Review of Daily Burn Day 51: Cardio Sculpt Kickin' It With Keaira

Day 51: Cardio Sculpt Kickin' It With Keaira

I was really excited to do yoga today, but I turned on Daily Burn to see if it was still active because I thought I should get every day out of it that I could. I looked over the Cardio Sculpt workouts that I hadn't done yet and picked Kickin' It with Keaira because I was pretty sore, but knew that I could handle kickboxing stuff. After the workout, I realized that I only had three left and figured I would just slam out all three of them in the afternoon. However, hubby came home from work sick so I didn't end up doing those last three. Maybe, my trial won't actually end today and I can do them tomorrow. :)

The workout was done in circuits, but it wasn't structured like with Anja's workouts. The workout was just under 37 minutes. I like the instructor, but I didn't like the format.

The workout started off with a warm up that included a Step Tap, Jabs, Hooks, Uppercuts, Cross Jabs and Palm Hand Strikes. 

The Challenge was Burpees! We did Burpees for a minute. I hate Burpees, but these weren't all that bad. It says something about my journey that I actually said Burpees aren't that bad. I lost count of how many I did. 

Circuit 1 started with the Boxer Shuffle. We did a lot of Boxer Shuffle during this workout. Then we did Jabs in a Single/Single/Double pattern. That lasted for a minute. More Boxer Shuffle. Then we did the Single/Single/Double pattern with Hooks. Shuffle. Single/Single/Double Upper Cuts. Shuffle. Single/Single/Double Cross. 

Circuit 2 started with a jog. Then we did more Palm Strikes. I have issues with these because I forget to turn my hand over when I pull it back. We did one strike to the front and then we stepped back and did a strike to the side. We did that for a minute. We then did the other side. 

Circuit 3 started with the Boxer Shuffle. Then we did Front Snaps, but they were just Front Kicks. We alternated them for a minute. Then we did more Boxer Shuffle. Then we did One Legged Front Snaps. We did not alternate these. We did one minute on each side. At some point while doing these, I realized that my knees were coming up pretty high! In the past when I've done front kicks, my knee barely made it to my hip height, but my knees got up to my belly button today! More Boxer Shuffle and then we did a front kick with a step back with the other foot. The advanced version involved touching one hand down as we stepped back. We did a minute on each leg. Then we rested! 

Circuit 4 started with the Boxer Shuffle! Then we did Side Kicks. We did one minute on each side. Then we did a Side Kick with a step out. The step out was just a step to the side with the non-kicking leg. We did the Boxer Shuffle between sides.

Circuit 5 started with a combo. We did a Jab with each hand, a Squat and a Front Kick. We alternated the legs that we were kicking. Then we did a Boxer Shuffle. Then we did a jab with each hand, a squat and a side kick. We alternated which leg we were kicking. 

Circuit 6 started with more Boxer Shuffle! Then we did an Uppercut with each arm followed by a standing side crunch. We put an arm up in the air and pulled it down as we pulled our leg up. More Boxer Shuffle.

Circuit 7 started with a Jab on each side, a Hook on each side, an Uppercut on each side and then a Bob and Weave. We ducked down and then shifted our weight to the other side. We did this for a minute. More Boxer Shuffle.

Circuit 8 started with Block upward, a hand strike forward and a side kick. We did each side for a minute. 

Circuit 9 started with the Boxer Shuffle. We then did the Jab and Rock. We jabbed to the front and rocked back. We did each side. We also did a 4-3-2-1 thing where we jabbed four times to the front and then four times to the side. Then we did 3 each then 2 each and then 1. We kept with that four the rest.

Then it was time for the cool down stretching stuff.

Overall, this workout felt like it took forever. The short circuits went relatively quickly, but because there were so many of them and there was no structure, it just felt eternal. I liked all of the stuff that we did and nothing was crazy hard, but it just seemed so long! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I got 9 minutes of vigorous activity! Woot Woot! I'm pretty stoked about the 33 minutes of total activity too. We really did keep moving for the bulk of the workout. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 49: Cardio Sculpt BHT (Buns, Hips and Thighs)

Day 49: Cardio Sculpt BHT (Buns, Hips and Thighs)

Only two workouts before my trial is over! I'm pretty happy that all of those days that I doubled up made it so I only missed out on essentially 10 days of workouts. I'm going to miss the yoga workouts and I'm pretty bummed that I won't get to do any of Bob Harper's stuff. I could do one tomorrow, but I had already picked a few that I wanted to do before I found out about his stuff so I'll probably do Daily Burn again at some point in the future. It's only $10/month and I'm sure they'll send me some incentive to rejoin. They already sent me a 50% off three months over. It was actually tempting, but I have 21 Day Fix, Tai Cheng and Pump to do, plus Slim in 6 after I buy that one since I have the upgrade package now from the sale. 

Okay, so the workout......This was another HIIT workout with Anja as the instructor. I really like her and I like her workouts. Her HIIT workouts have structure. This had four circuits. Each circuit had two moves that we did four times each. Each move was 30 seconds with a 15 second rest. There was a one minute rest after each circuit. We needed dumbbells for this one, but you could do it without them. I only used 5 pound dumbbells, but could have done it with more. 

The warm up included Power Arms. We basically raised an arm up and over our head and then went to the other side with the same thing. Then we did Side Squats and rear lunges. The challenge was Elbow Plank. It was a bit of an odd challenge though. I made it through the full minute without any issues. It made me think that I could go another minute! I need to see how long I can plank for, but I can't just say, "Oh. How long can I plank for today?" I will give up as soon as I start to shake. I need to challenge myself to hold it for two minutes and see if I can do it. She gave us the option of just holding the plank or going from elbow plank to push up position and back down again again. 

Circuit 1 was a Side Squat and a Squat Hold. We did the side squat on the same side for the whole round and then the second round was the other side. The Squat Hold was HARD! We held a squat for 30 seconds! It hurt, but I survived.

Circuit 2 was a Back Lunge and a Back Lunge Tap. The Back Lunge started out as a normal back lunge, but then we dragged our toe slowly as we stood up. The Back Lunge Tap involved holding the back lunge position but then pulling the back leg back to the front and tapping it down. Both of these were pretty rough on the plant let!

Circuit 3 was the Curtsy Lunge and Leg Lift. The Curtsy Lunge is pretty self explanatory. You can Google it if you don't know what it is. For the leg lift, we held the dumbbells in front of us with our hands together and our elbows up. We crunched the elbow down to the side and lifted our leg up. 

Circuit 4 was Side Lunges and Jacks. We did a lateral lunge and made sure that the "plant" leg stayed perfectly straight. Then we came back to center and did another lateral lunge, but at an angle to the back. I didn't enjoy Jacks. It was the leg portion of jumping jacks. We didn't have to do the arm part though so I was able to hold my boobs still which is the main reason why I hate jumping things. I really need to get an awesome sports bra, but the boobs are shrinking too much to bother spending money on one that won't last long. 

Then we did a cool down. It was normal cool down stuff. 

Overall, I really liked this workout. It went super fast and the jacks were the only thing I didn't really like. I like Anja and I like weights. Win Win.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. It's not very impressive. I would have taken another step had I known that I was at 999, but I didn't notice. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 48: Yoga Twist Flow

Day 48: Yoga Twist Flow

I finally got through the final Yoga workout from Daily Burn. I love these workouts. I love the instructor. I love the setting. I love the Yoga. I'm going to miss these. I tried to do this one on Sunday, but the video died and I couldn't revive it. I was afraid that I wouldn't get another opportunity to do it before my trial was up. It's an hour long workout so I have to wake up on time to get it done. Today, I woke up on time and decided that I just need to slam this out. 

