Why Do I Burn So Many Calories?

As most of you know, I post my calorie burn up on my Facebook page after every class. A lot of people are baffled or impressed by the amount of calories that I burn in one session. So I figured it was time to give you a little background into the world of JazzerStephanie.

At the age of 18 I was diagnosed with severe allergies and asthma. I have spent years in and out of asthma specialists offices to get my lung capacity improved enough to lead a somewhat normal life. Before I started Jazzercise back in 2006 my max lung capacity was at 70% -- this means that I could only fill up 70% of my lungs with air…so for every 1 breath you take, I take two or three--this is not an impressive lung capacity to have.

After joining Jazzercise, I had to mess around with various medications and treatments to find something that worked for me to continue Jazzercising. Once I found the perfect balance, I became an instructor in 2009. Since becoming an instructor…my latest pulmonary test indicates that I now have 85% of my lungs! That’s a 15% increase in 3 years!!! So thank you Jazzercise.

Now you are saying, that’s great Stephanie…congrats, but what does that have to do with your calorie burn numbers? Whew, I am so glad you asked!

Since I only have 85% of my lungs, I still breathe twice as hard as a normal breathing person when exercising. So you add together that I live in Colorado (we barely have any oxygen here), I have severe asthma and I’m talking the whole time I am working out—this equals a much higher heart rate. According to medical professionals my Maximum Heart Rate should not go above 185 BPM. But when I teach Jazzercise, you can almost guarantee that at the top of the Aerobic curve, I am above 185. Yes, I feel fatigued when my heart rate gets that high and I do struggle, that’s why I need to take a moment to breathe catch my breath and the heart rate goes down. The higher heart rate is the reason why my calorie burns are so significant. A normal breathing student (at my height, age & weight) will reach a Max Heart Rate of 180 and burn about 400-500 calories a class. Me, not so much—My Max Heart rate is usually between 187-213 and I burn about 650-800 calories per class (A regular Jazzercise class).

So…there you have it. The reason why my workout stats are always so high…but don’t you worry, I always eat back my calories. Ha ha ha.

 

I’m teaching a new class format

I am pretty excited to announce that I am growing up in the Jazzercise world. I have been asked to teach a Jazzercise Body Sculpting class every two weeks. So I have graduated from teaching Regular Jazzercise, with an occasional Circuit class thrown in…to Body Sculpting! I am pretty excited.

What is Jazzercise Body Sculpting, you ask?
Here is the direct quote from the Jazzercise website…

Jazzercise Body Sculpting
Sculpted arms, a strong core, tight glutes, and firm legs are the focus of this challenging 40-50 minute muscle toning workout that features a creative combination of strength training and stretching.

So…grab your weights, tubes and exercise ball and join me for my first Body Sculpting class this Sunday 8:15 AM at the Aurora Jazzercise Center!

Hope to see you in class!

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: Jazz On The Strip

Representing...Denver style!

Mixing it up in 2011

Hello there! It’s been a while since I’ve put up just a posting on this site, so I am sorry for that…apparently it’s just all business on here. *giggle*

Well, I am excited to announce that this girl is FINALLY comfortable (OK, not comfortable – but willing) teaching a Jazzercise Circuit Training class. So, starting in January every 3rd week will be a Circuit class; which means get ready to incorporate those tubes and exercise balls. We’re gonna burn some MAJOR calories.



I hope to see you in class soon!

And have a happy and safe New Year…I’ll see you in 2011!

FabAbs Special Promotion Class

Hi there! I am so excited to announce that I will be teaching the FabAbs specialty class starting in October. Jazzercise has designed a specialty Pilates style class to increase your core strength and tighten your abs.

Come join the fun!

I will be teaching this class starting on Thursday, October 7, 2010 @ 5:30 PM at the Denver Jazzercise Center.

I hope to see you in class.

No classes for me

So, I had a bit of an accident last night and I won’t be able to teach for a while. If you want to know what happened, check out my blog posting “Spaz Moment of the Day: Woman Down!”

I hope to be seeing you in class again soon.

Click here to leave a comment!

Gimme some ENERGY!

I do not plug a lot of products out there, but this one has been AH-MAZING for me. The reason that I feel the need to talk about this product is because I have been out of it for a week and have noticed a HUGE difference in my energy while teaching. I first learned about this product on the Hungry-girl website, and I just started taking Jazzercise classes (as a student) and figured…why not let’s try it and see what happens.

Now, I am NOT a fan of energy drinks…my heart beats fast as it is, I don’t need ANYTHING else to make me jittery or amped up, so I am VERY hesitant to try the products out there {I can’t stand Red Bull, Monster, etc}. So when I got the email from Hungry-girl, I knew that I could trust it.

