Les Mills Lonestar Event

This is BodyPump!

This weekend, Kel and I attended the Les Mills Lonestar Quarterly in Arlington, TX. It happens a few times a year in different parts of the country, but I have a feeling everything is BIGGER in Texas! The event was a great opportunity for Les Mills instructors, such as Kel and myself, to experience Master Classes in all of the Les Mills formats. If you are unfamiliar with Les Mills, they are the parent company for various amazing group fitness classes, such as BodyAttack and BodyPump, that Kel and I teach. Four times a year they provide us with incredible new choreography and music for our classes! This conference offered us a chance to experience the new choreography live and in the midst of hundreds of others of instructors; it was incredible!

Can you imagine yourself in a room with a few hundred people doing squats at the same time, all to the same beat? It was intense and so very motivating. Almost motivating enough to make me forget how sore my muscles are and that my skin is slightly sore to the touch after two straight days of exercise! haha!

Ready for Pump

Not only am I excited to get started in learning the new BodyPump choreography, but I cannot stop talking about one of the newest Les Mills formats: Sh’Bam! It is a cardio dance class for EVERYONE! Trust me. If I can do it...so can you! Sh’Bam is 45 minutes of a wide mix of dance to both current and old school music favorites. I wish I had video of my leaps because I’m still dreaming about how ‘freeing’ they were. It’s hard to explain, but I walked away from that full of happiness AND knowing that I burned a ton of calories!

After our great intro the Sh’Bam, Kel and I are hoping to learn a lot more about it in the near future! We’ll keep you posted.

Have you been re-energized by something new at the gym? Or anywhere else for that matter? 

~ Samara

Always Be Prepared

“BE PREPARED!” Is that the motto of the Boy Scouts or Swiss Army Knife? Either way, it’s a good motto. It worked out well for me last night as I was in the right place at the right time... and just so happened that I was prepared.

If any of you are near a local lululemon athletica store, you may know that they are extremely involved in the community. They have a philosophy to share their passion for fitness with the local community through providing free events on a regular basis. My local store has been providing great yoga and boot camp sessions through the month of August. This past Sunday, I enjoyed sweating through the great yoga class provided by D.E.F.I.N.E. body & mind. It was a wonderful mix of movement in yoga to tone your body! Painful, but awesome! :)

So, last night, I planned to enjoy sweating (as I drooled over the apparel) through the boot camp they offered in-store. I arrived at 6 to see the group circled up and I was welcomed with a smile by Nick, lululemon Highland Village’s community outreach chief. He looked at me and said, “well, our bootcamp instructors are no shows.” Nick knows that I teach at the gym across the street, so I offered to put an impromptu class together for the 20+ guests who’d come for the sweat session! Thankfully, I was prepared! I had a boot camp class saved on my iPhone and so asked Nick to take the group on a warm up run, while I modified the class list to work without any equipment! When the group came back ~ nice and sweaty from the short run in the Texas heat ~ we got straight to work and kept the sweat on for 45 minutes!

It felt awesome to be at the right place at the right time, with the right tools! The best part was all of the thank you’s from the grateful guests once we finished the workout! It’s such a great feeling to help energize others to get their sweat on!

So, while I went for one thing, I ended up having the great opportunity to share my passion with others! What a blessing! Have you ever happened to be at the right place at the right time....with the right tools? It’s a great feeling! 

As per lululemon’s motto, go out and do one thing today that scares you!

~ Samara


Things I'm Thankful for Today:
~ Encouragement to step outside my comfort zone
~ Making new friends
~ Rain
~ Karma (good, that is...haha)