Hour of Power continues

You may recall that I went to an Hour of Power (HOP) class a few weeks ago, and that I hurt a lot the day after the first class. I’d been told the second day would be worse. It was. In fact, it took till the Sunday before I could walk normally again. My friend and I decided we would go back.

I have now been to four classes in four weeks. After the second class, I didn’t feel anywhere near as bad as after that first one. I had bought a packet of Epsom salts by then, and had a glorious bath in them for hours. I felt almost normal in the morning. The third class was painful on the abs at the time, but it was my arms and shoulders that felt the pain the next day.

Last night seemed much more intense. I did squat lower than before — deliberately! — but it wasn’t just that. The weight-lifting while jogging on the spot seemed to go on even longer than normal. That was possibly because my arms and shoulders felt like they were going to drop off. The abs section was less evil than last week, but more evil than normal.

Today, I woke up well before the alarm, but I couldn’t get to sleep again because of all the aching that was going on in my body. My legs, in particular, were bad. I think I’d over-stretched my quads during a Pilates stretch on Monday, then I ran five miles on Tuesday, which didn’t help. My calves were stiff following the run, and I couldn’t stretch the stiffness out. And then last night, I subjected them to the Hour of Power. After squatting a couple of hundred times, we had to squat and hold. My lower legs started wobbling, and I thought I was going to topple over. Then the instructor said we could stop. Phew.