Extreme fitness challenge: My faceplants are paying off...I've got muscles!

Week 2 Day 6: It's Friday! Woohooo, last day of TribeFIT for the week and what do I have at the end of the session? My little wee guns are starting to show through!

I do have teeny-tiny little arm muscles, but I can definitely see them for myself! Oh and a couple of girls at work said they could see wee muscles appearing! These faceplants must be working! Oh and I also have some mean whip marks from the skipping rope today as well. I've definitely earned these battle wounds!!

Phil (Dunedin TribeFIT Head Coach/Trainer) did a quick 60-second "how do ya feel" interview where I show off my whip marks. (Video proof at the end of the article!)

So today's session of course started with the usual warm-up and I was running up the front with Julia, the most fit tribester of us all! Hugely awesome for me, as I was dragging my feet at the back of the pack for the whole week last week!

Oh, and another milestone. I was actually able to carry a conversation while running! Holy crap! I've never been able to do that before without spluttering for air! Which is never pretty . . . Yay!

Here's what today's session looked like:

25 reps then 20 reps then 15, 10, to finally 5 reps of the following:

• Atomic push-ups (burpies into press-ups). I'm still doing push-ups on my knees (my goal is to do proper push-ups on my toes soon)
• Chin-ups
• Kettlebell swings/lifts to chest
• Skip rope option: either 50 double-up skips or 100 normal jump ropes (I haven't mastered the double yet so I opt for 100 reps! Aaaaahhhhh!!! My arms have taken quite a whipping!! I have nasty slash marks from the rope across the backs of my arms!
• I finish at the end with a 400m run

Here's something cool I never thought about:

The girls and Phil keep telling me that the beauty of Tribefit is that the competition is yourself. Each session our times are scrawled on the whiteboard and we have clear targets to beat . . . targets that were set by the slightly unfitter version of myself. There's something about seeing that on the board where I feel an urge to beat it, even by a second. I don't care, it's awesome motivation!

As I make more breakthroughs I'm starting to challenge myself to see what else I'm actually capable of.

Fridays for me seem to be the toughest. Although we were told that this particular session was one of the tougher ones it never really prepares for you for it.

I'm ready for the weekend!

See you next session! (below: TribeFIT post-workout talk)

- Dunedin hairdresser Emma Rastrick has decided to take on World Fitness Centre's TribeFIT training programme with the aim of getting in shape in just six weeks.