This workout was listed as hard and it was! It's another one that doesn't have a fast forward option, so I can't do a play by play. Well, I could, but that would mean watching the whole thing again and I'm just not interested in doing that. 

I'll tell you want I remember. This one started out nice and easy by laying on our backs and just breathing. It also ended that way. Everything in between the beginning pose and the end pose was just hard!!!! After the beginning pose, we moved right into the meat of it. We started out doing a bicycle type move, but it was like slow motion and it was intense! We started off by pulling our knees up above our hips and then keeping our lower leg parallel to the floor. We put our hands behind our head and twisted to bring an elbow to the opposite knee while one leg was straight out just hovering over the floor. After a breath, we switched. We did this part pretty slowly unlike normal bicycles that you should keep moving. In PiYo, I got pretty good at bicycles, but this was torture! 

After that, we did some of the vinyasa stuff where we were in Down Dog then we hopped forward and did some forward folding. Then we hopped back to plank, went down to chataranga (I still can't spell it) then Up Dog and the finally Down Dog again. We did some Chair during this too. However, the chair involved putting our hands in a prayer position while twisting to the side so our left elbow would be on the outside of our right thigh. I'm getting good at Chair and can get much deeper now. My legs were on fire though. However, I just couldn't get the twist deep enough. I could get my left elbow to the inside of my right knee and that's about it. 

We did some Warrior 1 and Warrior 3. We also did a lot of balancing on one leg towards the end. We had one knee pulled up and then grabbed our toes on that foot and stretched out the foot straight. Okay, she did that. I just kept it bent. I kept falling out of it too. It was not a pretty sight, but oh well. I can't remember the names of most of the stuff we did, but there was a lot of twisting and a lot of balance stuff. She did a move where she was balancing completely on just two hands. No way that's happening for me anytime soon. 

My overall thoughts..... There was so much that I wasn't able to do, but I still loved the workout. I found joy in the fact that I was able to do so much of it and didn't think I should be able to since it was listed as a Hard Yoga workout and I'm 267 pounds and a very novice yogi. I was able to do things better than I had my first few workouts with yoga. I'm still working on my balance, but I really liked this one. I really wish I could just buy these workouts! Oh well, I picked up another Rodney Yee Yoga DVD from the library today. I'm really excited to try it. The library has several of his DVDs. If Gaiam TV does another offer for a month at 99 cents, I might do it just to try out more of his stuff! I'm kinda kicking myself for not doing it when it was offered the other day. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

These are never really impressive, but I don't care. I have fun with yoga. While doing it this morning, I was actually thinking about the why of it. I was also thinking that I wish I had started it sooner. I might not have fallen off the fitness wagon the last time if I had been doing yoga and foam rolling them. Okay, so I think I really like yoga for a few reasons......I like the calmness of it. There's no bouncing around doing burpees. The music is calming and the instructors that I've chosen to follow are positive and encouraging without being overbearing and perky. I think another huge factor though....Yoga is strength training in disguise. After some of these workouts, I really feel like I have been lifting weights. I guess I have been since it's all about my own body weight and I've got plenty of weight! Maybe I'll get better at this yoga stuff and I can be a yoga instructor! Wouldn't that be a hoot. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 47: Intelliburn Powerball Strength

Day 47: Intelliburn Powerball Strength

I've been seeing Anja with a stability ball in the intros for the Cardio Sculpt workouts that I've been doing. I've wanted to find the workout, but hadn't found it. I like Anja and I love my stability ball so I thought it was win win. I went on a mission to find it and I did! I was seeing it in the intro to Cardio Sculpt, but the workout is part of Intelliburn. 

The workout was about 35 minutes long. It was another HIIT workout. There were four circuits. Each circuit had two moves that we alternated for a total of four rounds. They were 30 seconds long with 15 seconds of rest and then a minute of rest between each circuit. There was a modifier who didn't use a ball, so if you don't have one, you'll be fine. 

We started out doing Ball Swings. We held the ball and did the pendulum thing like we did with the medicine ball on Sunday's workout. Then we did Side Squats. We stepped to the side and squatted down as we touched the ball down to the ground. Then we stepped center and put the ball up over our heads. Then we did reverse lunges. The ball was up over our head when were standing and as we lunged back, the ball came down n front of us. Next was Spine Roll. We set the ball down and rolled forward into a forward fold and then we rolled back up.

Then it was time for the Sit Up Challenge. I had to stick my feet under the recliner to do the sit ups. We didn't do these on the ball. I can crunch, but I can't sit up unless my feet are held down. 

Circuit 1 was Jack Knife and Ball Push Ups. The Jack Knife is the Pike thing that we did in Quick Core. We were in Plank position with our toes on the ball. Our butts were supposed to go up in the air. It was pretty much impossible for me. I ended up just doing Pikes on the floor. I tried to do the rolling the ball forward thing instead of piking up, but that didn't go so well either, so I just did the floor stuff. The push ups were done in the same position with the toes on the ball. I tried the first set, but didn't get very far so I just did them on my knees. 

Circuit 2 was Dumbbell Raise and Crunch. These were both done on the ball on our backs. The Dumbbell Raise started off with a Chest Press. Then we turned our hands so that our palms were facing each other. Then we moved the dumbbells back over our head. Then we went back up to chest press position and lowered them. The Crunch was done on our backs with our hands up like we had just pushed up into a chest press. Then we just did crunches with our arms up like that. This was a bit rough on my legs. I think I need a bigger ball so it will hold more of me. My legs and glutes were working hard to keep my butt up.

Circuit 3 was Alternating Lunges and Shake. These were forward lunges this time. We raised and lowered the ball just like in the warmup. For Shake, we held the ball in front of us and just shook it left and right. It sounds easy, but it was a bit of a challenge in my shoulders. I didn't enjoy my body parts bouncing. 

Circuit 4 was Cobra and Tricep Extension. We were on our chests on the ball for both of these. For Cobra our hands were sort of by our sides, but down by the floor. We raised our backs up like in a superman. The tricep extensions were just normal tricep extensions, but we were laying on a ball. 

Then we moved to the cool down. We did normal stretchy stuff.

Overall, I really liked this workout. It was challenging and fun at the same time. I really like Anja. I wish I could buy some of her DVDs. I'm enjoying the Daily Burn stuff, but I just can't see perpetually renting. If I was going to get new stuff each week, I could do it, but to just rent the same stuff over and over again just seems wrong. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the BodyMedia screen shot of the day. I wasn't expecting many minutes of activity, but I thought I would have gotten more than four. Oh well. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 46: Cardio Sculpt Box 'n Burn

Day 46: Cardio Sculpt Box 'n Burn

Today, I did Box 'n Burn and it played all the way through. I tried this one a week ago, but the video stopped playing after about 20 minutes and I couldn't get it to play again. I really like the instructor. She's hard core enough that she can pull off doing a boxing workout without it feeling like a workout. This was a HIIT workout. There were five circuits. Each circuit had four rounds. Each round was a minute and then we had 20 seconds of rest. I like when HIIT workouts have structure like this. 

The warm up was very bouncy. We started out with a bounce (ironic eh?). Then we moved on to jumping rope without a rope. Then we bounced left and right. Then we just bounced straight up. Next we did jogging in place with picking our knees up in front of us. It wasn't high knees, but it wasn't really jogging in place. Then we did Side Slips which was basically squatting down and then shifting our weight to one side before standing up and going in the opposite direction. Imagine trying to go under a rope. Then we did some twisting to the side and then added a punch after a bit. Then we punched to the front while squatting down a little bit. Then we did some hooks and then finally upper cuts. 

