Review of Beachbody Les Mills Combat Kick Start

Les Mills Combat Kick Start

It's actually been a couple weeks since I did this workout, but I've been so busy with editing that I haven't done much blogging. I need to rectify that because I've noticed that my desire to workout goes way down when I have no time to blog about my workouts. I fear that I'm on a slippery slope. I'm not losing any weight and that makes me sad. I haven't been on point with my nutrition because it's like why bother since I wasn't losing weight anyway. I decided to do this workout because I was in one of my soul searching moods and wanted to go back to a time where I was actually losing weight. I wasn't in the mood for a Leslie Sansone workout, so I popped in the first Les Mills Combat workout. It was a 30 minute martial arts style workout. I love martial arts workouts! I really enjoyed doing Les Mills Combat. Wow that was like two years ago next month! Holy Cow! I did the full round of Les Mills Combat starting in June of 2014. I also did a mini round of it. This time around, I just did the one workout. 

I just re-read my post after the first time I did Kick Start. It was interesting to read. I wrote the post the day I did the workout though, so there are no comments about if I was sore the next day. I speculated that I would be, but I'm not sure if it happened. The day after doing it this time around, my upper back was killing me! My legs and arms didn't hurt at all, but my upper back hurt for a couple days. I was pretty surprised by that. I remember having some strange spots of soreness behind my shoulder blades the first time I did the 45 minute Les Mills Combat workout, but I didn't remember any upper back pain from the 30 minute one. I was punching with all I had this time around though so maybe that was it. I usually have a hard time getting DOMS in my back, but give me a 30 minute combat workout and here comes the DOMS. 

Polar M400 Screen Shots

I discovered that I did this workout on May 11th! I can't believe I haven't gotten around to blogging about it until now! I'm such a slacker. Well, not really, but I've been crazy busy with my editing gig so really haven't had any time at all to do blogging. Here are the screen shots from the workout.

Beachbody Programs That I have Done

A little over a year ago, I bought my first Beachbody program. I got it during a huge sale they had in June. I was 290 pounds. I got Les Mills Combat because I liked Martial Arts workouts and this one was pretty inexpensive for what came with the program.

Prior to doing Les Mills Combat, I was doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and various DVDs from my library. I had little focus and lacked an overall plan. I was losing weight slowly, but the whole process was a bit stressful for me because I had to constantly come up with a plan. I had a tendency to pick one thing to do for a week. For example, I would do Leslie Sansone workouts for one week and the next I would do JessicaSmithTV.com workouts.

I was skeptical about doing Beachbody programs for a few reasons. I wasn't sure if I could stick with the same program for two months. I thought I would get bored with the workouts. I also thought the program might be too hard for me at 290 pounds. However, doing a 60 day program gave me 60 days worth of blog posts, so I wanted to give it a try.

I'm so happy that I did. I didn't get bored with the workouts and they weren't too hard for me. They were challenging, but there was a modifier that I could choose to follow if I needed to. I have since fallen in love with Beachbody and I'm now an addict. I love that you get a bunch of different workouts with each program. You also get a calendar that tells you what workout to do on what day. That is huge for me. Once I pick which program is next for me, I don't have to think about what to do next. That takes a ton of stress off of me. I used to sit at the computer for hours just trying to come up with a plan for the following week. Sometimes, I would procrastinate so long that I wouldn't have time to actually workout! Silly, but true.

Once you complete a Beachbody program, you earn a free t-shirt. (It's socks for Cize and shorts for Brazil Butt Lift) It's like getting a trophy. I can't bail on a program because I want my trophy! So far, I'm too big to wear any of my trophies in public, but eventually, I'll lose enough weight that I can wear them in public.

Looking back over the past year, I haven't been on point with my nutrition as much as I would have liked. I started out in July of 2014 at 290 pounds. As I sit here typing this is August of 2015, I'm at 266. Wow. That's only 24 pounds lost in a year. However, I'm so much stronger today than I was a year ago. I can do things I couldn't do then. I can climb a flight of stairs without losing my breath. I climbed to the top of Tumalo Mountain! No way I could have done that a year ago. I'm less tired and more happy. I'm back on track with my nutrition now, so the fat is just going to melt away now!

I know here are plenty of other people like me out there who are significantly overweight. You may have watched an infomercial on a Beachbody program and wondered if it was something you could do. I'm here to say that you can do it if you set your mind to it. You don't necessarily have to follow the calendar exactly. If you wake up the next day and your body hurts so bad you can't even sit on the toilet, you probably should take a rest day, but don't give up. It's okay to take it slow if you need to.

I wanted to put a list together of all the Beachbody programs that I've done so it was all in one place to make it easier for people who are trying to decide which program to do. They are listed in the order that I did them.

I will update this list as I complete more programs. I'm currently doing Cize The End of Exercize. It's another dancing workout! It's pretty challenging for me, but I'm loving it!

Les Mills Combat

Les Mills Combat is a mixed martial arts program. It comes with eight workouts. Two of them are strength training workouts that use HIIT, but the rest are all martial arts workouts.

I loved the martial arts workouts, but wasn't a huge fan of the strength training ones when I first did this program. They were hard for me, but I got through them. I wanted to die during them and I was sore later, but they made me stronger. There was a lot of kicking and punching in these. There was some jumping, but they have a modifier who doesn't do any jumping.

