve been doing.

Regardless, it’s clean, well-organized, and inviting. A couple of personal trainers were there with clients at the same time, but no one got in anyone else’s way.

We finished up and cleaned up, filled our water bottles and said our good-byes before heading upstairs and out past a different family, milling about nervously by the glass doors.

On to the next!

HAWT Pilates in the Del Ray section of Alexandria. It’s in the Mind the Mat yoga studio. I learned HAWT stands for “Having A Wonderful Time” so I had hopes it wasn’t a hot class. Nope. Top floor of a three-story building with supplemental heaters to keep it about 95.

HAWT Pilates was developed by a Physical Therapist named Meg. I’m not kidding. Dr. Megan Brown developed HAWT Pilates after accidentally ending up in an advanced Pilates class. Our kind of people.

The studio is a nice, attic studio. Open, but not flooded with light There is an alcove with cubbies for anything we didn’t want soaked with sweat. We had to remove our shoes before entering, but that’s standard for most studios like that.

The studio has nice wood floors. I did not bring a yoga mat, and knew that wherever I worked out, the floor would warp from my sweat. I stayed by the cubbies.

Lisa went off to find a solution. There is a yoga studio on the first floor, and another studio of some sort in between. Cooler temperatures, I’m sure. She ended up finding a lost and found that had a mat. We commandeered the mat for the class and cleaned it thoroughly before returning it for the next person who forgot a mat.

Pilates works muscles that are not targeted by most strength training workouts. There are a lot of poses (but do not call it yoga. Meg will get pissed) and subtle movements to engage those muscles. That being said, it is not easy. Small movements are often harder than large movements, especially when trying to balance.

Meg (Generic Meg. Not the inventor of the class) worked various muscles on one side and then the other. She was tough and feisty. After class she admitted that people hating her for being so tough makes her day.

Some moves targeting the three glute muscles, she said, but I found my hip abductors fired for most of the workout. In one of my many times to physical therapy. I was told abductors, adductors, and flexors are usually very weak, but extremely important for running and most exercises involving legs. They also help keep hips from dislocating.

The sweat. It’s not even funny. My towel was soaked, but I still trying to wipe to floor where the sweat flowed off the mat. The towel just pushed it around. I promise the mat was cleaned when we finished. If nothing else, my sweat probably has enough alcohol to be an antiseptic.

Some of the muscles under stress would ache and start to cramp, so a little thump would help. Especially the abductors. I thumped them several times.

We were doing glute bridges for what seemed like a long time. The muscles are big, but they do get achy. Add to that the movement is a bit reminiscent of a stripper and I decided I needed to smack my ass. It was louder than I expected and Lisa and Mendy both happened to catch it. They had a good laugh.

We had a brief cool-down period, and we were done. John looked dead at Lisa and said, “I hate you” The look on his face said he wasn’t joking. I know he got over it, but at the moment, there was real hate.

I didn’t understand how affected I was by the heat until I tried to get my stuff from the cubby and get myself ready for the world. I had to go back and forth several times. I had a hard time focusing on a task. I could see John struggling too.

We did eventually rally for a mirror selfie, and I suggested to Meg they install a drain. She didn’t smile. As far as I could tell, she never smiled. She’s a great instructor, and great motivator, and she takes it seriously. She also has great taste in music. The playlist was motivating and recognizable to me.

We staggered out in to the cool, 85-degree day and headed towards the farmer’s market.

We were all moving a bit slow. The best way I can describe the feeling is like having a new set of legs, not quite broken in yet. They also felt like they were still in the packing material they arrived in. They worked, just a bit clunky.

Lisa bought a carton of blackberries for everyone while we shopped the market. That helped. A few complex carbs, and it was probably the first thing any of us had eaten all day.

Del Ray is a great little artsy community. The sort of place where everyone bikes and has a dog. Most businesses keep water dishes out from for the canine travelers. There are also a lot of great places to eat.

We wandered about for a bit before deciding on Del Ray Pizza. Ironically located right next to Mind the Mat yoga.

It wasn’t busy, so we sat inside near the bar. There are a couple of ramps to walk up to get to where we sat. I found it odd those were harder than stairs for me.

We sat at a tall table with tall stools and started debating food. We all generally agreed we wanted it all. All the food.

The menus at DRP are online, so you must scan a QR code. One for food, one for drinks. The print is a little small for a phone but zooming in helps.

We ordered some light brunch drinks and all the food. We ordered the brunch pizza, stuffed avocado, caprese skewers and beignets.

It was all amazing. I’m a little pleased we had to take some home. The pizza is still good for breakfast the next morning, by the way.

We all realized the tipping point of the day was the hot in HAWT Pilates. We would have fared better in normal Pilates. I would have sweat as much, but it would have been more comfortable breathing room temperature air.

Still, HAWT Pilates is worth it. Hydrate a lot, and do not try to do it on top of another workout. Brin g a mat and a beach towel. On a nice day, it would be great to do the class and spend time drying out at the farmer’s market.

Then there was Sunday.

Lisa had us sign up for the 9:15AM Bash class in Rosslyn. We’ve done the class several times, but this trainer was new to us. A tall, fit, energetic man Meg.

I found it a little challenging to park this time, partly due to construction and deliveries, but I got there in time.

It was crowded and I was one of the last to show. I still had plenty of time to find a locker and wrap before the class.

We started on the floor, as always. The warmup was good, and the first round required bands. Lisa was rightfully proud of breaking her band doing the overhead presses. She got a good bragging bruise.

The instructor is more the point of this write-up than the exercises. All the Megs at Bash are great. This guy has a following though. The men in the class are super fit, as are the women. Many of the women wore a little as the law will allow, and the men seems to appreciate that.

Besides that, he would get into the exercises with everyone on the floor. At one point, on the bags, he jumped down and held the bag while I hit it. It’s encouraging he thinks I’m strong enough to need that, but also encouraged me to hit harder.

He’s good about describing the proper movements. Not many studios like this focus on moving from the back foot and using your core strength in a punch. We’ll go back to his class.

That was our weekend. No after activities this time. We managed to get back to our cars and homes. I was not as worn-out Saturday as I expected, but it hit me pretty hard Sunday. I’m glad we did Bash. I think the exercise helped prevent a lot of soreness and cramping.

What hit me Sunday was dehydration. That feeling when your metabolism is still cranking and you just feel hot.

If you’re going to try this sort of routine, hydrate. You can get dangerously dehydrated on days like this.

If you want to crank up that metabolism and burn calories, my heart rate monitor indicated my metabolism should be burning like a steel mill. And not an American steel mill that’s closed. A working one.

The stress of the workout caused initial weight gain for me. It snapped back after a few days though. Don’t be discouraged if that happens. Our bodies do weird things to protect themselves from our overzealous workouts. Stay the course and you will see results, but know when to take a break.