What a change a week makes. Last week there was nervousness about taking off their shirts for the weigh-in, but not tonight. The shirts come right off as they step upon the scales. Then comes the announcement of the actual weight loss from Tina and the emotions come out.
There are tears of joy. There are cheers and shouts. Dancing even breaks out and all the contestants celebrate with each other.
Eleven contestants lose at least 8 pounds, five of those are over 10 pounds, and Matt loses the most for Season 9 with a loss of 20 pounds! Something else done for the first time was that Armando was on vacation but didn’t let that stop him. For the first time in FWSW history Armando skyped in to do his weigh in.
Celebrations can’t last too long though, nutrition class needs to start. Tuesday morning comes to another EJ class. Back to the familiar workout from last week with a few new things added and intensity increased. EJ talks with the team at the end of the workout. They are doing so much better then expected to be doing at this time. His reward is to look over his plans for the rest of the program and make changes to challenge the contestants more. What a reward! Yes, it is a reward. If they are able to be challenged more they then can increase their calorie burn and be even more ready for their half marathon run in July.
Wednesday brings back Amber. Amber must have heard the news of increasing the intensity of the workouts. There is no stopping the contestants today. She keeps them moving, adding new things. It is only week two and Amber introduces the group to the wonderful world of Burpees. She doesn’t introduce them to a couple of them, she has them doing continual repetitions of Burpees. Wednesday is over and yes everyone knows they did a workout today.
Thursday is pool day. Once again the pool is anything but a day at the beach. No rest for the contestants. Even with CeCe’s sweet voice missing from the pool, the trainers keep the contestants moving around the pool and doing the stations at each area of the pool. They are told that Amber has something special planned for them on Friday. Amber is planning on a fun day for them. What is a fun day to Amber though?
Friday comes and the contestants experience a new type of workout. Contestants each have a balloon tied to their feet. Their goal is to keep their balloon from being popped while they try to pop other balloons. To help them out alumni are partnered up with them. The alumni can only act as blockers and have to pay the penalty with the contestants when the balloon breaks.
When the balloon breaks there is a piece of paper inside telling them what exercise they have to do. It doesn’t sound like that hard of a workout but at the end of the game everyone is sweating away and heart rates are up. Amber doesn’t stop there. Everyone lines up in their teams and enjoy the game of Car Wash. Car Wash is where everyone gets into the plank position. The person at the end of the line has to crawl under everyone and then get into a plank at the front of the line. Everyone continues doing this until the team reaches the end of the court. Amber shares that she is showing us there are other ways to be active that can bring fun and involve our families.
Once again, the weather doesn’t cooperate with the run groups. Both Wednesday and Thursday evenings find the run groups on the track at Spiece. The big twist this week is the weather on Saturday morning prevents the run group from being outside. Thanks to the kindness of Spiece the team is able to use the courts before Saturday hours to get their Saturday morning walking in.
The week is over and the contestants have finished strong. There have been firsts, there have been positive results, and they are seeing the rewards for their hard work. This definitely is going to be another great season of FWSW.
written by Richard Dickerman
