Grassy Knees and Sunbleached Tatts

Although Mish was out of action due to the recovery of surgery after tearing her hamstring completely off the bone, she certainly had a decent workout for us.
As pre-workout entertainment we watched the Fitness Challenge take place. This isn't your normal fitness challenge. These aren't your normal people. The people who took part are nothing short of amazing athletes. My goal is to one day be up on that stage completing this workout and not coming last.

Fitness Challenge

Squats (full depth - butt in line or lower than knee crease level) x 20

Burpees (chest to the ground, jump & clap over head) x 10

Squats x 15

Push ups (on toes, chest to the ground, no snaking up) x 20

Squats x 10

Sit ups (full sit ups, knees bent, elbows to knees) x 20

Squats x 10

Plyometric lunges (knee must touch the ground) x 40 (20 each leg)

Squats x 10

For the incredible winners of the heats who went through to the final - they then had to do the following:

Burpees (chest to the ground, hand release, jump & clap over head) x 10

Hand release push ups x 20

Butterfly sit ups (cross fit situps) x 10

Squats (full depth) x 20

Mountain climbers (foot must be within 5cm of your hand on each 'climb') x 30 (15 each leg)

Squats (full depth) x 20

Butterfly sit ups x 10

Hand release push ups x 10

Burpees x 10

**Thanks to the amazing Dee for the above quoted information!

Seriously, just watching these girls made me breakout in a sweat. I can only do a handful of pushups on my toes (okay to be honest, probably only about 3) and burpees - ha ha ha - are you kidding me? I can't do any of those… yet. Oh and whilst we're at it - a butterfly sit up? Well nobody will be able to dispute that it's not a challenge.
So let's move on to the main morning event.

The weather was warm, the skies were blue and the sun was out. That's where the serenity ended as the masses piled into the 'workout area'. This was only my second group workout and this time I wasn't anxious and scared, I was more nervous whether I'd be able to complete it all. I'd come a long way since I started but I was nowhere near where I wanted to finish.
As we all stood there excited and nervous over what was to come, we all painted the slogan 'Life is a Gift' on our arms in honour of a fellow Perth Crew Member who had lost a loved one. Funny how I didn't even consider that even though the paint washed off, the tan I got around it didn't...

The atmosphere was amazing. Unless you've been to one of these fantastic events, you won't understand what the atmosphere is like. It's like buzzing crowd, all excited and happy just exuding positivity and it's contagious - there's no getting out on the wrong side of the bed at these events.
The event itself included running, aerobics and also some games. We had a planking game where there was a group of 15-25 people who planked in a circle whilst members took turns in running around the outside of people's legs- the other game was one where you knelt in two rows, facing your partner, hands up in the air against each others hands whilst people took turns in making their way through the 'tunnel'. Without even thinking that I was wearing a cocktail dress that night I crawled through, my knees were sore, grass stained but I got through. The only other alternative was to walk through on all fours - I'm so not fit enough to do that and my bum isn't small enough to fit underneath when I tried. So grass stained knees were the only way. As hilarious as it was, I'm still feeling sore knees today from the event but the grass stains are gone.
In the hour workout I burnt over 800 calories. This is the best burn I've had for an hour to date. Quickly looking at my watch I realise that it's nearly time to start getting ready for the party. Party will be the next blog entry.