BH has gotten me on the kettle bell train. He bought 3 that are almost too heavy for me to lift once, but I bought one that is 5 lbs. Yes, that is very light, but it's good for me to learn how to do the exercises with a light one. I think my clients will enjoy the variety. I also rented a great kick-boxing video - Kimberly Spreen - from Netflix. She has a segment in which she uses a body bar kind of like a light saber/some kind of martial art blocking/attack stick. I don't know how to describe it except that it's fun and similar in principle to the kettle bell. You move the weight and allow momentum to be part of the movement, but also keep it in control.
A few of my boot campers told me the last couple of boot camps have been too easy. I always feel very defensive when I hear that. As my defense, I think it all of the sudden got cooler, and what had us dying in 80˙ heat with 80% humidity is not very challenging when it's dry and cool. But I am definitely going to "bring it," as the kids say, to the next class.
LM and I have walked several mornings in a row. I was just walking with Hank in the baby bjorn, but now I have added 2x2lb ankle weights and 2x1lb hand weights. Oh, yeah. 26 extra pounds.
I have a hypothesis regarding 3 groups of postpartum mothers: group A - no exercise, group B - exercises alone, group C exercises with the baby out among people. I think there would be statistically significant differences in ppd, and I would even say happiness, between the 3 groups. When we walk with Hank, especially when he has his sunglasses on, we have about 99% smile/greeting rate. When I walk alone, I have about a 50% smile/greeting rate. And, of course, if you are home alone, no one is smiling at you, except the baby after about 3 months. It seems to me that we already know exercise attenuates or effectively treats depression, but I think the added social, positive reinforcement would add another level away from depression/towards happiness. Probably not too controversial, but would be interesting to quantify.
