Friday, September 5, 2014

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 4


Day 4: Sweat

Today was Day 4 of PiYo. Day 4 is PiYo Sweat. I was pretty nervous to try this one because I feared I would hate it. I figured it would be pretty fast paced and I wouldn't be able to keep up with the changes between moves. I wasn't entirely wrong, but it was my first time. I'm sure I'll get better as time goes on. I still don't have a yoga mat, but it really didn't matter in this one. 

The Workout

This workout was just under 37 minutes. It started off with doing the squat thing with the arm circles and the arm stretching like the other workouts. This workout had the same modifying person, but the other two were different. We ten went down into chair for a second and then did some lunges back. These lunges weren't as hard as the lunges in Les Mills Combat. It's possibly because I learned some things. We went back to the arm circle squat thing with the arm stretches and then back to the chair and squat thing. Then the PiYo Cross. I did a little better with this thing this time, but I'm still a train wreck with it. Oh this section was about five minutes long. Back to arm circles with squats and arm stretches. More chair with lunges. More PiYo Cross. We folded over into a half lift and then did some leg stretches like the first workout. Then we started it all over again with the arm circles and squats. Then the chair and lunges again, More PiYo Cross. More folding and half lifting and knee bending stretching.

The next section was just under 6 minutes. It was called Heat. We started off by folding in half and doing half lift. We got down into a pushup position on our knees. More tricep pushups. She talks about how easy these are but I suck at them. Then we did Downward Dog. Then we did some crouching in Downward Dog. I kinda liked these! We went to runners lunge. You wouldn't think that a girl my size could do runners lunge, but I can! It's not as deep as hers though. We switched legs a few times. We pressed down into it. We stood up and then got right back down. We did plank, Up Dog, Down and then up again. We did some lunges. Then back on the floor again in plank. Tricep pushups, Down Dog. Stand Up. Fold Forward. Half Lift. Plank. Push ups. DownDog. Stand up. Windmill. Chair. Windmill. Then we did all of that again and again a few more times. She was very good about saying the moves. If she hadn't been saying them, there was no way I would have been anywhere close to her since I couldn't see the screen for most of it. We ended the segment with several squats. 

The next section was just under 11 minutes. It was called Lower Body. We went back to Runner's Lunge and pressed down into it. Then we came up and did some knee lifts. They were really slow. We repeated that. We then kept repeating that for a few times. Then we went to Warrior 3. We went in and out of it so we weren't holding the pose for long. Then we did high lunge and went up and down with it as our arms went up and down. More Warrior 3. More high lunge lunging. We rotated between those a bit. This whole segment was a big challenging for my leg muscles and my balance! It was also taxing on my brain because I just couldn't keep up since we moved from one move to the other quickly. We did some three point stance pose with some crouching crow stuff. Then we did some lunges to the side. We did a runner's balance and alternated between that and the side lunge. We added the three point balance crouching thing too. Then we did some step over lunges. It was similar to a curtsy lunge but we moved with them. More squats and then we did the whole thing again on the other side.

The next segment was just under six minutes. It was plank and core. We folded over and did a half lift. We got into plank and then updog and down dog. We got back up quickly. We then did the PiYo Push Up. You walk your hands out three times into plank position. We lifted our right leg and then the left leg. We did a push up. We walked our hands up. We got up and did a squat. We did the whole thing again a few times. Then we stayed down in plank. We pushed up into like a Downward Dog position but our hip was open as we lifted one leg up into the air. Then we brought it down into plank as we brought the leg down to tap the other ankle and then go back up. Then we did some knee to elbow thing. I got so confused and just stayed in Downward Dog. Then we kept the foot up in the air and pulsed the leg up. This was pretty much torture. Then we went back to Downward Dog. Then we crouched down in Down Dog and straightened the legs. Then we did push up like things in down dog. We then got into Child's Pose. Then we stood up and did it all over again and switched to the other leg. 

The next segment was just over 4 minutes. It was called Power. We went into runner's lunge for a second and then got into a frog stance. We then ended up in horse stance and did some sumo squats. We did the short pulsing ones first. Then we did a full squat in sumo position. Oh then it got fun. We squatted down and touched the floor. As we went up, our arms went up over our head. Then we did the same thing but on the up, we got up onto our toes. She added a hop into it. Then we added a burpee which really sucked. I thought I was free of burpees because this is all no impact. She says we can skip that and we have the modifier to watch, but I wanted no impact without having to modify for that. Then we went back to the squats. More burpees. We ended the segment with pulsing sumo squats and regular squats. 

The next segment was just under 5 and a half minutes. It was called Stretch and Strength. We started off in Pigeon Pose. I hate getting into it, but I do love how it feels. Then we did some tricep pushups. Pigeon Pose on the other side. Pushups! Then we did some leg stretching with our feet out wide and we bent over towards one leg. More push ups! This time they were with our hands out wide. We then did the leg stretch towards the other knee. More push ups! This time our feet were wide. Then we went back to a runner's stretch. And more push ups. Runner's lunge on the other side. More push ups. Child's Pose. 

Overall, I liked parts of the workout, but other parts weren't as fun for me. I'm okay with doing difficult things, but I just am having a hard time following this because we never do the same thing for very long. I've still got several weeks to work on this since this workout will be in the program all the way until the end. 

BodyMedia Screen Shots

It's not impressive once again, but it's not about the calorie burn with PiYo. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I will say that I'm sore today! My biceps are sore, my abs are sore, my glutes are working on being sore. I'm pretty sure my hamstrings are going to hurt pretty good tomorrow. We are supposed to go hiking on Sunday! Eeeeeeeeeek! I have a double workout tomorrow so I can get my rest day on Sunday. This could be ugly. 


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2 comments:

  1. I'm a Piyo live instructor and I admit that I was skeptical when I first started instructing. I was all about BodyFlow and wasn't a huge beachbody person. But even the fit instructor that I am I have seen SIGNIFICANT arm definition and ab definition! I couldn't believe it because, just like you said, it's not a calorie burner (Although I do normally burn about 350 so I'll take it). I think it has a lot to do with Squats. Squats activate a few hormones in the body that help destroy fat and show definition. And piyo is certainly filled with the squats!

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  2. Just did sweat for the first time .. pretty sure I died halfway through and my ghost got up somewhere and finished it for me.

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