Then it was time for the push up challenge! I did these on my knees. I think I counted, but I can't remember how many I did. I was surprised by how many I was able to do though. I thought I was going to be all sore and weak from yesterday. I was a little stiff, but not bad at all. As I sit here typing this, I'm stiffening up a bit more though. DOMS is supposed to set in around 24 hours later. My normal workouts are first thing in the morning so waking up after a good workout usually means being sore, but this one was in the afternoon so I woke up okay. Now that it's been a full 24 hours, I'm getting stiff and sore. I'm thinking of rolling tonight, but I'm not so sure. Rolling with DOMS can suck! 

Circuit 1 was the Jab Cross. We stood in a boxer stance and jabbed with one hand and crossed with the other. We did the same side like that for the whole round. The next round had the opposite foot forward. We did each side twice. There was an advanced modifier who used 2.5 pound weights for the second set on each side.

Circuit 2 was Hook Uppercut Slip. We did a Hook with the front arm, a Uppercut with the back arm and then we did a slip which was what we did in the warm up that I said was like squatting down under a rope. We did each side for two rounds. I really felt the slips working my backside!

Circuit 3 was All Punches. I think this is where the video died the last time. We did Jab, Cross, Hook, Upper Cut Slip Jab Cross. Repeat. We did each side twice.

Circuit 4 was Hooks. We just kept alternating Hooks. We had each leg forward for two rounds. 

Circuit 5 was Jab Cross. We already did this, but we did it again. We did each side for two rounds. 

Then we did a short cool down with some stretching

Overall, I really liked this workout. I like the instructor and would like to do more of her workouts. She can pull of a boxing workout without it feeling like a workout, but she was still fun and perky and didn't freak out and get in my face telling me to keep going! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Check out all of those activity minutes and those vigorous minutes! Woot Woot! 

Review of Daily Burn Day 45: Cardio Sculpt Cardio Ball

Day 45: Cardio Sculpt Cardio Ball

I actually started out my workout by doing Yoga Twist Flow, but it died 20 minutes in. I couldn't get it to come back. The same thing happened when I tried to do Cardio Sculpt Box 'n Burn. I was really bummed when Twist Flow died. It's my last Yoga workout from Daily Burn and I'm not sure I can wake up early enough to try it again later in the week. I think Friday is my last day with Daily Burn. I was really looking forward to finishing up this series! The 20 minutes that I did do were hard! I'll talk more about that when I try it again.

This workout was 43 minutes long. We used a medicine ball for the workout. She said that it should be between 2 and 6 pounds. All I had was my 8 pound ball, so I went with it. I might regret that decision tomorrow because I'm pretty sure I'm going to be in AGONY! 

The workout started with a warm up and we even used the ball for it. The modifier used a towel during the warm up and a dumbbell during the workout. The workout started by holding the ball as we kept our feet in a wide stance and then leaned to the side while we tapped the other foot. We alternated with that. Then we did a Pendulum Swing. We held the ball and rocked side to side as we swung the ball down in front of us and up on the other side like a grandfather clock pendulum. Then we jogged while holding the ball. Then we held the ball up to our chests while we did jumping jacks with our legs. As we got further into it, we started raising the ball up over our heads and lowering it down. Then we did Side Squats. We stepped to one side and squatted down. Then we stepped to the other side and squatted down. We raised the ball up at some point too. Then we moved to Step Back Lunges. We lunged back, but kept the leg straight. We alternated legs. 

After we did the warm up, we moved on to the Challenge! It was Burpees again! I hate Burpees, but for some reason, these just didn't seem as horrible as most burpees. We didn't do the push ups and I didn't do the jump part. I guess I'm getting better at them since I hated them less. 

The workout consisted of 6 rounds with 6 moves each round. The moves lasted 30 seconds each and there was 15 seconds of rest after each move. After each round, there was a 60 second rest. 

Circuit 1 was the Med Ball Chop. We held the ball up towards one ear and then chopped it down to the opposite knee as we squatted down. The first four rounds of this circuit were all this same move. We alternated sides each for each round. After four rounds in each circuit, we got to "play" according to Anja. Her definition of play and mine are a bit different. The last two rounds of this circuit were Ball Touch. We had the ball in front of us on the floor. We shuffled to the side and squatted down to touch the ball. Then we shuffled to the other side and squatted down to touch the ball again. 

Circuit 2 was Alternating Lunges. These were forward lunges which I typically hate. They weren't that bad this time, but I didn't go very deep with them. While lunging, we took the ball and brought it down on the outside of the forward knee. We alternated during each round. For our "play" rounds, we did Soccer Drills. The ball was on the floor in front of us again. We picked up a foot and touched it to the top of the ball. We alternated with these as quickly as we could. They didn't actually touch the ball. 

Circuit 3 was Figure 8s. We stood with our feet wide and held the ball up by an ear and then brought it down by the opposite knee as we squatted down. It was like doing the Med Ball Chop, but then we brought it up and then chopped it down to the opposite side. We did this for four rounds. For the last two rounds, we passed the ball under a leg and made figure 8s around our legs. This was rather challenging. I did the first round with my 2 pound weighted ball. I did the second round with my 8 pound medicine ball, but I did them really slow. That 8 pound ball is pretty gigantic so it's hard to pass it under my leg. The "play" rounds were called Up and Over. We set the ball down in front of us. We hopped over the ball, but not really over the ball for safety reasons. We used the ball as a guide of how high to jump, but the ball was a bit forward.

Circuit 4 was Side Punch. This was a bit challenging. My lower back muscles were getting pretty sore by this point. We held the ball at chest level. We turned to the side as if we were going to throw a jab, but we pushed the ball out in front of us. Then we went to the other side and did the same. We did this for four rounds. The "play" round was called Field Goal Kicks. We had the ball on the floor in front of us. We kicked forward and then lunged that same leg back as we touched the ball. I was pretty amazed that I was able to kick forward and lunge back without falling on my butt or having to set my kicking foot down! Progress! We did a similar move in PiYo, but I had to touch my foot down to the ground! We did one side for the whole round and then did the other side.

Circuit 5 was Squat and Hook. We had the ball at our chests and then brought it down to one side as we squatted down. Then we stood up and hooked the ball to the opposite side. This was another challenging move. We did one side for the whole round. Then we did the other side. We did each side for two rounds. The "play" rounds were Touchdown Jacks. We had the ball down on the floor in front of us. We jumped our legs out like a jumping jack and then squatted down to touch the ball with our hands. Then we stood up and jumped our legs back in. I did this slowly because I don't do well with jumping jacks! 

Circuit 6 was High Knees. We did these while holding the ball. Then we did Fast Feet. We held the ball while doing these. It was that same football move with the feet coming up just slightly and you go as fast as you can. We did this while holding the ball. Then we did Side Center. We faced forward, but then twisted our legs to the right and then back center and then the left. It was hard with all the bouncing! 

Then we went into the cool down. We did normal stretching type stuff we even did some Down Dog! That made me want to do more yoga!

I liked the workout, but it was definitely challenging. I'm pretty sure my glutes are going to hurt like crazy tomorrow! My whole body will probably hurt. I'm not so sure that I should have done this with the 8 pound ball! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I thought that I would have had more activity minutes and more total vigorous minutes. Oh well. It was a good workout and I'm sure if I did it again, I'd get more minutes of activity. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 44: Cardio Sculpt Blast 'n Burn

Day 44: Cardio Sculpt Blast 'n Burn

I did this workout yesterday. I wanted to do something that would utilize my new medicine ball! I love gadgets. If I've got something to focus on other than the fact that I'm working out, things go much better for me. I hate working out, but I love playing with toys. I still need to do the Twist Flow from the Yoga series and the other three Core workouts, but my abs weren't up for an ab workout and Twist Flow was too long for a Friday morning. 

