I finally wrapped up my free month to the Dailey Method Bucktown last week. They kindly gave me an extension for 10 days in August since I was out for a good two weeks for vacation and my daughter’s Summer Olympic’s Birthday Party. Overall, I like it, or should say, addicted to loving it! There are pros and cons in which I am going to discuss. But what were my results? I didn’t lose a pound, but I measured myself on July 1 and again on August 8. I lost a half inch in my chest and hips and one inch in my waist. So all of you ladies who focus on that scale, you need to look at those inches. Yes, my clothes are fitting better and people have asked me what have I been doing. Just a combo of healthy eating and Dailey Method workouts.

1. What I did learn is that I have become a stronger runner. I can run the hills in the Indiana Dunes with ease (ok most hills, some are just way too steep still), but wow, I felt so awesome to run the hills I had to stop halfway and walk.

2. My low back pain is gone and my IT Bands feel better. (and don’t have to stretch in between vacuuming)

3. I can squat down and pick up my son with ease (thanks to all those crazy high heeled and deep V squatting, read Oh My Thigh’s and Tri’s).

4. My husband says my legs are looking stronger again. (Thanks honey, now I walk around thinking I have Olympic legs like Gabby Douglas).

5. My posture has improved again. I prided myself in having a good upright posture (pre-breastfeeding era).

6. It has given me the confidence to teach group fitness classes again and recently had to “audition” to teach classes at a local health club (last time I “auditioned” was 1999..). I really do love and miss teaching. I even got a few new moves and yes the idea of becoming a Dailey Method Instructor has crossed my mind.

Bar stretching with squared hips allowed my IT Bands to open up and release the pressure from my knees

I have also under-estimated the understanding of mind/body exercise until recently. After going experiencing some emotional stress, I went to a class last Monday, sweating and shaking beyond belief. Not only has my capacity to fully understand each move and deepening my practice, but when you are experiencing some sort of emotional stress, it does weaken your practice as well. I struggled with many of the moves last week due to some of the emotional stress I was dealing with and internalizing (yes, I know not healthy). I had to scale it down a bit, but I walked away more sore than I had in the first week of doing the workouts.

About the instructors:
Tami: There is a love/hate relationship, she is funny, witty and doesn’t like when you make faces. Overall, her morning classes are full. It will be a while before I can take a Tues morning class. It gets out too late for me to get my daughter to school on time.
Jenny: She’s tough and means business. She is easing into her morning straight arm planks (thank you) but she is conscious of helping others understanding each move by correcting your form. She has corrected my hips plenty of times and my IT bands are thanking her.
Ashlee: Super cute and bubbly, she has a nonchalant attitude while teaching. She likes doing a lot of legs, at least in my experience and I like doing legs…a lot.
Natalia: I took her Principles class once and used their childcare. This was a great class for me to take at the time since my body was fatigued from doing the workouts every day during a two week spurt in July. It was also refreshing to hear old school music from the 80′s and 90′s. I was getting mentally bored with some of the music.
Ryan: Again, took his class once, but it was awesome to take a class from a guy. He needs to be in the morning rotation.
Erin: Dailey Deeper on Fridays rocked, but yeah, this girl’s lower abs, you can tell are rock solid stable, a little jealous, but completely motivates me to push myself beyond the point of when I think “I can’t” I am just competitive that way.

My only issue is that I think there should be a free pass once a month to late cancel or no-show. I had a bad night with my son, which I overslept and clearly needed that rest. They do deduct it from the end of your month, so it ends a day sooner. Or you can buy late passes, but I just can’t see ever doing that. And sometimes sleep just wins in my book.

For me, it is a bit of a hike and I love working out in the mornings as I don’t want to pay for childcare. It takes me a lot longer to get back home than it does to get there, overall I am spending 25-minutes total to travel back and forth verses the 5-minute walk I am use too. Those 25-minutes is a lot of time, especially when you have to get kids ready in the morning for school. I will be taking the 5:30 morning classes when I can.

I do plan on going back and buying a 10 class pass so I have the option to go when I can. My goal is to go at least once a week, ideally twice per week.

I do recommend this workout. It is tough, challenging even for someone like myself who likes bootcamp style programs, I think this is a gentler, kinder way to work the entire body out.

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I completed week two of the Dailey Method workout. I went six out of the seven days last week and let’s just say my thighs and tri’s have been talking to me all week, but let me just break it down for you.

