Re: Weekly Check In, 12/21 to 12/27

[Guest guest]

Wow, you did great! Nice. I hope your knee continues to improve.

Okay, I give up on checking in daily. LOL I just can't seem to keep it all together this week. I had a terrible week with logging and working out. I got sick on Monday and then fell on Tuesday and strained my patella tendon. I ended up on crutches for Christmas but it is getting better now. Needless to say I didn't do as many workouts as I wanted to this week. But by the end of the week, I got fed up with sitting around and did some even if all I could do was sit in a chair and do the arm movements. I just had to workout!!! I ended up doing some yoga and pilates that I could do lying down without hurting my knee anymore. Did you know that it is much harder to do pilates in a soft bed then on a hard floor? I could really feel it more that way. Maybe I'll do that again. hehe Anyway, here is what I did this week.

Sunday 12/21

Perfect Parts--Upper Body--24 minutes; This is an old tv show from ESPN2. I loved that Minna Lessig is in it, but I wish she would have lead it instead of that Olympic dude. Sorry I can't remember his name, but he is obviously an athlete who was hired because he was an athlete and not because he was a fitness instructor. Overall, not a bad workout, but not my favorite either.

Body Shaping--Fat Burning--23 minutes; Another ESPN2 recording. A great one with Kendall Hogan doing a lot of cardio drills and stuff like that. I love Kendall, so I loved this workout.

Gotta Sweat--Chest & Shoulders--24 minutes; Another ESPN2 show. This one is Cory Eversons. I love Cory, too, but I hate the Island Aerobics. Just too cheesy for me, which is strange because I like cheesy workouts. LOL

Flex Appeal--Chest--26 minutes; This is Kiana Tom's old show which I've seen on recently on ESPN Classic. The actual exercise part is great, but the stupid stuff she does for cardio where you are basically watching her and her friends in the pool and stuff you can't do at home makes it a hard one to get a good workout from.

Living Arts Balance Ball Fitness Beginners Workout--45 minutes; This is a very beginners stretching type workout. It's great for anyone who wants to get use to using a ball, and is a good stretch, but don't expect anything strenuous.

Carnegie Fitness Toning Balls--27 minutes; This is the how to dvd that came with my set of 2 pound balls I got at Ross a couple years ago. It's not really a workout so much as an exercise guide. They don't give you sets and reps per say, but instruction on how to do certain moves with the balls. The instructions they give are long enough though that you can do a full set of 10-15 reps of each exercise. I loved it because I'm always looking for new medicine ball ideas and this delivered. I could probably go up to 3-4 pound balls for some of these exercises, but with the way you grip them, that would be the max. It would work for some light handweights too though.

Crunch Tae Bo Jam--20 minutes; This is a video cd that DH made for me a few years ago. I'm not sure where online he got this copy of the workout, but the video quality isn't that great, probably because DH burned a video cd instead of a dvd. Anyway, I hated this workout. It must have been before knew how to instruct. I know the Tae Bo stuff I use to have was better then this. He doesn't do most of the workout and his cueing is horrible, sometimes nonexhistant. The class knew the routine though and did it even without him cueing, so if you are good at kickboxing, you can follow them. It moved really fast and wasn't one I would recommend for anyone who isn't super experienced at kickboxing.

Yoga Zone Total Body Conditioning--Practice 1 & 2--40 minutes; I love Yoga Zone and this was no exception. Each practice is lead by a different instructor, so you can do one or the other or both like I did, and get a total body stretch. After this, I was almost ready for bed it was so relaxing, but kept going anyway. LOL

Caribbean Workout Pilates Plus--all 4 practices--80 minutes; This is the dvd from Wal-Mart that was part of a 2 pack for $5. All 4 were lead by Jen Tilley. She's fine, but not , so while I enjoyed the relaxation, I didn't enjoy it as much as I do 's workouts. But I did get a great stretch to finish off my day.

Total 299 minutes of exercise! Whooo! Good day!

Monday 12/22

Felt like I had been hit by the flu again, so I decided to lay off for the day. I figured my long workout day Sunday entitled me to a rest day.

