Thursday, January 1, 2015

21 Day Fix Day 4 Pilates Fix


Day 4 Pilates Fix

Today was Day 4 of the 21 Day Fix. Day 4 was Pilates Fix. My quads are still hurting from Day 1. My butt hurts from Day 3. My shoulders, my chest and my back still hurt from Day 2. I had never done Pilates and wasn't really sure what to expect from this. I've done PiYo, which is a mix of Pilates and Yoga, but I've never done straight up Pilates. I was in for quite the surprise with this workout!

This workout had a different warmup than the previous three which made me quite happy. I wish they all had unique warmups! It also didn't follow the same format as the previous workouts. After the warm up, we did a few a series or two with the standard 60 seconds of work with 15-20 seconds of rest, but at a certain point, we stopped going by time and started going by reps. Instead of a timer on the screen, it counted down the number of reps. Then we did a cool down. The whole workout was done on the floor. We didn't use any weights or any props. 

The warm up was just over 4 minutes. The warm up started off in a seated cross legged position. We did some deep breathing while raising our arms up over our heads. Then we went up and twisted as we came down. Then we did some seated side bends. Then we put our legs straight out in front of us and did some forward folds. These were dynamic though. Then we did cat / cows. Then we were on all fours. We stuck one leg back and the opposite arm forward. We then raised and lowered them. We switched sides. Then we did a similar move, but instead of up and down, we pulled the leg and arm in towards each other. I did okay with the up and down, but the in and out one was a bit rough for me. That was the warm up.

The first series was called the Ab Series. The first move was Hundreds. I've done these before with a Leslie Sansone workout. Our legs were straight out as low as we could keep them. Up shoulders were off the floor. Our hands were by our sides, but off the floor. We pumped them up and down. We were supposed to inhale for two beats and exhale for two. She mentioned that Pilates was all about breathing, but I couldn't really do the breathing right. Maybe that's why this workout was hard for me. Anyway, the Hundreds were challenging, but I think a lot of that was because my legs hurt already. Then we did 1 Leg Stretches. Our legs were bent and our feet were hovering over the floor. We pulled one leg to our chest while stretching the other one out. Then we pulled it in with our hands and pulsed for two then switched legs. Then we did it with straight legs and it was called Scissors. This was so much harder. My legs were bent for sure by the end. Then we did Leg Lowers. Our legs went straight up and then we brought them as low as we could and then back up. Our feet were supposed to to point out to help our back. Then we did alternating Leg Lifts. We were in a Push Up position and lifted one leg up at a time. Holding the proper upper body form was the hardest part of this one for me. Then we held the same position, but pulled our knees to our chest. Then we were in the same position and did alternating toe taps out to the side. This section had 1 minute exercises and 15-30 seconds of rest between them.

The next series was called C Series. We were seated with our legs in front of us. They were bent slightly. We bent back and curved our spine into a C. Our hands were up in the air. This was called C Center. I'm not sure if I did this one right. Then we did the same move, but twisted and tapped a hand behind us. My shoulders were not liking life. Then we did Knee Drivers. We had the same position, but we alternated lifting knees as we came forward. These lasted 60 seconds with 15ish seconds of rest.

At this point, it switched from timed stuff to the reps. We laid down on our side on the floor. The upper leg raised up and then kicked forward and then back. It was slow and controlled. There was a pulse at the front and the back. Then we did bicycle circles to the front and to the back. Then we did Mix the Bowl. These were small circles with our leg. We went forward and backward. By this point, my leg was killing me! However, it wasn't over! Then we did Stir the Pot which was BIG circles front and back. This series was torture for me. My big circles were little circles. Then we did Double Taps. The top leg tapped twice to the front and then made a big arc to get to the back where it double tapped the floor again. I didn't make a big arc. I barely go over my leg. My legs were killing me! Then we did a quick hip stretch and switched sides to do it all over again. My second side was even worse than the first. We did 10 reps of each thing on each side.

The next series was the Superman Series. We did regular Supermans to start. Then it was Lift and Rotate. This was a Superman, but once we were up, we stretched one arm to the side. Then we Swam. We picked out feet up and our upper body and then fluttered both of them. I kinda liked this series. There was 10 reps per move.

Then it was the Plank series. We did an elbow plank hold for 60 seconds. I bailed after 30 and had to start again. My abs were just fried! Then we did Hip Drops. We held elbow plank and lowered one hip to the floor and then went back up and lowered the other one down. I did these on my knees and they were still torture.

Then we had a bonus exercise. We held an elbow plank for 10 seconds and then went down for 3 seconds of rest. We did this for 60 seconds.

Then it was time for the cool down. Woot Woot!  We did some yoga poses. Child's Pose, Child's Pose to the left and then to the right, Staff Position with a forward fold, Cobbler's pose with a forward fold, Wide Leg Straddle with a forward fold and then folding to each side and then we did a shoulder stretch while doing a crossed legged position. We put our hands behind our backs and did a chest stretch. Then she got up and stretched quads with that one legged thing where you reach back and grab your foot. I suck at that so I just did a quad stretch on the floor.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's another unimpressive screen shot. It might not show a lot of calories, but it was a lot of work. I know that much for sure!

Want to Learn More? Watch the Video!

7 comments:

  1. Just wanted to say thanks for these detailed reviews. I just started the program and I've been using your posts to get a sneak peek of what's to come the next day. Thanks to you I know what to expect going into a workout and it's helping me push harder because I'm not afraid of the unknown exercises ahead of me!

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    1. Somehow I haven't been getting notified when comments show up! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. How did the program go? Did you finish it? I'm glad you found the posts helpful. Part of my reasoning for writing the blogs was to put more information out there. I found it very difficult to find information about the programs to see if they were things that I thought I could handle. I didn't want to spend the money if it was something out of my ability. Everyone seemed to post a full review of the program, but not any details about individual workouts.

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  2. I'm glad to hear you were sore from Day 1 too, I was beginning to think i did something wrong. I love reading these updates/previews. Thank you for writing these.

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  3. I'm glad you like reading about my experiences with my workouts. :) You are definitely not the only one getting sore from these for sure! It should get a bit better in weeks two and three. The first time I do any new workout, I'm usually pretty sore. The same thing happened with 21 Day Fix Extreme. The first day was Plyo Fix Extreme and I was pretty sore my first week with that one. I still got sore in weeks two and three, but it wasn't nearly as bad as week one!

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  4. I realize your blog posts on this program are over 4 years old, but I just want to thank you! I recently started the program, and I find your posts to be so informative & motivating. I love coming here after I finish a day so I’ll know what to expect for tomorrow’s workout.

    Thanks again!

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