Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Review of Beachbody Hammer and Chisel Day 2: Hammer Plyometrics


Day 2: Hammer Plyometrics

Let's start off with an update on how sore I am from my Chisel Balance workout yesterday. I thought my legs would be really sore, but they aren't. I didn't think my upper body would be sore, but it is. My shoulders, my chest, my lats and my triceps are definitely feeling it today. I guess I'm rather impressed with myself over that. I did modify a bit yesterday, but I still thought I would feel it more in my legs today. Win for me!

On to today's workout. I was pretty excited to get to do another Sagi workout. I loved Body Beast and I've been looking forward to this program since I first heard about it. I wanted to get back into some hard core lifting! I was pretty bummed when the first workout with Sagi turned out to be Hammer Plyometrics. I'm not a fan of Plyometrics. All that jumping, blechy. I have to do it though. I know it's good for me! 

The warm up was interesting in this one. We used a resistance band for most of it. The modifier used a towel. She wasn't a modifier to make things easier. She was to show you what you can do if you don't have certain equipment. In this case, she didn't have a band. She also demonstrated what to do if you didn't have a bench or a pull up bar. So in the warm up we held the band out in front of us and then raised our hands up over our heads. There were different variations on this. Some we bent our elbows and others we went up and over and behind our backs. There were some other moves in the warm up, but they were all pretty simple and pretty standard things.

This workout was only 25 minutes! Woot Woot! Love love love short workouts. There were nine exercises. We went through all nine and then had a rest and then did all nine again. Then we cooled down. The cool down was pretty standard stretching type stuff. 

The Exercises

Vertical Jump

There were pretty straightforward. We squatted down an then jumped up out of the squat. We were supposed to go as high as we could. We also raised up one hand like we were giving a high five to a really tall person. The first round we raised one hand and the second, we raised the other. 

Burpee Pull Up

We did a burpee and then a pull up. This was a bit awkward for me since I don't have a pull up bar. Not that I could do a pull up if I had a bar. The resistance band is pretty long so to use it to do a pull up, you either have to be on your knees or you need to get a decent distance from the door. I couldn't just let go of the bands because they would smack the door. I had to walk up to the door to let go of the bands and then do the burpee. Then I had to get the bands and then walk back to do the pull up. I feel like I didn't get as many reps as I should have gotten. I didn't really get why the chin up was even included in there, but I'm not the trainer.

Leg In and Outs

This was interesting. We had our hands up on the bench and our feet on either side of the bench. We were supposed to jump our feet up onto the bench. If you don't have a bench, you're supposed to sort of kick up off the floor almost as if you're going to do a handstand, but then your feet come back down.I have a bench, but it has a bar attachment and a leg extension attachment so this was a bit awkward for me. I was a bit concerned about hurting myself so I didn't even try to get my feet up on the bench. Instead I just jumped my knees up onto the bench. I was a bit afraid I was going to break it too! I don't think I did though. It was hard enough just getting my knees up there. I don't think I'd be able to do my feet. The modifier without the bench actually looked harder than the regular most since it seemed like more weight would be on the hands. 

Plyo Push Up Taps

These were your standard plyo push ups where you go down into a push up and then push off the ground as you come up out of it, but then we went down again and tapped the bench with one hand then we went down and came up with the push off and then down and up and tap with the other hand. I feel like the bench tapping actually made this easier because it wasn't 30 seconds straight of plyo push ups. I had to do these on my knees. 

Crazy Horse

This is another one where my bench made it difficult to do the full move. So your hands are on the bench again and your feet are together. You jump your feet up and over to the other side of the bench. Instead of putting my body in line with the bench, I went perpendicular to the bench and jumped my feet back and forth. I didn't really make them go up and over. It was more just back and forth. I did it as fast as I could to make it harder. The modifier was on the floor in kind of a pike position and did sort of jumping jack legs while her hands stayed in position. I might try that one next time, but I think I like my modification better. I like using the bench to help put more of the weight on my feet. I might even start using the bench to modify push ups instead of going to my knees. It might make it harder than doing them on my knees, but still easier than doing them on my toes on the floor. 

Chin Up Crunch Squat Jump

Oh this was another fun one where we include chin ups with other moves. So we were supposed to do a chin up and then pull our knees up to our chests. I gotta say that Sagi is much more flexible than I thought he would be. He managed to get into the fetal position while doing a chin up. Simply amazing. After that, we were supposed to come down onto the floor, step back and do a squat jump. I have no bar and I couldn't do a chin up if I had a bar. I had the pesky door attachment again and the whole having to walk to the door to let go and walk away to do the chin up was again annoying. I also wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing because I couldn't immediately see what the modifier was doing. She did the "chin up" and then pulled one knee into her chest. She alternated her knees. I kept forgetting to do the knee thing, and I still don't feel like I got enough reps in. 

Knee Driver

I kinda liked these. They were the only move where we used actual weights. So we had a weight in one hand. I used a five pound weight and was glad for that. We lunged back on the same side that the weight was on. We leaned forward and touched the weight to the ground. We then came back to vertical without touching the foot down and jumped up as we raised the weight in the air and brought our knee up to about hip height. I had to touch my toe down a lot, but I still kinda liked these.

Sumo Tuck Jump

The name says it all. This was 30 seconds of doing Sumo Tuck Jumps. I don't think you could really consider mine Tuck Jumps though. They were more like Sumo Squat Jumps. I got my feet off the floor, but I didn't get my elevation in the knees. 

Lunge Lunge Squat 

This was another one that I had to modify. I don't do plyo lunges. I can do the ones we did in 21 Day Fix Extreme where we kept the same leg forward the whole time and just jumped up, but I can't do the ones where you start off with the right leg front and then jump up and now your left leg is front. Maybe I'm just scared to try since I did while doing Les Mills Combat and my knee hurt for like two months. Maybe I'll try them again by the end of Hammer and Chisel. I'll think about it. I modified by just stepping back into the lunge and stepping forward and then back with the other foot and then back forward again. I don't think we did a jump on the squat. 

My overall thoughts are that I need to give them an A in the creativity department. Some of these moves were rather interesting. They weren't very practical in my situation though. I'm going to look into resistance bands and see if they have shorter options. A shorter band would be nice because I wouldn't have to get so far away from the door to do it. I felt rushed to get into position to do the pull ups. It was also awkward because I only have one band. We used the band during the warm up and then in the workout it needed to be in the door attachment. I just came up with a brilliant idea! I've got some stretchy bands from my Walk Away the Pounds workouts. They don't have handles like a resistance band, but they still provide resistance. I wonder if I could put one of those in the door attachment. I'd be able to just drop that since it wouldn't make noise when hitting the door. I almost want to go workout again just to give this a try! I wonder if tomorrow's workout uses the chin up bar! I just looked ahead and it does! Tomorrow is Iso Strength Chisel. Oh I can't wait for that! I don't think it has the complicated moves where I'd have to let go of the band and do something else and then grab the band again though so it might not be a good test of my plan. The hand position stuff might not really work right either for the chin ups, but I'm not sure I really care about that. I'm rambling now!

The workout had a worksheet, but I didn't fill it out. We were supposed to count reps, but I'm just happy to get through the 30 seconds. I don't really care how many reps I did and the added stress of counting and writing stuff down is just too much for my poor little brain that early in the morning. 

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots. My heart rate was all of the place. I'm pretty sure the extreme dips and peeks aren't real. 





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