This workout was about 33 minutes. It included a warm up, a burpee challenge, 6 circuits and a cool down. It was called a HIIT workout. It had moments of intensity and moments of rest, but it wasn't a traditional HIIT workout that I'm used to. 

The warm up included Arm Circles, the Rocky Bounce, Knee Lifts and Speed Skaters. It lasted a few minutes and wasn't too terribly intense. After that, we went right into the Burpee Challenge. We were supposed to do as many of them as we could in 60 seconds. I suck at counting while working out so I have no idea how many I did. These burpees didn't involve a push up, but the advanced version did include a jump. The modified version came up into a squat stance with the hands coming up to the shoulders. I got a new bra and this was my first test for it. I think I need to go with one size smaller! 

Circuit 1 was Hoppers, Jack and Lunge, and more Hoppers. Each move lasted about a minute. Some of them were less though. Hoppers weren't exactly fun. We bounced from side to side and then we made a square with the bounce. We looked like kids pretending to be rabbits. This was hard on my shins and calves. I didn't make it the entire time. I ended up jogging in place. Jack and Lunge was interesting. We jumped out feet out and then back in. That was followed by jumping one forward and the other back into almost like a plyo lunge. Then they came to center again and we repeated that over and over again. I followed the modifier with this one. She stepped one foot out and back to center and then back and center.  Then it was time for rest.

Circuit 2 was Quick Feet Drills, Squatting Chest Push, more Quick Feet Drills and Squatting Twist. The Quick Feet Drills were like those warm ups you see in football. We alternated picking up feet up just a little really quickly. She would make a sound and then we had to rotate to the left or the right quickly and then back to center. The Squatting Chest Push was with the medicine ball. We held a squat, but it wasn't very deep. We held the ball in both hands about chest height and then pushed it forward and pulled it back to our chests. She used a 2 pound ball. The advanced person used a 6 pound ball. The modifier used a towel. I only had an 8 pound ball so I used it. My shoulders were dying by the end of it. They are sore today too! The Squatting Twist was with the ball again. We held a squat, but it wasn't very deep. The ball was at chest height out in front of us and we twisted our upper body to the right and then to the left while keeping our lower body still. I liked both of these ball moves. More rest!

Circuit 3 was Mountain Climbers, Superman Push Ups, more Mountain Climbers and more Superman Push Ups. Then we did the Rocky Bounce while we rested. Superman Pushups were regular push ups, but once we were back to Plank position, we raised one hand up in the air. 

Circuit 4 was Ski Jumps, High Knee Runs, more Ski Jumps and more High Knee Runs. Ski Jumps were like Skaters, but it built up as we went on. By the end we were jumping with both feet pretty high and going left and right.  More rests!

Circuit 5 was Patty Cake Plank, Basketball Pass, more Patty Cake Plank and more Basketball Pass. Patty Cake Plank was another interesting one. The two people in the workout held a Plank position and then they raised up one hand and played Patty Cake with each other. The Basketball Pass wasn't really possible for me. I should have used my 2 pound weighted balls instead of a medicine ball. We were supposed to raise up a knee and pass the medicine ball under our leg. My first attempt ended with the ball on the floor. Glad it missed my toes! More Rocky Bounce for receovery.

Circuit 6 was Tuck Jumps, Shadow Box Punches, more Tuck Jumps and more Shadow Box Punches. Tuck Jumps were pretty hard for me. Our hands were out in front of us and we jumped up while pulling our knees up as high as we could. For Shadow Box Punches, we held a squat, but it wasn't very low. We then alternated jabs. This is always one of my favorite moves. 

Then we went into the cool down which was normal cool down stuff.

This workout has some pros and cons to it. The modifier didn't really modify much. She did smaller hops during the Hoppers and did the push ups and planks on her knees, but she didn't make things low impact or make me feel like I wasn't being a pansy when I bailed out of all the bouncing stuff. I like Judy as an instructor. I liked the layout of the workout, but I found that some of it was a little repetitive. There are so many different moves that you can do in a workout, but we repeated the same ones a few times. This was a HIIT workout, but I felt like there was a lot of down time in it. There was a rest period after each circuit, but after each move there was some down time as well. I only have a week of my trial left. I got an email with a 50% off three months offer. It's tempting to keep the Yoga workouts. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. I thought I would have had more Total Activity minutes, but I guess there was more down time in this than even I realized. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 43: Core Quick Core

Day 43: Core Quick Core

I wanted to play with my stability ball some more so I picked this core workout from Daily Burn. The instructor used a stability ball, but there was a modifier who did not, so if you don't have a ball, you'll be fine to do this workout. I was tempted to do it twice so I could experience it with the ball and without the ball, but I didn't have enough time.

This workout was only about 15 minutes, but it was pretty intense. Using the ball definitely adds a different twist to think. It made some things like sit ups easier, but it make other things like planks, really hard. 

We started off with a short warm up that involved a lat stretch using the ball. This was interesting. We put our hands on the ball and then rolled forward on it and then back. Then we did a chest stretch. We sat on the ball and then rolled it so we were laying down on it and then we rolled back to almost seated. This was challenging without shoes on while on my carpet. I will have to rethink my footwear while doing ball stuff! Then we did an oblique twist. We laid back down on the ball again and put our arms up towards the ceiling. Then we rolled to the side and then the other side. I think I did this wrong. Oopsy. 

After the warm up, it was time for the sit up challenge. We did these on the ball. I've never been able to do a sit up, but I can do them on the ball. :) I didn't actually count my sit ups. I can't keep track while working out. I'm not really sure why, but I just can't. 

Then we got into the workout. We did several moves which all lasted about 30 seconds. We didn't have circuits or rounds or anything. We started with the Cross Crunch. This was was basically the upper body portion of a bicycle move. I did these on the ball. It really worked my legs to keep me stable on that thing while doing crunches. Then we did an Elbow Plank on the ball. I'm sure that I had horrible form, but I stayed on that ball the whole time. Then we did a side crunch on the ball. We were kind of in a side plank position with the ball under our arm pits. Then we crunched our elbow down to our hip. We did each side for about 30 seconds. Then we did the Around the World. We were laying on our backs on the ball and then we did crunches while moving our upper body in a circular motion. It's hard for me to explain. We did each side for about 30 seconds. Then we Plank Leg Circles. We were back on the side plank position on the ball and we lifted up the top leg and did circles. This doesn't sound hard, but balancing on the ball to do this was torture! OMG it was pretty much impossible for me to do the circles. We did each leg for about 30 seconds. Then we did Ball Pull Ins. We had our upper body in a plank position and our knees were up on the ball. We pulled our knees in to our chests and then pushed them back out. Then we did Pikes on the ball. Well, he did pikes on the ball and I just tried to stay on the ball. So to do the Pike, your upper body is in a Plank position and then we had our feet on the ball. We then pulled our feet in and stuck our butt up in the air. Then we pushed the feet back. 

Then we went into a cool down. 

I really liked the instructor. He was interesting and gave good instruction and wasn't annoying. Each move didn't really last that long so I found myself taking up a significant amount of time just getting into the correct position. If I was doing the modified versions, I would probably have been annoyed since they really zoomed in the instructor doing the stuff on the ball. It took a bit before they showed the modifier. That would have annoyed me. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I wasn't expecting much from it. It was only 15 minutes and there wasn't a lot of movement really going on. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 42: DB15 Inferno

Day 42: DB15 Inferno

I took a rest day yesterday, but my medicine balls and stability ball from the Beachbody sale showed up, so today I had to do a workout! My back isn't nearly as sore as it was and I think once the last remaining bit of bruising and DOMS goes away, I'm pretty sure my back will feel amazing from all of my tennis ball rolling. It was pretty torturous for a bit, but I think it will turn out to have been a good idea. I might just have to do it again too. 