FRS Healthy Energy comes in many different forms…I prefer the chews; they ROCK! I take just two chews before I teach a class and it makes ALL the difference in the world…when you have asthma it makes it a bit tough to get thru the top of the aerobic curve. Having FRS helps me to maintain the energy to work at high impact; I can not believe the difference! So…therefore I 100% recommend this product. I think that anyone who needs an added boost of energy should try this product.



So don’t worry folks, I bought some FRS today so no more slacking at the top of the curve! Hope to see you in class again soon!!

Tucker hearts Jazzercise

So, I was practicing some new routines the other day and I caught my 4 year old German Short Haired Pointer, Tucker watching the Jazzercise videos! I think that he has a crush on Shanna, she is amazing!

Tucker likes Jazzercise too...maybe he should be my new assistant.

November Team Teaching Event

I had the awesome opportunity to participate in a team teaching event at the Denver Jazzercise Center. Being a new instructor, I had NO idea what this meant, or how it was going to work. WOW, the energy in that room was amazing! There were a total of 10 instructors teaching that day, and 66 students in class! 66 students…now I am used to teaching a class of MAYBE 20…so HOLY COW I was nervous!! LOL

The set that was put together was a lot of fun and we got some videos that I posted up on the Denver Jazzercise Facebook Group site. (Log into Facebook and search for Denver Jazzercise Center)

I taught two of the songs and I have a few small clips of me teaching, but unfortunately most of my video was recorded in portrait view rather than landscape (I am so tall I didn’t fit in the normal screen. If anyone knows of video software that will let me rotate, please let me know!) You can see more videos on my YouTube channel.

Here are just a couple of videos to give you a glimpse of how much fun we had…

This is me teaching the ‘Granite’ routine.


One of my favorite instructors being the cute thing that she is…teaching the Diva routine.


This is the set that was taught that day:
Diva (Karmatronic Club Remix) - Beyonce
Evacuate the Dance Floor - Cascada
You Make Me Feel - AnnaGrace
Granite - Pendulum
Runnin’ Wild - Airbourne
Untouched – The Vernoicas
Gloria (Prodygee & Davis Radio Mix) - Laura Branigan
Now that You Got it – Gwen Stefani
Gimmie That Funk - Group 1 Crew
Push it Fergasonic (DJ Axel Mashup) - Fergie, Salt N’ Pepa, JJ Fad
Beautiful U R – Deborah Cox
Magic - Pilot
Beautiful Mess – Swing Out Sister
Taking Back My Love – Enrique Iglesias with Ciara
No Particular Place to Go – Mos Def
Love is Free – Sheryl Crow

This was SO much fun, and I hope to be able to do this again soon. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in class again. You can also check out the Denver Jazzercise website here.

New Teaching Location

Hi all, I am so excited to report that starting in September I will be teaching at the Denver Jazzercise center. I am so excited to start teaching at this location; it’s very close to my work so it will be nice and convenient for me to get to. Keep checking the blog to see what dates and times I’ll be teaching here.

to Map the Denver Jazzercise center.

Hope to see you in class soon!

Random update

Hi all, it’s been a while since I have written a random update on my Jazzercise blog! But the past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting for me…I have had the opportunity to teach at the Capitol Hill center, the Highlands Ranch center, the Southside center, and the Denver center! Sadly, I had to give up my 4:00 PM Express classes at the Aurora center and that made me very sad. That group was fun and I love teaching in Aurora. It has been amazing to teach at all of these different locations, each and every one has been so welcoming to me and has such great enthusiasm!

I am happy to announce that starting next week; I have been offered an associate position teaching the Thursday 4:20 PM class at the Southside center. I have some history at this center; this is where it all began. My Aunt ended up buying me a 2 month pass to this center for my birthday, and I headed out to my first Jazzercise class EVER. I had NO idea what I was in for…1 hour later, I was a hurtin’ unit. I could not BELIEVE how fun the class was, even though I was completely lost the entire time—may I suggest for your newbies to check out the ‘Learn the Moves’ section on the Jazzercise website. After one class, I knew that I had FOUND the exercise regimen for me.

About 3 years later, here I am teaching Jazzercise and I still love it just as much as the first time I saw it. I will have to admit that teaching at various locations has become a little bit easier because I do not have to create a new set each time I teach, it’s a lot of pressure to learn new routines and I’ve been struggling with it during the summertime. But still, I am having so much fun teaching and I do hope that you enjoy this blog and my classes.

Next week is going to be a busy week for me, so if you can try and come check out one of my classes. I should be posting new sets sometime this week as well.

I hope to see you in class!

iTunes iMixes have been created!

Hi all, I know it’s been a while since I have updated with my ‘random’ thoughts and I apologize for that. Last week was INSANE for me, I taught a total of 7 classes in 5 days…needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I was done. I will not do that again…LOL.

