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.
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