So DB15 Inferno was the last of the DB15 series for me to do. I hadn't done it yet because I didn't have a stability ball, but now I have one! I think my ball is a smidge too small, but I still love it! I'm using it as my computer chair to type this out. I'm not really finding that it's improving my posture, but it is giving me a nice core workout. 

So the workout started out with a short warm up which involved some jogging and some other bouncy stuff. Then we got into the workout. It was three moves that we did three times. Each move lasted a minute and then we moved to the next. There were no rest periods between rounds. It was nine minutes straight. We did Push up Pikes on the ball. Our feet were up on the ball and our hands on the floor. We did a push up and then we stuck our butts in the air for a pike. Okay, they did a push up and a pike. I did half of a push up and then I pulled my knees to my chest and pushed them back out before doing another push up. Interestingly enough, when I looked up at the modifier, he was doing the same thing. I'm such a good modifier. Then we did lateral and rear lunges with a dumbbell. I used a five pound dumbbell. We put the weight up over our heads. When we lunged to the side, we pulled it down straight in front of us. Then we stoood back up and put the weight up over our heads. Then we lunged back and brought the weight down in front again. We went back and forth doing side and rear lunges. Then we did what they called Thrusters. It was kinda like a burpee, but not all the way. We got into Plank position and then jumped our feet forward like we were going to do a burpee and then we got up into a squat position and lifted our chests up, but didn't stand up and do a jump like a normal burpee. Then we went back down. We did all of those again twice more and then went into a cool down. It was standard stretching stuff. 

That was the workout. I wasn't a huge fan. Doing moves on a balance ball is sooooo hard! I hate burpees too. I'm glad it was short, but it didn't make me want to do Inferno. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

It's kinda weird that a program called Inferno only got me 4 minutes of activity and no minutes of vigorous activity. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 41: Cardio Sculpt KIT Kickboxing Interval Training

Day 41: Cardio Sculpt KIT Kickboxing Interval Training 

I was pretty sore in my back and triceps, but I wanted to workout. It needed to be something fun though since I wasn't in the mood for a workout. I tried Cardio Sculpt Box and Burn the day before and I liked the layout, so I picked KIT Kickboxing Interval Training. I wasn't able to finish the Box and Burn workout. It died mid workout and then died in the same spot when I reset it. Fortunately, it didn't die during KIT Kickboxing Interval Training. 

This workout started out with a warm up that involved a bunch of bouncing around. We started off with jogging and then move to side steps, but they weren't really steps. They were more of a bounce left and right. Then we did a Boxer Squat. This was was a shuffle to the right and then a squat followed by a shuffle to the left and a squat. Then we did some upper cuts followed by front kicks. With the warmup over, we moved on to the squat challenge. We were supposed to do as many squats as we could in 60 seconds. I didn't actually count though.

The workout was made up of five rounds with a minute to rest between each round. After the last round there was a mini blast as well. Then we did a cool down and moved on with life.

The first round started with side steps and punches. We started off with side steps and then the turned more into just a wide stance toe tap with a punch. We alternated them. Then we did more squats. Woot Woot. We then did what the call Rolling Duck. We were in a standing position and then squatted down and shifted our weight to the other side and stood up again. It was similar to ducking down under a rope and coming up on the other side. We then went back down and then came up on the other side. Then we did Muay Thai Knees. This was just a knee lift while bringing our hands down to the knee. Not really sure why we have such a fun name for it. Then we did side steps while we recovered.

The next round started with Jab Cross. We jabbed to the right three times and then crossed with the left. Then we jabbed left three times and crossed with the right. We alternated like this for a minute. More Muay Thai Knees. Then we did Judi Jacks. These were just jumping jacks. I did a minute of jumping jacks. Woot Woot. Then we did Punch Jacks. Okay so this was kinda of like a lateral lunge while reaching one of our hands down to the floor. So the arm on the same side as the leg that went sideways went down towards the opposite foot. They kinda jumped with it. I just did it without the impact. More side steps for recovery

The next round started with Kick Outs which were really just side kicks. We did one side first and then after about 30 seconds, we switched to the other side. Then we did an oblique crunch. We did a knee raise to the side and pulled our arm down to that knee. Then we did "Punches." We squatted down into a sumo squat and then just alternated jabs to the front. More step tap recovery.

The next round started with Side Punches. We jabbed out to the side on one side for 30 seconds and then the other side for 30 seconds. Then we did Jab and Cross, but it was a jab, cross, jab, knee lift. She said goofy little chants during this like I like Cheesecake, but I choose asparagus. Then more Side Punches and then more Jab and Cross with goofy chants. More step tap for recovery.

The next round was Swing Down Knees. We alternated knee lifts as we swung our arms down from above our heads. Then we changed the knees to kicks. Then we did a Jumping Knee Kick. The modifier just did a knee lift on one leg and a kick on the other. I tried to do the jump, but my jumps were pretty wimpy. Then we did Cross Uppercuts. We did a cross with each hand and then an uppercut with each hand. Her punches are pretty goofy looking, but I tried to do them more like normal punches. More Jumping Knee Kicks. Then another round of rest.

The Mini Blast started with Kick Backs. It was basically a back kick. Then we did Tuck Jumps. I just did alternating knee lifts. Tuck Jumps involved Jumping which is something I try to avoid. More Kick Backs and more Tuck Jumps.

Then we did some cool down stuff. Just the standard stretchy type stuff.

Overall, I liked the workout. I like the instructor and I got a good burn. I wasn't nearly as sore by the end as when I had started. It was hard to get motivated to get up and do it, but I was happy that I did. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here it is! Look at all of that activity! Woot Woot! 

Review of Daily Burn Day 40: Yoga Balance Flow

Day 40: Yoga Balance Flow

This was just about 53 minutes. It was tagged as hard and it didn't like! I have balance issues. I'm not really sure what possessed me to do it. I knew I had to do it so I could finish off all of these yoga workouts, but it was hard! 

This is another one that didn't have a fast forward option so I won't be doing a play by play. I'm not going to be able to remember all of the things that we did, but I'll touch one some of them. We started out in Mountain pose and really focused on posture and breathing. We did some Vinyasa stuff. We did Surya A (or was it b? I can't remember.) During each round of it, we did a balance thing. The first one was just doing Table with one arm and one foot off the ground. We went through the series again and the second time, we did a similar move with Plank. This was incredibly difficult for me. It's hard enough holding a Plank, but to pick up one foot and one hand. WOWZERS! Then we went through the series again and this time we held a Down Dog with one hand and one foot up in the air. That was pretty hard too! 

This whole workout was about balance, hence the name balance flow. We did some Warrior 3 as well. While in a Warrior 3 type position, but our hands were on the floor. Then we grabbed the plant foot with the hand on the same side. More balance. I was so wobbly! We held that position for a bit and then put the hand down again and did some hops. We did those in the last workout too. These are set up moves to going into a handstand, but they are killer on my legs! I didn't do so well with them. 

We did another series with some crazy balance issues. I did not do well with any of them. So we stood on one leg. Our other leg was bent with our knee up as high as we could get it and we held it up with our hands. Then we were supposed to stretch our leg out straight and grab our toes. My leg just stayed bent. Then we stretched the leg out to the side. Then we bent it again and brought the foot in to our thigh. We held each of those positions for a bit. I was bouncing all over the place. 