Tuesday 12/23

Feeling better, so maybe it wasn't the flu, just tired from such a long workout on Sunday. But then I went to take a friend a present and slipped and fell on my knee. It swelled up like a basketball, so I braced it and started using crutches since I couldn't walk on it at all. Skipped the workout because I was on painkillers.

Wednesday 12/24

Still babying my knee so no workout. I did switch from the brace to my athletic tape though because the brace put too much pressure on the patella tendon, which is what I injured. Tape is much better, still offers support but not so much that I'm not using it some too.

Thursday 12/25

Wasn't going to skip my Christmas workout, so I did it all seated in a chair. I couldn't do the kicks or dance moves, but I worked the upper body as hard as possible by exhaggerating the arm movements. I didn't wear my HRM to time any of them though, oops.

Shake (Something Hot About Kids Energy)--This is a kids workout that I did with my DD. She did the whole thing while I just did the arm movements. It is basic aerobics and arms, but great for doing with kids. DD loved it and she is 14, but it would be okay for kids as young as 4-5 I think.

Kickbox Underground--Yeah, I just needed the extra motivation of G today! LOL I couldn't do the kicking, but man I punched the heck out of the air. Something about a hot guy that really motivates me to push myself harder with the video. This is definitely my favorite kickboxing workout.

30 Day Drum Workout--Okay, so this isn't really marketed as an exercise video, but it works the hands and arms in ways no exercise video can. I'm still not a drummer, but it was fun.

Friday 12/26

Winsor Pilates Ab Sculpting--20 minutes; This is one of the original infomercial set. I remember when I first got these I couldn't do a whole one. Wow, I'm amazed at how much stronger I am now! Anyway, this was fun to do while laying in bed. If you've never done pilates in bed, try it! It makes it much harder!

Crunch Fat Burning Pilates--40 minutes; This is a strange mix because it is marketed as a pilates workout, but the first 25 minutes are a light cardio routine. I wasn't up to the dancy stuff, so I sat and did the arm movements, then enjoyed the 15 minutes of mat pilates at the end. Not bad, but not really strenuous either.

Sharon Mann--Bootcamp/Pilates--21 minutes; Sharon Mann is Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde! I love her yoga, pilates, and tai chi stuff because she is a great instructor and very relaxing. But give that girl bootcamp or a stability ball or standard aerobics and she goes insane. She's up and down and in a million directions. Luckily, she does have a couple of modifiers so you can do it as low impact if you want, but she is high impact all the way. I did the arms and then the pilates at the end.

Sharon Mann--Hi/Lo/Pilates--21 minutes; What Lo? Sharon is back to her hyper self. Again, did the arms and the pilates at the end.

Saturday 12/27

Caribbean Pilates--3 episodes--63 minutes; These are some I recorded from FitTV. Again with Jen. Not bad, but not .

Worlds Greatest Spas--Westglow Spa in North Carolina--16 minutes; This is something that I recorded when I lived in North Carolina to give DH a hint for a gift. LOL It isn't a workout, but I loved watching it again. I'm planning a trip in March to visit friends in North Carolina so maybe I need to leave this laying out for DH to see it before we go?

Well, now I'm getting in the mood to workout again. I think I'll take one more day of just upper body and pilates/yoga today. Then tomorrow I'm going to try some light lower body stuff. I'm down to only about 30ish videos to do before Wednesday. I may have to modify still, but I will get them all done!

Tonya

[Guest guest]

hi tonya!

geeze, im so sorry to hear about your knee and the crutches...

thats a real bummer.

you did so great with your workouts though, and modifying for

upper body and abs only.

you are right, the billy blanks crunch workout really sucks. not

recommended to anyone. it was done quite some time before billy

developed taebo (so in the early/mid 90's). im pretty sure

that 'taebo' is not part of the title of this old crunch video...

it might be called 'tae boxing jam' perhaps (??), but it doesnt

matter what it is called, because everyone should skip it.

glad to hear that guillermo gomez got you cooking with 'kickbox

underground'... i agree, it is a fab workout, and who can resist

guillermo??

:*carolyn.