Guest Post: My Momentum Met-con Experience

We’re delighted to share the following thoughts from a recent  first time attendee at Geoff’s met-con class.

Metabolic conditioning? What’s that then, eh? Sounds painful, I thought. (And it was, but in a good way). It turned out to be a kind of hardcore circuits class, but with far more exciting equipment (think tractor tyres, hammers and chains) and far more demanding exercises than you’d find in a regular gym class. I learned that metabolic conditioning refers to exercises intended to increase the storage and delivery of energy for any activity, using both aerobic and anaerobic pathways. In layman’s terms this just means it’s really hard work and it makes you really sweaty.

Saturday morning, 11am. After a quick intro from Geoff, we were straight into a warm-up and mobility sequence. It wasn’t like any other warm up I’ve ever done and included some intriguing moves like a spiderman crawl, bunny hops and marching feet whilst holding a hip bridge along with some dynamic stretching, and a few very short hard sprints.

This part of the session lasted about 5 minutes and although it was pretty knackering, it really set me up for the class. Geoff then explained the multiple stations he’d set up around the huge gym space; pushing a ‘prowler’ down an AstroTurf track, a farmer’s walk (basically walking whilst carrying two heavy metal cylinders), dragging a heavy sled, flipping an enormous tractor tyre, whipping battle ropes and throwing medicine balls as well as some more basic moves like press ups, squats, lunges and rows.

Geoff explained we’d get into pairs, grab a station and spend 45 seconds working as hard as possible, before swapping exercises with our partners. After three minutes on a station, everyone would move round to the next station. I can honestly say it was probably the hardest, sweatiest, most intense bit of exercise I’ve ever done in my life, but it was awesome. Because you only work for 45 seconds at a time, you can really go for it, and it never gets boring. What was also really cool, was the range of people doing the class, girls, boys, older and younger at various fitness levels – Geoff explained that all the exercises can be scaled to suit a range of ability levels and that people can work at their own pace (although I have to say that slacking off wasn’t really an option).

Chatting to Geoff afterwards, I learned that the class is actually a carefully choreographed arrangement of strength and conditioning exercises that will strip fat off me whilst also increasing my strength, endurance and flexibility. It was a great atmosphere, despite the pain, and it was a cracking workout, so I’ll definitely go back for more (once I can walk).