Tues: Kathy, Tony, Rodney and Me!

[Guest guest]

First I have to say that after yesterday morning's Power Half Hour Bun Shaper workout my buns and hamstrings were talking to me all day. I've never been so aware of my butt before (except maybe how it looked in certain outfits when I was heavy!. I finally took some ibuprofen last night so that I could shut them up! I woke up feeling very tight but otherwise not much DOMS which was good because today was a cardio day and I wanted to make the most of it.

I had time for a longer workout this morning and took advantage of it. (Longer for me is anything longer than 45 minutes which is usually my max time I have for a workout. Today's was about 55 minutes.)

I finally got Kathy 's Peak Fat Burning to work on a dvd player. I got smart this time too. I tried it on my upstairs dvd player and then on my laptop when the dvd player wouldn't work while the kids got ready for school so that I wouldn't be "surprised" as I got ready to work out and find that it wasn't going to work (that almost completely derailed a workout last time I tried to use this disc). For some reason, it just will not play on either of those devices so I tried it on the new tv that has a dvd/vcr player built in and it worked fine on that. Anyway, I haven't done this in quite a while but I enjoyed it even more this time because the intervals didn't completely wipe me out. I worked extremely hard (following the advanced modifiers) but found that I recovered much more quickly in the active recovery segments than I did last time and that made the workout much more enjoyable. I could really push in the intervals because I could actually recover whereas last time I was still trying to catch my breath and slow my soaring heart rate as a recovery period ended and another interval began. For anyone not familiar with this workout, it starts with a basic warmup and then stretch (and ends with a good cooldown and decent stretch). After the warmup and stretch there is a 2 minute warm up to the first interval introducing you to the moves in the interval section coming up. There are 6 intervals (2 minutes each) and between each is a 2 minute active recovery that includes some lower body work (squats, one-legged squats and other variations mostly) and previewing the sequences coming up in the interval. I like that a lot because it gives me a chance to get comfortable with the choreography (which is extremely basic) so that I can really put myself into the intervals. I still mess up some of the choreography but make sure I'm jumping when they jump even if I look a little different than they do and keep the same intensity. There are beginner and intermediate modifiers and Kathy does a little of both and is also in the middle. She only screams once in this, just a quick one so she isn't at all annoying. I really like this workout for an intense cardio hit that doesn't take a ton of time (it is about 40 minutes total). You can work it as hard or as light as you want to and the time goes by fairly quickly.

After Kathy I put in Tony's Ab Ripper 200 for my ab work. Bad choice after very intense cardio. I wasn't wiped out but I didn't have what I needed for all these crunches. I got through it but didn't do all the reps of all the exercises. I was really pushing hard on the last ones and felt good about my effort at least. I had a bit more time and was very tight from the cardio today and yesterday's lower body work so I did some stretching with Awakening from Rodney Yee's Yoga for Energy tape. I always feel better when I finish this 10 minute sequence and my legs get a decent stretch.

Tomorrow is sculpt and I've only got time for a quick workout so depending on when the bus leaves with the kids on board it will be either Power 90 Sculpt 1-2 or 3-4. The bus was 10 minutes late today and if is tomorrow, which it might be because we're expecting nasty weather overnight, it will end up being 1-2 (that's how tight my time is for workouts on Wednesday mornings).