Anyhoo, I was able to figure out how to make iMixes on iTunes, so once I create my sets for the week, I’ll upload them to iTunes and share that link for you. To find the ones that I already have out there, you can search by my username…which is JazzerStephanie or you can click on the links below.

I just received the video of the new routines on Saturday, so I’ve been diligently watching them and taking notes, I hope to put some of the R2-09 routines into my sets next week.

Do you have any suggestions or ideas for me to post onto this site, let me know by sending me an email!

Here are the iMixes that are currently out there…
JazzerStephanie-Express Set #1


JazzerStephanie-Express Set #05


JazzerStephanie-Express Set #06


JazzerStephanie-Express Set #07


JazzerStephanie-Express Set #08


JazzerStephanie-Regular Set #10


JazzerStephanie-Regular Set #11


Have a great week, and I’ll be posting this weeks sets shortly!

The Mystery of Microphones

Since becoming a Jazzercise Instructor I have struggled with the understanding and purchasing of a microphone for classes. Technology & I have a love-hate relationship so I wanted to be sure that I purchased the correct type of microphone for me. As I enter into my 3rd month of teach, I have successfully broken 2 microphones already and these babies are NOT cheap. Well I came to find out that the second one that I broke was not waterproof, so that explains how I broke that one…I get a real workout when doing my Jazzercise classes, so I’m a sweaty mess by the end. So I managed to short-circuit that one because I sweat. But my main microphone (the waterproof one) kept crackling and I couldn’t understand why. All I have to say is THANK YOU to the lovely ladies at Supreme Audio, they were extremely patient with me and helped me find a headset that would work with my system that I will not break. It turns out with this one, I kept catching my arm on the wires and pull on them, hence making my headset short out. Who knew me being a spaz would break it. LOL, I know…I know; no big shock there. So they taught me a trick to keep the wire out of my way when teaching and also helped me order a wireless headset to go with my system. HOORAY!! I am so excited to try out the new headsets and I am sure that my students will be happy as well. So after this whole ordeal, I had to post about it; Supreme Audio is amazing, and any future or existing Jazzercise Instructors definitely need to order there microphones from them. Thank you again ladies, you were truly amazing.

Also, I have started creating iMixes on iTunes of my sets; once they have been published, I’ll let you know how to get a hold of them.

So I have bumped up my commitment to learning 4 routines a week to keep my students enjoying my classes, so here is what I have in store for this week…I will be learning the following new routines:

• Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That - Robert Randolph & The Family Band (Aerobic)
• Feel the Rush – Shaggy (Aerobic)
• Miles Away – Madonna (Upper Torso)
• Love Story – Katharine McPhee (Ender)

Happy Jazzering!

04/02/09 - Random Thoughts

HOLY SCHMOLY!!! Ya, that’s right, I said schmolly…Express classes are intense. I have just finished out my second week of teaching 2 Express classes a week and I can’t help but wonder if I will EVER get used to the format. I do have to say that I am having a blast creating these classes because I actually feel like I have a wide variety of songs to choose from. Of course this is only because the format is so short. LOL

On another note, I have found a great site that helps you to track your fitness goals no matter what they may be. MapMyFitness.com will help you to track and calculate your exercise routines…pretty cool stuff. So after I teach or take a Jazzercise class I input my heart rate monitor information into this site. Pretty cool stuff, it’ll also map out walks, runs or bicycle paths for you. I like it, so of course I have to share.

This coming week I am working on learning some new routines, and I’m pretty excited about it.


Here are the songs & purposes of the routines:
Repeat Performance – Rachel Panay (Opening/Isolation)
Untouched – The Veronicas (Aerobic)
Dancing with myself – The Donnas (Aerobic)
Sandstorm – DaRude (Aerobic)
Crazy – Brooklyn Bounce (Aerobic)
Love will save the day – Greco Roman (Aerobic)
Life, Love, and Laughter 0 Donavon Frakenreither (Ender)

March 2009 - Jazzercise Conference

I had the opportunity to go to the March Jazzercise conference this year. The conference was located at the Curtis hotel in downtown Denver. What a COOL experience! First off, the Curtis hotel is really neat…they have done a lot of remodeling since the last time I was there and they had fun sayings and pictures up all over the place. At this quarterly meeting, I got to meet our District Manager, visit with other owners and instructors throughout the entire Colorado area! It was really neat. Stephanie H. and I arrived together, late and in our workout clothes because of a class that she had to teach…but we still managed to have some fun along the way…as I always do with her. The meeting was very informative and fun, I can’t wait until the next one! I’ve heard that we get to work out at that one and learn routines together…What FUN!! I also was able to shop for some new Jazzertogs; which I think was my favorite part because I got to buy my Jazzercise Instructor jacket! YAY!

Here are some pictures that we took at the conference.