We also did the upside down table thing. I don't remember what it's called. You start off on your back and then you go to bridge and then you flip your hands up by your head and up you go onto your head and then up off the ground. Then I think I remember her picking up a hand and a foot or something, but I was still really working on getting up onto my head. That's pretty much all I remember about the workout. A lot of flopping around losing my balance!

After doing this workout, I really wanted to do Tai Cheng from Beachbody. I'm really enjoying yoga and hope that I can find another instructor that is as awesome as this one!

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot in all it's glory.

Review of Daily Burn Day 39: Yoga Core Flow

Day 39: Yoga Core Flow

This one is tagged as a Hard workout. It's not exaggerating either. It was HARD! Keep in mind that I'm 266 pounds though, so I've got fat that gets in the way. I'm usually able to find a way to modify things so I can get the most out of the workout. Today, was one of the few times where I just came up with nothing on a move or two so I just watched her. 

The workout is 61 minutes. We started off with some stretching. Then we quickly got into the workout. This is another flow that doesn't have the option to fast forward at any point so I can't do a play by play. There was a lot of Down Dog in this one and a lot of Plank stuff. There was also some Warrior 1, Warrior 2 and Warrior 3. We held Warrior 3 for what felt like forever. My legs were killing me by the time this one was over. We did some more work towards getting into a handstand too. We were down in Dolphin position and we hopped up on one foot. It went better this time. I actually got some space between my foot and the floor. 

This was called a Core Flow and I remember some intense core things, but I feel like my legs got more work than my Core. Maybe I just wasn't doing some of the stuff correctly. The Core stuff was mainly in the beginning. We did a V sit and then went back to laying down and then up into the v again. We did that I think for like 10 reps. We did one thing where we were kind of in a v sit and then rolled to one hip then we laid our upper body back down and then crunched up towards it. We did that a few times on each side. We also did one thing that was super hard! We were in a Down Dog position and then raised one leg. We already know I hate split down dog. Then we brought that knee to our chest. Not something I can actually do, but I get it as far as I can. Then we touched the knee down quickly and lifted it back up and raised our butts up. We did that several times. It was hard, but it wasn't complete torture I supposed. 

Overall, this workout was mostly doable. Towards the end, we did a shoulder stand and I couldn't do that. This series has made me fall in love with Yoga. It will be interesting to see if I still love Yoga when I have a different instructor. I really like her. She's fun and happy.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

None of these Yoga workouts show much of a calorie burn on the BodyMedia device, but I was sweating my butt off and my heart was beating hard. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 38: Yoga Hip Flow

Day 38: Yoga Hip Flow

I think it's been nearly a week since I've done Yoga! It felt so good to get back to it. After my Daily Burn trial is over, I will need to find a way to work Yoga into my weekly routine. I'm not really sure how yet. I do know that the library has a bunch of Yoga videos, but I'm not sure how to find the time for it since I'll be doing 21 Day Fix and then Pump. I'll figure it out.

This workout doesn't have a fast forward option so I won't be doing a play by play. It's listed as Average as far as the skill level goes. I found some of it to be really hard, but other parts to be really easy. I had to use my Yoga strapped for a couple of the stretches and I needed my Yoga block to do Pigeon. She really emphasizes doing Pigeon correctly and I just can't get my front knee to point to the side instead of to the front. I love my corn block, but sitting on those things is not comfy. I might get a foam block just so it's more comfy. 

The workout started off with some stretching. Then we got into the workout. I honestly can't remember all of the details, but this thing went super fast. There wasn't anything that I hated. There was some Down Dog, Up Dog, Vinyasa, Warrior 2, Lizard and some other stuff. I wish I could remember more of this workout. I just remember liking it! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot from the workout. Not very impressive. I know. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 38: Intelliburn Total Kettlebell Circuit

Day 38: Intelliburn Total Kettlebell Circuit

I love Kettlebells and I really like Daily Burn, but I'm not a huge fan of the Kettlebell program because they are 51 minute workouts with 20 minutes of kettlebells. I've been wanting a 30ish minute program. I'm okay with longer as long as it's mainly kettlebells. I found what I was looking for in Intelliburn Total Kettlebell Circuit! This has the same instructor as the kettlebell program. I really like his style. He's pretty laid back and focuses on form. He doesn't get in your face and push you to move super fast while throwing around a kettlebell. The format is like all the other Daily Burn workouts. There was a timer in the lower right that ticked down the time left in the workout and a bar on the bottom that filled up as we did each move. When the bar was full, we moved on. 

We had a short warm up that included the Rocky Bounce, neck stretches, shoulder rolls, squats, goblet squats using the kettlebell, and halos using the kettlebells. I like this better than the Kettlebell program already. I got to use the bell in the warm up! SWEET! 

Then we went to the Challenge for the workout. This challenge was pushups. We were supposed to do as many push ups as possible in 60 seconds. Only the push ups with good form were to count. I didn't actually count my push ups. I need to work more on push ups. During Les Mills Combat, I thought I was going to get a full push up before I was done. I was rocking those knee push ups. I tried after I was done, but didn't get down very far. During PiYo, I thought I was going to get a full push up on my toes before I was done. I did them on my toes, but I didn't go down very far. I didn't get that full push up on my toes all the way to the ground. I was getting better though. During this push up challenge, I did them on my knees and by the end of the 60 seconds, I wanted to die! Maybe my shoulders are weak from something else I've done recently. I'm not sure. I just know that it was a rough 60 seconds and I was on my knees! They should have been easy! 

The workout consisted of three rounds. Each round had moves and we did each move for 30 seconds. Between rounds, we had a rest period. The first move was a Pullover Crunch. We were on our backs with our knees bent and our feet flat in front of us. We had a kettlebell on the floor above our heads. We grabbed the bell and brought it towards our legs as we crunched up. I didn't get much of a crunch, but I went as high as I could. Two of the people in the video came all the way up like a sit up. Wowzers!

Then we got on one knee and did a single arm swing. We did each arm for 30 seconds. After that, we got back up on our feet and did squats. We alternated catch squats and goblet squats. I kinda like these. Then we did the Yaw Press. If you're not sure what that is, you should Google it because I can't really describe it. It was similar to a military press using a dumbbell, but there was a upper body twist involved. Then we did the two arm swing. Then it was time to rest and do it all over again.

The cool down was several yoga poses including Eagle Arms, Table, Down Dog and Child's Pose.

I really liked this workout. It kicked my butt! I used a 15 pound kettlebell. It might have been a bad idea to go that heavy. He didn't say what weights they were using. The female in the group looked like hers was really small, but some of those styles of kettlebells can be pretty heavy in a small package. 

I don't plan on doing the entire Intelliburn series. I just wanted to do this one because it was kettlebells and I love kettlebells. I still have to finish up the yoga stuff and possibly do the Let's Move series if there's time. I haven't decided on that one yet though. It's all dance stuff, but I did like the 15 minute one. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I'm pretty surprised with how low my calorie burn shows on here. They had it listed with over 700 calories. I don't believe their estimate though. That's a bit high in my uneducated opinion. I think they use the same equation as the MapMyHike people who think I burn like 3000 calories by walking a couple miles. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 37: DB15 Tabata6

Day 37: DB15 Tabata6

I've done a Tabata workout once before. I kinda like Tabata. I can do just about anything for 20 seconds! I picked it today because I was running low on DB15 workouts to do. One needed a balance ball which I didn't have and the other was called Inferno which just sounded like something I wasn't in the mood for. At least I knew I would get 10 second rest spots with Tabata.

