Day 67

Do. Not. Underestimate. Dance Mania.

I know, I know. I said I needed a day of rest. I swear, I told myself to take it easy. But as I was walking to the car park, I didn't feel like I had any muscle aching. No strain on the joints. I said to myself, "Leech... we must maintain that 20.7%, hopefully go even lower. We don't feel the pain now, so lets exercise until we really feeeeeeeeel it!" Okay, I don't usually talk to myself like that, but the point is that I really start to appreciate going to the gym after the -horrible- incident in July/August. It made me realise that sometimes, when you WANT to go to the gym, you CAN'T. So when you CAN, then GO!!!

Erm, my platinum card still not ready. The asst. manager told me it takes 2 days to kau tim! But the staff at the front desk said minimum 3 weeks. -____- Apalah dey, lucky I'm a nonchalant kind of fellow. (Ya right)

Started the workout with a light 15 minutes on the Cardio Wave machine. I think my stamina + endurance is increasing because I used to start at level 5 and then go down to level 3. Now I can maintain at level 5 longer and then decrease to only 4. *beams* Of course, not as keng as those people who go for Cardio Wave classes... I think the max there is 7 and above. I only went once, I can't really remember. Regardless, I need more practice before I dare step into Cardio Wave territory again.

There were a lot of people using the machines today, don't know whether its because of the timing, or because the holidays are over and people are eager to work off the rendang and ketupats of yesterday. So I waited for Dance Mania to start, while doing some leg curls. Did 3 sets, at 50lb, 30lb and 15lb respectively. 16, 18 and 20 reps. Fuuh. I barely finished the 50lb one. That's like, a little less than half my body weight! Somehow squeaked through. Some light stretching, and then it was time for Dance Mania!

Now I've only gone for 2 classes before this - one with Danny @ Jaya33 (my first!) and then one with Ernest @ Taipan. Today's class was replaced by Meei who usually teaches Latin Mix. From my first two classes, I thought that Dance Mania was basically like Cardio Dance, which was basically one performance, consisting of many different movements, which you basically learned by the end of the class. It could be Latin, HipHop, Pop, etc, and every week it would be something different. The reason why I decided to go for Dance Mania despite being so beastly tired was because I was half-hoping that they would do something simple so that I could happily tou kai at the back of the class while shaking ass. :P

Not so my friends!!!

From the get go, warm up consisted of non-stop jumping and prancing and leaping about the class... my God... after 10 minutes I was staring at the clock and willing it to move faster! Around me, more and more people were leaving the class because beh tahan, and this was just the warm-up!!!! Somehow I managed to stay for the entire class, and let me tell you... the moving NEVER ENDS. Even when Meei is switching tracks, she will keep us doing some repetitive movements (of course you can choose to take a break here la). Our class was supposed to be "Hip Hop" but is 80% aerobics.

The choreography is simple, something like :
2 turned in knees, 2 "Superman to the left". Repeat to the right. (x2)
8 "running man" slow motion with arms flapping outwards, macam "I believe I can fly".
4 jumping jacks.
8 punches alternate sides (ie.: 1 to the left, 1 to the right, etc etc)
8 knees alternate sides (i.e: 1 left knee, 1 right knee, etc etc)
8 counts speedball
8 squats (can do all kinds of funky movement here, if you choose to)
8 punches to the side (different from earlier punch because this time your leg must move as well, like 'ginga' a bit... hard to explain, must show you)
Move 4 steps to the front, kick with left leg. Move 4 steps behind, kick with right leg. Repeat twice.
4 hops on left leg (right leg up). 4 hops on right leg (left leg up). Repeat twice.
8 counts swing
Sashay to the left, kick out left leg. Sashay to the right, kick out right leg. Repeat twice.
8 counts hop on left leg (right leg to the back). Repeat on right leg.
Throw your hands up in the air (count to 2), then molest thyself. Repeat 4 times.

AND THEN REPEAT ALL THAT TIL YOU DIE.
Forgive me if I forgot any steps... this is just roughly from what I remember...

Anyway, the reason why I stayed til the end of the class was because once the choreo started, it seemed very much a mix of Body Combat + Body Attack to me... and the music was damn fun and funky. Just had to stay la. And Meei... fuuh I really admire her! She can do all these steps and with her own individualistic style and TALK TALK TALK TALK TALK all the way. Encouraging us. Giving us advise on the steps. Motivating and praising us, etc etc. My god. I could only use my mouth for one thing during the entire 1 hour ---- breathing heavily. @_@

We danced to a mix of Who Let The Dogs Out, Can't Get You Outta My Head, Put Your Hands Up For Detroit, The Trouble With Me, etc etc. Can't really remember. My favourite was Kylie's of course. The dance movement can be so sexy, especially to the first few "la la las...." . =)

So that's Meei's interpretation on what Dance Mania is. As she puts it - Mania means like "maniac", so dance non-stop for one hour!! @_@ "The choreo is simple, but the #1 thing you must have is STAMINA." She says this is how she teaches Dance Mania in Australia, and I confess --- I had this image of a lot of healthy and robust Australian women moving effortlessly to her class. I kiasu and die-die also had to stay til the end. =X At the end of the class, I felt so happy and satisfied that I *did* have the stamina to go all the way, and I have to praise myself and say that my steps were ok... =p =p =p But guess what? Meei then said that today's class was just "level one Dance Mania". What the..... !!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all for today, I will be very very WARY of entering Dance Mania next time. Thought it would be a filler class, but ended up super energetic until my entire shirt was SOAKED with sweat. What a disgusting picture I paint.

But will I still go for this class in the future?
Of course!! :-)