Jessica Smith Stride & Strength

Coolest thing ever! I can share the workouts right to my blog! Oh I'm a happy happy girl!

Why I picked this workout

I had originally decided that today was going to be my day to try step, but I was still a bit sore from Monday and just didn't think I would be into a step workout. I also wasn't in the mood to meet a new instructor. I was still in my Leslie Sansone free week, and I wasn't in the mood to listen to Denise Austin's overly perky chatter. That left me with Jessica Smith, my new favorite workout instructor. I wish I had been paying better attention though because this was Stride & Strength which means...........weights and squats! The little blurb sounded like I would just be walking with weights. I was okay with an upper body workout, but I wanted to rest my weary legs today!

Equipment

This workout included dumbbells. She used 5 pound dumbbells. There was one section where she put both of them in one hand. I still don't have dumbbells. I'm having a hard time deciding on what ones to buy and if I should even buy them. I have a free gym membership through work, so it seems like if I"m going to use dumbbells, I should just go to the gym. I'm rambling though, so back to the workout. I used my two pound weighted balls. For some parts they seemed appropriate, but for others they were too light. 

The Workout

I honestly can't remember a warm up. The walking started out pretty fast paced, but I was able to keep up. I'm not sure if this workout was the same pace as the previous workout of hers that I did, but I was able to keep up with this one. I did find that the pace was pretty consistent with the beat of the music on this one, but the previous one wasn't so maybe that made it easier for me. 

I really should write this stuff down after the workout so it's easier for me to remember what happened. There was a lot of walking and sidesteps, but there were a lot of other moves as well. One of them was kind of hard! We stood still and lifted up our toes. My shins don't get a lot of work, so this one was awkward to do, but also painful in a good way. 

I liked that she started with a simple move and then built on it to make it harder. For example, she started by alternating tap outs, so the right leg went out and in, and then the left foot went out and in. After that she added a leg lift to that. After that, she added a side crunch, so your arm goes up into the air and then you crunch down as your leg comes up. The gradual building made it a lot easier.

There were a few moves that were a bit taxing on my brain. One of them was the box step which was easy enough. Our feet were a bit apart and then we stepped up with the right foot and then the left. Then we stepped back with the right and then the left. She said something about imaging a box flat on the floor and you are stepping on the corners. Once we got comfortable with the box step, she pressed her arms forward slowly. Once we did that for a bit, she picked up the pace of the arms. It was hard to get my arms to go at the faster pace. Instead of going with each step, they only wanted to go on every other step. I finally got my arms and feet moving correctly, but it was time for that move to be over. Just how things go for me. 

There was a bunch of squatting in this workout. My legs were on fire! There was a single leg squat where you planted one foot and just had the toes of the other foot touching the ground. This was the one that she had both dumbbells in one hand. Once the single leg squatting was done, we stayed in the single leg squat position and did rows. Just standing there with all of my weight on the one leg was soo hard! I've got a lot of weight to hold up! Towards the end of the workout there were sumo squats. I love sumo squats, so these were good. There was an interesting arm move to go with them. I can't really describe it, but it worked the chest and the back. 

She was really good about doing stuff for the front and the back. She did a good mix of things. I didn't get bored with the workout. it was nice to do a variety of things. I just wish I had picked this on a different day since I was still a bit sore and was looking for straight up cardio.

The cool down was pretty short, but the stretching was pretty long for a workout DVD. She did some stretches that required some balance and flexibility that I just don't have. I did some of her modified options with the stretches, but I just can't do the quad stretch where you reach back and grab your foot to pull it up towards your rear end. I managed to get the leg of my pants, but since they were sweats, they stretched out, and I didn't get much of a stretch on that one. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the workout and will do another one of hers in the future. I just wish it was easier for me to figure out where all of the walking workouts were located. I'll do some digging around. I'm sure I'm just missing something. 

If you don't want to use YouTube to view her workouts, you can buy some on Amazon.com. 

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Here are my BodyMedia screen shots. I was pretty surprised and bummed to see only 21 minutes of activity and only 1 minute of vigorous activity in a 36 minute workout, but there was a lot of stationary stuff that was strenuous for me, but not a lot of movement. Plus, the stretch was pretty long. I enjoyed the workout though and would do it again. The arc of the workout is a bit odd when viewed on here. The beginning stuff was a lot of cardio, but it worked the muscles too. That big drop in the middle must have been the part with the single leg squats. I"m not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I really want to try her kickboxing workout, but I might be too stiff for that tomorrow.