I unexpectedly had the chance to go on Sunday and it was a male instructor. It is always refreshing to have a male teach a class. I have also learned early in my own group fitness teaching career, women tend to like the male instructors more. He was soft-spoken, refreshing and not harsh by any means. He had a great way of explaining the movements and since the class was a smaller size, he got to go around more to work on form with everyone. For me, this is an important quality in an instructor, to not workout to teach, but to teach to workout. (That came from an old Australian professor I had as an undergrad). We did a lot of outer thigh work and I like that, a lot.

It’s Monday morning, 5:30am, first class of the day. I wake up early so I can walk quietly down the stairs so the kids can sleep. (Moms you know how it is). I walk in ready to go, we begin our warm-up, then BAM, right into straight arm planks. I am thinking to myself, but it is only 5:35am…really? This instructor means business. And this is how I feel:

But something happened during one of the moves while in C-curve. I strained my neck so much that I could not move or raise my arms all the way up for the rest of the day. I was baffled to what I did to do that. I get my answer the next day in Tami’s class, which rocked. She was really stroking my ego, but I loved all the bar exercises that day.

What I learned is the instructor from Monday’s cuing was off because while in the same position, Tami said the cue that I missed and that was to simply keep my sliding my shoulder blades into the floor. The strain went away for a bit, but was still there. Ugh and I had to take another class that night with the founder of W8Fit (I’ll save that for another post). Knowing I had this Tues evening class to take, I was happy to sleep in on Wednesday.

I went and saw my chiropractor on Wednesday. She did one simple test and found I locked my clavicle. She said what I did was I failed to exhale at the exertion, it locked my clavicle causing the diaphragm to be restrained. Ah I think to myself. You see as she explained, the clavicle slides back and forth when we move, when you are holding your breath during the contraction and not in the correct position (as I was in the c-curve) it will shift and it caused me not to be able to move my arms or my body completely. An adjustment here, pressure there I walk out feeling like my old self. Gosh, I love my chiropractor (been seeing her since 2004). She also tells me that my hip flexibility has gotten way better and that is because my low back is feeling fantastic. All of the stretching I am missing is making feel just great and my posture is back to being upright most of the time. In fact, one of my chiropractor’s patients walks in and said, “Wow, you have nice posture.”

I am back Thursday morning and let me just tell you, my thighs and tri’s have had enough. I see the same instructor as I had Monday morning and was nervous. I think to myself if I have to do all those pulsing tricep moves, deep V squats and wear my “6 inch heels” I will surely cry. Ok, well I didn’t but scaled back a bit and listened to my body and listened more attentively.

Friday I tried the Dailey Deeper for the first time. Upbeat instructor, I was not sure what to expect, but all I kept thinking was I think I may regret this, just the name alone makes my tri’s and thighs want to walk out the door. Hello ball squeezes in my “6 inch heels” how are you today? But I remove the thoughts from my head and found myself feeling stronger and more confident until the end when the instructor went to demo a move…she was sitting with her legs in front and proceeded to lift both of her legs up and pulsed them up and down. I’ll be honest with the exact thought that went though my head…”she obviously hasn’t had a baby or a c-section before, this is nuts!” And we were to do this move while stabilizing our hands above our heads gripping the bar. Mind over matter, I take a stab at it, surprised at what I can do with my war wounds, she calls out, “Nice job Jasmine, you got it!” Sweating and trembling I did something that I have not been able to do in years and I walk out taller and more proud.

I snuck in my final class of the week at 7am on Saturday, thinking I am so glad to take Sunday off, because I need it.

While one may not be seeing any physical changes, I can surely feel them. The one thing I do know is I have really great awareness of my body internally and how to re-align my body physically. What I like most about this class compared to a Bar Method class I took 6 months postpartum is their emphasis in working in neutral spine. As a trainer and group fitness person, this what I know best and feel comfortable doing. I also like their gentle approach because this form of exercise is not meant to be a “bootcamp” but it goes in line with their philosophies.

We NEED to be exercising in neutral spine because we are so out of sorts from prolonged sitting, improper lifting and the everyday movements we have created for our bodies through time, our bodies have created this improper alignment that is causing all kinds of issues. When the body is in proper alignment, organs function better, digestion is improved, low back pain goes away, we sleep better and we just feel better. The true relief for me is my low back, even though I was doing “therapy” type of exercises on my own, the deep stretching is what is really helping me. I am truly enjoying these workouts. I’ll be honest, I am missing my running too.

Interested in trying it out for FREE? Go to Neighborhood Parents Network’s Facebook page to enter their contest and win a free month!

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