We started out with a warm up that included the Rocky Bounce, Windmills and Wrist and Ankle Circles. Then we moved onto the workout. There were three different moves. We did each move for six rounds. We did 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest. The first round was Burpees! I hate Burpees! I only had to do them for 20 seconds at a time though so it was okay. Then we did Speed Skaters. I'm not very fond of these either, but it's only 20 seconds! The last round was Dynamic Rows. I've never done these before. I only had 5 pound weights. They weren't really big enough to do Dynamic Rows. You need to be able to hold a plank position while holding the dumbbell. My fingers were squished into my yoga mat while doing these. We started off the first three rounds with just doing them without the weights. Then we did them with the weights for the last three rounds. 

Then we did a cool down. 

I liked this workout. I didn't see other Tabata stuff though. Maybe I was wrong about DB15 being a sampler of a bunch of programs. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. Weird that I have the same number of total activity minutes and vigorous minutes as the workout from yesterday. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 37: DB15 Let's Move and DB15 Breakin'

Day 37: DB15 Let's Move

I don't do well with dance workouts, but I had decided to do the DB15 workouts and there were two of them in this 7 workout series. I will admit that this was the best dance workout I have ever done. Most dance workouts have a lot of complicate choreography, but this was very simple. Instead of learning a few moves and then building on it, we just did one move at a time. We never strung anything together. The instructor wasn't annoying either. This workout was supposed to take us around the world of dance. We did a little bit from several different styles. Based on this workout, I would try the Let's Move series with this instructor. I don't think I have time to get through them all before my trial is over so it might not happen.

Ok the workout.........We started off with a warm up that included the Slide which was basically a step tap with some groove to it, the Side Step Clap which was more of a grapevine with a clap at the end and Hip Circles. 

The workout started off with Bollywood. We did Snake Hands Limp. Not even going to try and describe it. The Coin Pass came next. It was followed by Finger Cymbal Hops. Then we moved to Salsa and started with the Shimmy and did Body Twists. Then we moved onto "Club" and did the Fist Pump Hops, Shoulder Shifts and Pony. Then we moved on to African and did Fast Feet, Step Back Swing Back and African Stomp. Then we moved on to the Caribbean and did Island Gallop, Run and Stops, and Grandfather Clock Swings. Then we moved to the 90s and did Hip Thrusts and Kid n' Play, Then we moved to the cool down. This workout didn't have the Challenge in it like many of the others had. 

I liked this workout even though I have no rhythm! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I got quite the calorie burn on this bad boy. I got 12 minutes of vigorous activity in only 15 minutes! The whole workout counted as activity! Woot Woot!

DB15 Breakin'

I did a second dance workout. I'm not sure why I was in the mood to torture myself so much. I liked it though kinda. It was similar to the Let's Move workout where we did one move for so many seconds and then moved on to another. No complicated choreography and no building on stuff. Just one move at a time. They weren't always the easiest moves, but it was one move at a time. I can handle one move at a time.

We started off with a warm up that included Wrist Circles, Jogging, Cross Step, Hula Hips and Arm Circles. The workout started off with the Hook. We were done in a plank position. We brought our right foot across to the left in front of the left foot. We then brought the left foot up to hook the right calf. Then we reset and did the same thing with the other leg. I didn't get a good range of motion on these. 

Then we did the Shuffle Booty Pop. We shuffled to the side and then jumped up and turned to the side and twerked. I twerked. It was not pretty, but I did it! 

Then we did the 6-Step with a Push Up. I can't describe this and I couldn't really do it either. We were supposed to face forward and somehow turn our body around and then still be facing forward. Then we did a push up. I thought I put my feet in all the right places, but I ended up facing the wrong wall every time I was done with one rep. Oopsy.

Next was the Pogo Step. We bounced to the side as if we were on pogo sticks and then we did a heel tap. Then we bounced the other way. 

Then we did a Squat Kick Out. We were squatting down in like a rock bottom squat. Then we shifted our weight to one side and put our hand on the ground. Then we kicked both legs out to the other side in almost a side plank position. Oh fun! NOT!

Then we did something they call the Combo. It was kind of a side step, but the foot came out forward in a toe tap kind of thing and we got our arms involved in some funky moves. 

The Challenge was the Sailor. We were in a squat position and then we came up and did a salute. I can't really explain it, but it was kinda fun. 

Then we did the cool down which was mainly deep breathing. 

I'm intrigued by this workout, but I don't think I would try the whole series because I just suck at this. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here are the stats! I got two minutes of vigorous activity! I'm kinda surprised about that!

Review of Daily Burn Day 36: DB15 MMA and DB15 Core

Day 36: DB15 MMA

I had planned on doing four of these DB15 workouts in one day and slamming out this series super fast, but I've had some procrastination issues. I paddiddled on the computer too long and only had time for two before work! 

I picked MMA first today. I was really excited to try this one. I really like kickboxing workouts and I loved Les Mills Combat. It didn't turn out to be everything I had hoped for and more though. The instructor just didn't come off as someone who has done MMA. She was a fine instructor, but she felt like a fitness instructor doing MMA. When I did Les Mills Combat, I didn't feel like I was doing a workout. 

Okay, so the workout.......We started off with a short warm up that included Step Touch, Knee Lifts, Squats, Knee Lift Squats, Boxer Shuffle and Jump Rope. Then we moved into the workout. We started off with a jab cross combo, We did it slow a couple times and then faster. Then we added a front kick to it. Then we did the other side.

Then we did a jamb cross combo with an evasive move and then a bob. Then we did it on the other side. Then we did an uppercut and a hook on the same arm followed by a knee and then a plank. Then we did a jab with a kick to the front. It wasn't a front kick. We kinda turned our hip forward and did a side kick. 

Then we did a Challenge. Apparently, the DB15 workouts are supposed to have a challenge, but the Yoga one didn't. This challenge was 10 jabs and then we dropped down to a plank. I'm not a huge of this little challenge, but I got through it. 

Then we did some deep breathing and stretching and we were done! 

I got a good calorie burn for such a small workout.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here it is! My screen shot for the workout. I got a lot of steps! Most of the workout counted as activity and that just hasn't been normal lately. 

DB15 Core

My second workout of the day was DB15 Core. I'm not sure why I picked this one. It just called out to me so I went with it. 

We started off with a warm up that included jogging, skipping and torso twists. Then we got into the workout.

We started with Rocking Plank Crunches. We were in a Plank position and then shifted our weight forward and then back. It was weird. I hadn't done anything quite like this one before. Then we did an Extended Plank Hold. We got into a Plank position and stretched our arms out a few inches and pushed our heels back. We then held that position. Then we did Alternating Side Planks. I didn't realize we were alternating at first. I stayed on one side until I lost it and then realized that they were alternating. Then we did a Reverse Plank. I've never done one of these before! We sat down with our legs out in front of us and our hands on the floor next to us and then we lifted our butts up off the ground. We had a similar form as a regular plank, but we were facing the other way. This was HARD! 

Then we did Torso Twist Lunges. I've never done well with these. We had a dumbbell in our hands out stretched in front of us. We lunged back and then twisted our upper body towards the front leg. Then we did a Twisting Hop Lunge. I can't really describe this, but we did a lateral lunge as we twisted the dumbbell around to the bent leg. We then came up into a hop on one leg with our hands going up over our heads. Then we did Plie Squat Crunches. We held a sumo squat position with a dumbbell over our heads. We then crunched down to the side. We alternated like that.  

