21 Day Fix Day 1 - Total Body Cardio Fix

Day 1: Total Body Cardio Fix

Today was my first day of the 21 Day Fix. It's a 21 day program that includes an awesome nutrition program as well as a workout program. The workouts are 30 minutes each and you get one workout per day plus two extra 10 minute workouts that you can do if you're short on time or just add in whenever you want. If you buy the program from a BeachBody Coach, you get one free workout. The program comes with containers for food so you know how much food you should eat. They are color co-ordinated and each container is for a different type of food. I'll talk more about that later.

This workout used a set of dumbbells. I used 5 pound weights since it was my first time doing it. I wasn't really sure what to expect so I didn't want to go too heavy and not be able to finish. Turns out, I made a smart choice since I still wasn't able to do some of the moves with the weights for the whole round. The workout has one person who is a modifier. I love that she's a larger person instead of a little skinny mini. 

The workout started off with a warm up and then went into four different rounds. Each round had two exercises and we did each exercise twice. Each exercise lasted for 60 seconds. Then there was a rest period from 20 to 24 seconds long. During the rest, she explained the next move. It was a very structured workout and I really like structure. If I'm doing a move that totally sucks, I can usually make it through the full round as long as I know how long it's going to last, but if you tell me to just keep plugging away at a bazillion lunges and give me no indication of how many more I have to do, I'll probably bail and say that I needed a drink. I love when workouts have little breaks so I can get a drink! 

The warm up started with a job. The warm up lasted about three minutes. Then we moved to jumping jacks. Then we went to windmills. These were just arm circles. We went forwards and backwards. Then we did a lateral lunge type thing with the opposite arm going up over our head. We did one side for like 30 seconds and then did the other side. Then we did what I thought of as windmills. We had our arms out to the sides and then touched a hand down to the opposite foot. Then we did all of those moves again. She was pretty good at the cueing and told us what we would be doing next in the last few seconds of the move. She counted down the last three seconds of things. 

The first round was Surrenders. We held the weights at our shoulders. Then we knelt down with the right knee and then the right knee. Then we stood up with the right and then the left. I was so off balance during this. It was pretty rough. For the second round, I didn't use the weights and I used my hand on my knee to get up. She said that this was the hardest move of the workout, but I didn't really agree. It was hard physically, but not cardiovascularly. After the Surrenders we did a side shuffle with a squat and then back. It was basically two side steps to the right with a squat at the end and we touched the floor. These were pretty easy. 

The second round was Squat Wood Chop. I have never done these like this. I've done plenty of Wood Chopping in workout videos, but we've always started at the top and chopped down to the squat. With this we started at the squat and "chopped" up to the other side. It was weird. It was easy enough to do, but it was just weird for my brain. Then we did Cross Country Skiers. We used a weight. We started with the weight at chest height. We pushed it up and pulled it back down. While doing that. We did sort of a plyo lunge crossed with a scissor leg move with the lower body. I found this to be the most challenging move of the entire workout. The first round, I did the modified version which was just stepping back into a small lunge as we raised the weight up. My shoulders weren't really loving all of this shoulder work.

The third round was the Weighted Jog. We held a dumbbell while we jogged. We then pushed it out in front of us and pulled it back to our chest. Then we did Knee Pulls. We had a weight up over our head and one leg back in a lunge position. We pulled the weight down as we pulled the knee up to hippish height. I took several breaks on this one. By then, my shoulders were just not digging life. I didn't use weights for the second leg.

The fourth round was on our backs! It sounds more exciting than it was though. We did Frog Crunches. I've never done these before. Our legs were up in the air with our knees and toes bent out. We crunched our upper body up as we pulled our knees down. Then the knees went up and the upper body went back. I really felt these. The first round was easy enough, but the second round was pretty torturous. Then we did Oblique Crunches. We had one ankle up on the other knee and we crunched the opposite elbow up to meet it. These were pretty rough for me too today. 

Then it was time for the cool down. We did some quick yoga poses. Modified Cobra, Child's Pose, Child's Pose to the right and then to the left, Staff Pose with a forward fold, Cobbler's Pose with a forward fold, wide leg straddle with a forward fold, then we stretched to each foot. Then we did a shoulder stretch on each arm and a chest stretch. Then we stood up and stretched out our quads. I had to use the wall. The modifier person didn't have to though so I felt all stupid. Then we did a deep breath and we were done. 

Overall, I think it was a great workout. It was only 30 minutes which was awesome. I like that these are 30 minutes. Since we don't get a rest day for 21 days, I think it's important to have short workouts. It might be nice to have some days with longer workouts, but I like this set up. After my 21 days is up, I might do some doubling up. There is an option to double up for faster results in the final week, but they say to do them at different times of the day. I can only workout before work right now so I can't do them at different times of the day. 

I'm pretty sure my quads are going to hurt tomorrow!

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Since I actually got some vigorous activity on here, I thought I would go back to posting the workout arms. I really like the workout arcs so here it is! For my first time, I think 9 minutes of vigorous activity is pretty dang good. My lungs were burning a bit during this workout and I was coughing a lot. I haven't done much cardio lately so I'm not surprised about that happening.