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My Fit Adventures in Jamaica

Last week I teased that I’d share a few of my fit adventures from Jamaica with you, and today, well, here they are! In photo glory no less! While there are some things I wanted to do and didn’t, looking back on it, I did a lot…

First, let’s discuss the reason why I was there: It was Zumba and Pilates Week at Breezes Grand Negril and I got to try it! Here I am with other Zumba lovers, busting a move. (At least in my head.)

Doing Zumba in an open-air room in Jamaica in August is certainly hot, hot, hot, as is evident by our (my) sweat. I’m at left, the instructor Linda A. Robinson is in the middle (she’s like a young Tina Turner, no?) and Fitz from Fitzness is on the right. Pretty sure we burned extra calories because we smiled and laughed so much.

zumba

In addition to the Zumba-rific cardio, I added in some strength training, too. You know me. I did Zumba three days on my trip, and one of the three days, I sneaked in a bonus strength segment before class. This included 24 of all of these moves: push-ups, tricep push-ups, chicken-pickers (a plank where you bring your hands up one at a time quickly, like a chicken), tricep dips, lunges, squats, plyo squats and jumping lunges. The circuit only takes about 10 minutes, but it’ll get you burning.

On another day, I hit the Breezes fitness center, which was super nice and roomy. There was a whole weight-lifting room and a cardio room. All with really good equipment, too. See?

On said day in the fitness center, Ryan and I decided to do a rather well-known CrossFit workout, Murphy. Okay, Murphy is ridiculously hard (the last time I did it, it took me 80 minutes), so we did Murphette. It’s half of what Murphy is and, in my experience, way more cute. So we ran half a mile on the treadmill, then did 50 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 150 squats and then went for another half-mile run on the treadie. Challenging, but totally doable.

Other fun stuff we did that was active but less intense? I thought you’d never ask! There was snorkeling—three times in fact! Ryan didn’t get the memo to strike a pose apparently.

Cave swimming! I seriously couldn’t get over just HOW beautiful the water in Negril was. We swam way back in these caves—so amazing!

Plus, a little beach walking. That’s a tropical mainstay, no?

One thing that we wanted to do but we didn’t? Windsurfing. We were going to do it on the last day, but it was so incredibly windy (see proof below) that we thought it wise to put that on our to-do list for our next visit to Jamaica. Talk about getting some air—look closely!

We may have also busted a groove on the Breezes disco dance floor for a few hours, but that’s just a rumor—no photographic evidence available. (And thank goodness for that—I blame the Jamaican rum punch!) I also have to mention how amazing it was to be in Jamaica during the Olympics! We watched the races with the hotel staff here and there, and it was so fun to watch their reactions and celebrate with them. Usain Bolt is my hero.

Wow, looking back on everything we did, it seems like we never stopped moving! But, I guarantee you that we did make time for lounging on the beach, reading and just being. After all, that’s what vacation is for: kicking back and relaxing! We also ate some damn good food. More on that in September though! I’ll have a full post with some of my Jamaican foodie finds, so stay tuned.

When you go on vacation—be it beach, mountain, city or otherwise—what are a few of your favorite activities? Would love to hear them! —Jenn

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