Halftime

Half. Way. Done. Two weeks ago I started the Wave Shape challenge and I am hooked! Three days a week I push play, rev up my heart rate, and sweat up a storm. And you know what? I don’t know how I even convinced myself that kicking my butt three a day would actually be fun.

You see, after I graduated ands stopped playing college basketball, I told myself “no more crazy workouts”. Screw suicides, pushups and lunges. I still worked out, but relegated myself to playing recreational basketball,using the oh-so-girly (and easy) elliptical, and going on an occasional dreaded run. Then I almost tore through all my ligaments in my ankle playing basketball.

So what was I to do since I was not allowed to put weight on my left foot? After some research, I decided to give Pilates a try since I could do this workout on my back and stomach. My apartment-mates soon became accustomed to me sprawled out in the living room at the crack of dawn doing my workout before work. A couple of months later I tried yoga, assuming that I was just going to stretch myself out for an hour.

Boy was I wrong. Welcome to yoga, also known as incognito bootcamp; those dreaded squats, lunges, and horrific pushups just took on new Sanskrit names like Malasana,Virabhadrasana, and Chaturunga. And for some reason I was hooked on getting my butt kicked every yoga class. Or maybe it was because I could feel my body getting stronger, more flexible, and being able to push myself into poses that initially looked loco??

OK, so maybe the idea of a “bootcamp” was not such a bad idea? Yep, exactly, not a bad idea for other people…

Then I started surfing. As an unfortunate NYC surfer, I found myself spending the majority of my time daydreaming about waves and traveling to the ocean vs actual surfing. So, with the limited time that I had to spend in the water, I decided that I had to rev up my workouts in order to be in surf shape. Naturally, that meant more sweaty yoga filled with lots of Chaturangas (aka pushups)…and more running. Did I mention that I hate running??

Luckily, I moved to Costa Rica at the end of last year and now I get to surf everyday. And because I am able to spend so much time in the water, I have gotten stronger. But, my dilemma now is cross-training. I have to remind myself to take time to practice yoga, which is extremely important to stretch out all those paddle muscles.

Enter Wave Shape. A month ago I got an email from Calavera announcing the Wave Shape workout challenge. On a whim (are you guys starting to notice a theme here…yoga, surfing, and now Wave Shape), I decided to give this workout a try, since it is geared towards surfers and my competitive self can’t turn down a challenge. I am two weeks in, six workouts completed and enjoying every sweat-dripping moment. Oh, wait…I am voluntarily doing bootcamp and actually enjoying every sweat-dripping moment?!?!

What?!

Yes. Ok, so why am I hooked? First off, although this workout is intense, it only takes 30 minutes; to me, the workout is like “intro bootcamp for the bootcamp haters”. Second, in the two weeks of doing Wave Shape, I actually feel stronger and leaner. Bottom line: get in, get out, and see results.