Les Mills GRIT Training

Getting some feedback on my instructing.

After losing my love for fitness instructing a good 6 months ago, I honestly thought I wouldn’t ever go back. When I first trained to be an instructor for BodyCombat & BodyPump I loved that stuff. I couldn’t get enough of it! I’d go to a double class in the morning, come home, chuck the DVD on and watch it again, do some more tracks. In the car I’d listen to the tracks & when I was out on the dance floor on a sat night I’d be like, OMG this is the chest track guys..."singleeeesss!". What. A. Weirdo. 

haha, but a happy weirdo I was.  

After only 3 years (which is short in the instructor world, usually you double time into your grave) I'd had enough, I was sick of constantly being sore & over training my body. Stairs always hurt & there is only so much fake air punching you can do before you realize you’ll probably never punch anyone, I mean, the chances of me bring in a fight are about as slim as Rhiana getting back with Chris Brown.. errgghhh.. ok, not a good example, but seriously, have you seen me? I’m harmless, I have to fake angry! I mean I can lift heavy things, but I put them back down pretty much straight away.. Then lift them again.. And back down- usually 12 times for those of you playing at home.

I cant remember how I heard about the new Les Mills program GRIT, but one of my friends from home was a GRIT captain & said how much he loved it. He is also a personal trainer & explained to me how GRIT was a mix between group fitness and small group personal training, only having a max of about 16 people in the class. This sounded perfect to me, as I had really missed the fun and friendly environment of my group fitness classes.

After ditching endless cardio when I quit all my classes, I had started to do my own high intensity interval training (HIIT), from everything I had read, this is the most efficient way to get fit and lean.. which suits me to a tee! Hours in the gym? Aint no body got time for that! So I went along to a GRIT class one sat morning with my housemate Carly and I walked out of the training screaming ‘Hells to the yeah!, I’m totally doing my training for that!’. So what’s the class format look like? Well with any Les Mills program there is a specific structure that each class follows (if you do Bodypump you’ll know that you do a warm up, squats, chest, back etc. etc.). GRIT is a little different in the sense that it is only new and doesn’t have a specific format as yet. It is only 30 minutes and is designed to cram your usual 60-minute class into that time frame. It is INTENSE and I would not be recommending this to a beginner, it is defiantly for those who are already quite fit.

It starts with an accelerated warm up, which has you doing burpees about a minute in, from there the music doesn’t stop as you work your way through each track focusing on basic full body movements.. and dare I say it “functional” exercises. There are periods of rest in each track followed by intervals of all out ‘foot to the floor’ max efforts, things like burpees, squat jumps, jump lunges, running knees, sprints, mountain climbers, tuck jumps and plyometric pushups. All really simple moves, designed to get your heart pumping. There are 3 different GRIT classes each with a different focus, there’s GRIT STRENGTH which uses weights (things like rows, deadlifts, clean and press- heavy weights, low reps mixed with cardio moves), GRIT CARIO (which is like body attack on steroids) and GRIT PLYO (which is a whole lotta bouncin’ around).

If you have ever trained in a Les Mills program before, you’ll know what the training is like- super intense! Its usually two or three full on days of moves, choreography, teaching, learning and the dreaded ‘challenge’ where they test your fitness by making you do something insane in the membrane. Knowing that I came prepared, two full rest day’s prior, a bag full of BCAAS and enough protein powder to take down a mammoth. The training kicked off on Saturday morning at 7am, I met the rest of the people who were training (who are awesome) and our trainer from Sydney George Tonga (legend!). Within the first hour we had all introduced ourselves and took part in an intense GRIT strength class lead my George. To my surprise the training really wasn’t as intense as the other two programs, George was really down to earth and didn’t feel the need to get all drill sergeant on us- which I was happy about.. there wasn’t even a challenge! After learning about the science behind the program, we learnt the ins and outs of being an awesome instructor, what to say and when to say it. We then practiced and presented our tracks to one another and about 433 burpee tuck jumps later we called it a day around 5pm. The next day was early again, starting at 7am, it was a similar format but we focused on GRIT CARDIO rather then strength. A similar sort of format, except this time our bodies were feeling the brunt of the previous day. Jump Lunges turned into step lunges, into a weird shuffle that was similar to a stiff legged moon walk. Needless to say I made it though and passed my final presentation, which was track 3 from GRIT CARDIO. High running knees, followed by 8 burpee tuck jumps, straight into 16 jumping lunges, followed by 16 push up shoulder taps (then rest for 40 seconds) and repeat 3 times.. oh and there was a ‘kicker’ at the end, but ill let you find out what it was when you try the class yourself.. I highly recommend it, short, sharp and effective. Have a read of the benefits of HIIT at the link below and come along when I get a regular class!

http://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2012/december/evidence-based-exercise/

The clip below is a little dorky.. but meh, dorky is fun.

Mel xx 

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