Tight on Time: Hot Spots & YFIP also candy update & rollerblades

[Guest guest]

This morning I did Tamilee Webb's Tight on Time: Hot Spots, the entire DVD. It has a four 10 minute workouts: abs, total body, arms and a bonus workout using tubing. There's also a warm-up and cool-down chaptered separately. The warm-up is about 3 minutes and the stretch is about 5 or 8 I think. I reviewed the abs workout yesterday and my opinion didn't change after doing it again today. In fact, I was really disappointed with this whole DVD. She says in her intro there's no combinations to learn (because you're "tight on time") but she does use combos in all the workouts. They aren't cardio ones with dance steps but they are combinations of strength moves, usually multi-limbed, and like my complaint abut Cathe's LIS workout yesterday, she just announces the combination and then talks her way through the reps without repeating the sequence. They're just 10 minute workouts so there aren't a lot of reps which means there isn't a lot of time to learn the combination which means I'm not getting nearly as much out of the workout as I could have if she'd either made them simpler or cued better. I also noticed my back starting to hurt during the abs section and it felt worse after the other two (not bad enough to stop, just aching) and I don't normally have back issues. I'm sure it might have been my form but she gave very few form instructions besides "keep your abs tight" even on the more complicated exercises so I was doing the best I could. The set for this was a little weird, with a big pastel circle behind her and her standing on a circle too. Kind of looked like a circus or a bubble. The music was so-so. On the bright side, the warm-up and stretch were pretty good and when you choose to do the entire workout as a unit it does flow quickly from one 10 minute portion to the next. Since all of the workouts except the bonus use weights (she uses 3s in all of them, I did too and it seems right for me, maybe a little bit light) and she doesn't do much stretching or pausing between exercise or workouts your muscles don't get a lot of rest. That was fine for me today but if it wasn't I could have hit pause. The only minus to the flow is if you want to do the "bonus" tubing workout before the stretch you do have to return to the menu, pick it and then pick the stretch. Not a big deal though. I think I liked the tubing workout the most but I had trouble keeping my foot in the tubing when she did side steps and hamstring curls. It seemed like disc as a whole was heavy on upper body too. I can feel my shoulders right now. Anyway, I got this from Netflix and it is going back today. It is also not going on my wish list but I still got a decent workout.

After I did this DVD, as I said, my back was aching. I had extra time so I put in Yoga for Inflexible People and did a 15 minute outer thigh stretch from the Hip and Lower Back menu. I just wanted something short but hopefully close to that area and this ended up working out pretty well. I felt looser and less achy when I got done. It was relaxing too.

Update on the candy too: I made DH take the jar to work after I grabbed a few things from it. Most of it wasn't even stuff I absolutely love but I was still shoving it in my mouth! Ugh. Anyway, it is gone! DH was telling me about a co-worker's wife who, when the co-worker brings home junk like that, tastes it, declares it "evil" and throws it out. I gave him the choice between taking it to work or me declaring it evil and tossing it!! (My attitude is, even when I've paid for it, if I'm not loving it then it isn't worth the pounds it might add to my body. It also isn't worth the extra money I'll end up spending on health care if I keep eating it!)

Tomorrow I'm planning to give Kickboxing for Dummies another try and probably do some yoga from Rodney Yee's Yoga for Energy tape. The first routine, Awakening, helps stretch out my legs and lower back too so it will probably be a good thing to do. If my shoulders aren't sore from today I'll do my pushups too. (I'm just so lazy about getting those in, I really don't care how long the challenge ends up taking at this point.)

Oh yeah, I also picked up some rollerblades from a fellow freecycler today!!! They're a little bit big on me but I'm hoping with thicker socks they'll work. If they don't work for me, DS is already wearing the same shoe size as me so pretty soon they'll fit him perfectly. Now I just need to score some free protective gear and I'm all set (for next spring anyway)!