Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 19

Day 19: Strength Intervals

Okay Day 19 is really supposed to be a rest day. Day 20 is supposed to be Sweat and Day 21 is supposed to be Strength Intervals, but we're going to hike a mountain on Sunday. I like to have my rest day on Sunday though so I do Saturday's workout on Friday and Sunday's on Saturday. (Or that's the plan, but it doesn't work all the time) I hadn't done Strength Intervals yet and the day after a new workout is always bad, so I didn't want to do Strength Intervals the day before the hike. I decided to do Strength Intervals today and keep Sweat for tomorrow and then have my rest day (hike day) on Sunday. My brain went into overdrive coming up with that plan. 

I woke up before my alarm! Shocking I know. I then sat on the couch and procrastinated until the last possible moment. I then waited another three minutes before getting up to pee before the workout. Fortunately for me, the workout wasn't the 25 minutes listed in the book. It was closer to 21 minutes. They are all shorter than the booklet says so far. Oh, and anyone who read me whining yesterday about how there would be no new workouts after next week, I was wrong. Sculpt comes into play in the last couple of weeks. 

This workout was just under 22 minutes. The first segment was just under 4 minutes. We started out with squats. Squats are not a warm up in my mind! Especially when she has you pulse for three! And then pulse for three and bring one knee up. Then we alternated squat and leg instead of three three pulse. Then we went into her normal warm up with the squat down with the arm circling and lunges. I'm not a huge fan of her warm ups. They are pretty boring and very similar. We went into the PiYo Cross next. Then back to the arm circles with squats and lunges followed by PiYo Cross. Then we fanned the arms up and fanned in half. We did some leg stretches while bent forward. We did the series again. 

The next segment was about 6-1/2 minutes. We started out by jogging in place, but it wasn't a normal jog. We kind of bounced from side to side with a wide stance. She then had us turn to the side and keep up with the same move, but we picked up the tempo. Then we were back to the front. Then we went to the other side. Then we faced the front and did slow lunges. When we brought the leg forward we were supposed to balance on the plant leg and tap the lunging leg. I didn't do so well with that. We did even slower lunges and did them lower. Then we went back to the jogging. I liked doing the lunges slowly. Much better than Plyo! We turned the jogging again and picked our feet up further. We went back to the center and it was more of a wide stance high knees. We turned to the other side. Then we lunged with the left leg going back slow and then even slower. We weren't supposed to come back up to a full standing position. Then we did a slow skater. It was weird doing them so slow. She brought our arms into it and it made my head want to explode. All four limbs moving at the same time is just not easy for my brain. Then we did bowlers lunges. We couldn't come to a full standing position with these either. We then slowed it down. Doing this slow is more torture than doing them fast! We pulsed down with these a few times. Then back to skaters. This was more of a HIIT workout than Les Mills Power HIIT or Shock Plyo. We did the bowler lunges on the other leg. This segment seemed to last forever! More jogging!

The next segment was 5-1/2 minutes. We started with lunges, but they were pretty small. We did them a bit fast, but not deep at all. We then picked up the pace and did a bit of a jump. This turned into Plyo lunges! If I had done this workout before Les Mills Combat, I might have done Plyo lunges. The thing that I detest! Those turned into scissor legs or ski legs as she called them. Then we did slow squats. We wen really deep and came up slowly. We didn't come all the way up though. Then we did squats while pushing arm hands up. That didn't work in my head. Then we went back to the lunge series working up to the Plyo lunges and ski legs. Then we went to Sumo squats. We didn't come all the way up. This was HARD! We then rocked to the side and lifted the opposite toe while staying in the sumo squat position. Craziness! Then more jogging. Then burpees! We a single leg to start with and came up into a sumo squat position with our hands up near our chest like we were catching a basketball. Then both legs went back and came up into the squat. Then we added a jumping jack to the end of each burpee. Then we did a low lunge and pulsed it down. We alternated our legs doing this. Then we went into slow push ups. I did these on my knees. She did wide arm ones which was surprising since she usually does the tricep pushups. Then we did Down Dog. 

The next segment was 3-1/2 minutes. We started in plank and went down to our knees. We went into Beast Pose and held it for a bit. Then we went to Down Dog. We alternated between Beast and Down Dog. Beast is not good for my knee. Then we did a bit of a plyo lunge in runners lunge. I didn't do so well with those. Then tricep pushups. I did these on my knees. I did better with them this time though. I really felt it in my triceps. We went up to Down Dog and then more pushups then Down Dog then Beast and back again a few times. We did the runners lunge again with some pulsing and then a plyo switch. More pushups. Beast! That turned into the kick through. I still haven't mastered this thing. I can't even describe this really. Once that was done we went to Child's Pose. 

The last segment was just over 2 minutes. It was the cool down. We started in Down Dog. Then we walked our legs forward and rolled up. We did a lateral lunge stretch. We did a squat type thing with a back stretch. Then we did a quad stretch that I need a wall for. I just can't reach my foot without the wall. We did one last forward fold and then rolled back up. This workout was less scary than I expected it to be and I go some vigorous minutes. YAY! 

This will probably be one of the workouts that doesn't make it into my PiYo/Les Mills Combat Hybrid workout! I know that I should do things that I hate so I can get better at them and not hate them, but burpees and plyo lunges just need to go. It's kinda my reason for doing the hybrid workout or at least my plan. We'll see how I feel about this workout after I'm done with this round of PiYo. Maybe I'll love it before I'm done. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Check it out! 13 minutes of activity and 4 of those were vigorous! I finally got the BodyMedia device to think I was working out! Woot Woot! 

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If you're interested in buying PiYo, make sure you buy it from a Coach so you get the extra DVD for free. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it through me at my Beachbody page.