Then we got down on the mat and did Oblique Twist Crunches. We were on our backs with our knees bent and our feet on the floor. We laid our knees down to one side and crunched up. We then did the other side. Then we did a Twisting Leg Raise. We put our legs up in the air, lifted our butts up off the ground, shifted our butts to the left then lowered our legs down and lifted them up. Then we did it again and shifted to the right. We alternated like this. Then we did Hollow Man Crunches. These were hard too. We were flat on our backs with our hands stretched out over our heads. Then we pulled our legs in as we did a sit up with our upper body. Then we twisted our knees to the side and twisted our upper body to the other side. It was challenging to figure out and challenging to do. 

The challenge was Clapping Mountain Climbers. I hate mountain climbers! We were supposed to come up and clap as we moved the foot, but I moved my foot and then did the clap. I did them slow. I sucked at them and I pretty much hated every second of it. I survive though.

The workout overall was really good. I really felt it in my abs. Although, I thought I would be really sore the next day, but I didn't. I would do more stuff from this instructor in the future. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my screen shot. I'm actually pretty surprised that I had 5 minutes of Total Activity on this one. The one minute of vigorous much have been from the jogging. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 35: Meditation Yoga

Day 35: Meditation Yoga

It wasn't really Day 35, but who cares a this point. I did four "workouts" on Sunday. Sunday seems to be my day to just bang out as many as I can handle. I did DBK6 which I'm definitely feeling this morning as I sit here writing about Yoga. The center of my upper back is just on fire! I felt it in the middle of the night when I got up to visit the bathroom. It was intense then and I think it's going to get worse for a day or so before it gets better. Wowzers! After that, I did some foam rolling with Release Upper Body. Then I did some stretching with DB15 Yoga and finally, I relaxed with some Meditation Yoga. It was a nice, well rounded day.

If you decide to do this one and can't find the "workout" on the Roku App, look under the Beautiful Belly section. I'm not sure why it's there, but it is. I wasn't really sure what Meditation Yoga would be like, but I wasn't expecting what I ended up with. 

We were supposed to find a comfortable seat on the floor. She sat on a nice fluffy pillow. I just sat on my yoga mat. I wish I had found a pillow. Anyway, we sat there with our eyes closed and just relaxed while listening to her talk in a nice calming voice about relaxing. It was quite weird. After about 8 minutes, we laid down and listened to her talk in a nice calming voice. At some point, we sat up again. That was it. there were no poses or anything. We just sat there. While it was nice to just do pretty much nothing for 10 minutes, it was a bit weird since I was expecting actual Yoga. Oh well. It did make me realize how nice it was to just do nothing and relax while trying to free my mind. I might have to find some nice soothing music and try this on my own without her talking to me.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I'm including this for a couple reasons. The main reason.....without a picture on the page, I can't post the page on Pinterest. I'm also posting it to say that Daily Burn thinks I burned 91 calories sitting on my butt doing nothing but deep breathing. When I sit down and do nothing, the BodyMedia thinks I burn about 1.6 calories per minute which seems normal. How on earth does Daily Burn come up with these calorie counts! Maybe they use someone who has some crazy high metabolism because they have some crazy high muscle mass. That's just not me though. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 34: DB15 Yoga

Day 34: DB15 Yoga

It wasn't really on Day 34, but my whole number is so screwed up for Daily Burn right now since I skipped so many days and then did some days with multiple workouts on the same day. On Sunday, I did four workouts and giving them different days helps keep them separated in the blog.

I started out my workout with DBK6 and then moved on to Release Upper Body. I've read that it's good to follow up foam rolling with stretching, so I thought I would knock out this 15 minute Yoga workout. It's part of the DB15 series which is 7 workouts that are 15 minutes each. The program is a 15 day program. It's pretty much a sampler pack of all of the Daily Burn workouts. I'm planning on getting through all of them before my free trial is over. I probably should figure out what I want to get done and make a plan for how to do it before the trial is over. I still have some yoga stuff to get through and there are some others I want to dabble around with too. Eek!

Okay so the workout.........The instructor is the same one who does the Yoga program that I've been doing. I love her Yoga workouts so I thought I would love this, but I didn't really love it. It was like the speed demon version of her workouts. She pretty much took a 30 minute workout and crammed it into 15 minutes. We never really held a pose for more than 10 or 15 seconds. Normally her voice is really relaxing, but she raced through the instructions and I lost that calming part. She's also usually quite playful, but that wasn't there either. I'm not blaming her. She did what she could do in 15 minutes, but it just wasn't my favorite. If I hadn't done her other workouts, I might not have tried them based on this 15 minute experience.

I don't have time to do a play by play, but I'll tell you what I remember as far as the poses that we did. We did a brief warm up and then got into the workout. We did the Vinyasa which is the Down Dog to Plank to Chatturanga to Up Dog back to Down Dog. We did Surya C which was knew or me I think. I honestly can't remember what is involved in Surya C though. We did some folding forward, Warrior 1, Warrior 2 and Lizard. 

If you like fast yoga, you might love this. I prefer my yoga slow and relaxed so this just wasn't my thing. I still think she's an awesome instructor. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my screen shot. I probably burned more than the 42 calories it shows, but not nearly as many as the Daily Burn people think I burned. 

Review of Daily Burn Day 33: Recover Release Upper Body

Day 33: Recover Release Upper Body

This was a foam rolling workout. I LOVE foam rolling. It's really helping to make me more limber! It makes me feel good and relaxed before bed too. Whenever I do a long rolling session before bed, I sleep amazingly well. 

To do this workout, you need a foam roller that is long enough to have your butt and head on it at the same time. I got a 36" one yesterday. I'm glad I waited to do this workout! You also need a tennis ball. 

We started off by sitting on the foam roller and then laying down on it. I didn't think this was going to be difficult, but it was a bit uncomfortable laying on that thing. Then we're on this round thing and only my feet are touching the ground. It was challenging staying on there. 

We did a few different things on the roller. One of them was putting our arms straight up and then bringing them down so then were by our head. Then we brought our hands down by our side in a snow angle type motion. We did these circles for a bit. It felt really good. We raised our hands up to the ceiling as high as we could while staying on the roller. Then we lowered our shoulders back down. It felt really good. We also raised our hands up straight to the ceiling and then brought our elbows to the floor. 

Then we put the roller horizontally and laid down on it so it hit just below the shoulder blades. We rolled up and down a bit. We went through it pretty quickly though so I didn't get to spend much time on any trigger points. She did talk about pausing the video and staying on the trigger points longer.

Then we did our Lats. I loved this one the first time I did it and I've done it several times on my own since, but it wasn't working for me. My skin was just sore. I'm not really sure why, but I just couldn't do anything that didn't hurt and not in a trigger point kind of hurt. It just hurt. We did each side.

Then we moved onto our arms. I couldn't seem to do this one either. My skin just hurt! My left arm was a problem with my BodyMedia device on it. I'm going to work on this one and hopefully it will go better. We were supposed to get our biceps and our triceps, but I mainly got my triceps.

Then we rolled our chest. It was a bit weird. We did this one with a tennis ball. She said that women are supposed to stay above the breast tissue, but men should roll the whole thing. It felt really good. I could have done this one for a long long time! 

Then we did our back. She suggested putting a tennis ball in a sock so you don't have to chase it around the room. I didn't use the sock and I didn't have to chase it around the room. We put the ball near our shoulder blade. Then we moved around. This felt amazing! I could have stayed against that wall all bloody day long! I can't wait to do that one again! 

That was it! Of the three foam rolling workouts, I think this was my favorite. I'm really looking forward to trying these again while watching TV. She really raced through things, but it was just to get us to know what we were doing. Now that I know what to do, I'm going to do these A LOT!

BodyMedia Screen Shot

This isn't a big calorie burn and I knew that going in. These foam rolling workouts do need some strength though.