100 PU challenge, , YCFE

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Week 1 Day 2: ugh. I didn't feel super confident going into this and it showed though I tried to focus on anything except how hard it was doing all those pushups. I'm doing column 3 and today's challenge was to 10, 12, 8, 8 and then at least 12 for the max part. You get a 90 second rest between each set (longer if you need it) but I don't think if I'd rested 5 minutes between sets that it would have helped! I did 10, 11, 8, 8 and 7. That means I'm going to do day 2 again Wednesday and will hopefully get farther then. When I can finish all the sets then I'll move on to day 3 (hopefully it won't take too many attempts). I'm okay with it, this is a HUGE challenge for me. If I can't get through it by Friday I'll consider moving to column 2 instead.

After pushups I did Austin Ultimate Fat Burner. Kassia just commented on this last week, which is what got me interested in trying it for the first time and this one is a definite keeper. It has intervals of cardio and weights with the weights working multiple muscle groups and the cardio done at 3 levels in sequence several times during each cardio interval. As Kassia said, the cardio is all sports-oriented with kickboxing, skiing, basketball, etc. so it is very interesting and fun. The movements are all very simple, no choreography to remember and definitely more athletic. I had 2 problems with this, one was 's fault and the other was just my workout room. 's cueing, which actually seemed better than it is in some of her other workouts was lousy. If I wasn't counting reps myself I absolutely had to watch the screen to know we were transitioning to the next movement in the sequence. They are motions that build on each other like side steps transitioning to skaters, so there is nothing to learn (and unfamiliar cues were easy enough to mimic, by the 2nd time around I usually had it fine) I just like to do what they're doing on screen so I can get as much as possible out of the workout. The moves don't take up a lot of space but it does use a step for some parts and I have so little room with my full length step out that I did seem really cramped at times and kept moving it around to try and have enough room. All that makes me hyper aware of what I'm doing and my bad timing gets worse. There's no reason this couldn't be done on my smaller step so I will try it that way next time.

During the strength intervals she, of course, did pushups so I added about 9 or 10 more pushups (also on toes, in two different sets) to my total for the day. I went slower than her on the pushups so I got less in than she did and that's fine with me! I worked VERY hard in this workout and LOVED it! wasn't annoying in this either (or else I'm getting used to her). She seemed less Marilyn Monroe breathy and only said fat was going to melt like butter once that I was aware of, not a lot of "I'm proud of you" either (a couple of times is fine, in some of her other workouts she says it over and over). The stretch at the end was very good too though I would have liked them held longer. I've noticed she does a lot of stretches other workouts don't (like for shins and Achilles tendon). I like that a lot. This one is a definite keeper. Thanks for alerting me to this one Kassia!

I've decided too that I need to do less intense workouts on pushup challenge days. I never realized how much of a total body effort pushups are until I tried doing workouts after doing that many pushups at once. I expected my shoulders and chest to be tired but I wasn't thinking my legs would be as fatigued as they were too but I could really feel it during the plyometrics in 's workout.

After I wanted more stretching and put in Yoga Complete for Every Body. I put on a 25 minute practice from the beginner menu for shoulders, hands and arms or something like that thinking it would stretch out my shoulder. Instead it did some pushup variations (very gentle though) some long down dogs among other shoulder strengthening work. The first down dog about killed my fatigued shoulders so I just went into a deep, wonderful child's pose during the last one. I think I fell asleep during the savasanah but am not sure!

Tomorrow I'm working in the morning and then running the kids to tutor and dance after school so I might have a window for a short workout between those but am not counting on it and that's okay. Wednesday I'll do the same pushup challenge as I did today plus I'll try one of the 's that is on my stay or go list.

Off to work on editing pictures (online) for my scrapbook. I'm going to an all day crop on the 18th and I need pictures for it.