I did a mini round of Les Mills Combat a few months back, and the HIIT workouts weren't as bad the second time around. These are great workouts to get you started along on a fitness journey. However, you should act fast since this program is being discontinued. Once they sell what they have, that's it.

Check out my post about my 61 Day Experience with Les Mills Combat to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full round of Les Mills Combat.

This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out in it and make it pretty intense for someone who is more advanced.

PiYo

PiYo is a mix of Pilates and Yoga. It's a Chalene Johnson creation. She also did Turbofire, Turbo Jam and Chalean Extreme. PiYO has 10 workouts. PiYo also comes with a free TurboFire workout.

PiYo is promoted as a no impact workout. However, to make it no impact, you need to follow the modifier in certain sections. There are a ton of squats and lunges in this program. I think it's important to mention that just in case someone reading this has knee problems.

There are two workouts that are supposed to be more cardio based and then the rest of them seem to be about strength training and stretching. The cardio ones are Drench and Sweat. I have to say that I was not a fan of either of these during my first round, but they were much easier to get through during my mini round. She moved pretty fast during these! I really enjoyed the other workouts in the program.

I didn't lose much weight with PiYo, but I got a lot stronger. I didn't have my nutrition under control. The program comes with a nutrition plan that's very similar to the 21 Day Fix, but I just wasn't ready to put much effort into nutrition. I tried to cut out as much junk as I could, but I was way pickier back then in terms of what I would eat and I just couldn't mentally handle going all out on my nutrition while still doing the workouts. It's easy for me to workout. It's not easy for me to come up with a meal plan. If it was just me, it might be easier, but I have a husband as well.

Check out my post about My 56 Day Experience with PiYo to find out more about the individual workouts or you can read through my journal of my mini round and my full found of PiYo.

This program is doable for a beginner, but she shows you things that you can do to make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced. 

21 Day Fix

21 Day Fix is a very popular Beachbody program. It comes with an amazing nutrition program as well as a workout program. If you buy it from a coach, you get eight workouts that are 30 minutes plus a 10 minute ab routine. If you don't buy it from a coach, miss out on one of the 30 minute workouts.

You do one of the 30 minute workouts every day for 21 days. There are no rest days during the 21 days, but one of the days is Yoga, so that's pretty much an active recover day.

The nutrition program that comes with this is based on a color coded container system. There's a list of foods that are acceptable on the program. As long as the food fits in the container, you get to eat it. If you run out of containers, you just wait until the next day to eat it. I think I lost 7 pounds during this program. I could have lost more, but I had some salt issues towards the end. I can't eat salt. It really kills my weight loss.

One of the workouts is just about cardio, one is Pilates, one is Yoga and the rest incorporate weights and cardio mixed together. There is a modifier in all of the workouts. This program is doable for a beginner, but you can also go all out and make it more challenging for someone who is more advanced.

Check out my post about my 21 Day Experience with 21 Day Fix or read my journal for my first round of 21 Day Fix.  

Body Beast

Body Beast is a weight lifting program. It's geared towards men. Plenty of women do this program, but it's marketed towards men. He talks like everyone doing it is a man. Some women are bothered by this, but I didn't really care.

The program comes with 13 workouts if you buy it from a coach. You only get 12 if you don't use a coach. It also comes with a bonus P90X3 workout. There is one cardio workout with this program, and the rest are all about strength training. There are three phases in this one. The first phase has one set of workouts, the second phase has a different set of workouts and the final phase mixes the workouts from the first two phases.

I gained weight during this program. My nutrition was a mess. We had a lot of family stuff going on and I just couldn't get my nutrition under control. I ate ice cream, cake, cookies and a lot of restaurant meals. It was a rough time. I was pretty much hungry all the time doing this! I was also sore all the time. This program made me so much stronger though. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through Coach to 5K if I hadn't done Body Beast.

Check out my post about my Three Month Experience with Body Beast or read my journal for my first round of Body Beast.

Rockin' Body

Rockin' Body is a dancing workout. The format is kind of cheesy, but that's what makes it so awesome. If you think you can't do dancing workouts, it's only because you haven't tried this. Shaun T is an amazing teacher. This is all based on walking, knee lifts, front kicks and side steps. He teaches the steps in an easy to follow manner! I can't dance, but I loved this program!

This one comes with seven workouts. If you buy the upgraded package, you get two more Rockin' Body workouts and two Hip Hop Abs workouts. One of the workouts is a strength training workout, but the rest all about dancing. Shaun T described the strength training workout as deceptively hard. I didn't think there was anything deceptive about it. It was just hard! It was great though.

Check out my post about my Four Week Experience with Rockin' Body or read about my journal for my first round of Rockin' Body.

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 8 - Shock Plyo

Day 8: Shock Plyo

After doing Les Mills Combat for the first time, I decided that I never wanted to do this workout again. It was the last workout in the round and I didn't want it to be my last memory of Les Mills Combat, so I did the free workout Combat Live 30 the next day and made my first round a 61 day round instead of 60 just because of much I disliked this workout. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad workout. I'm just saying that it was so incredibly hard for me and I felt like a complete failure doing it, so I never wanted to do it again. I did it for the 60 days because it was part of the plan, but once it wasn't on my calendar, I was done......Or so I thought. I was talking to my husband about redoing some of my workouts and he told me that I should redo whatever was hardest for me. Apparently, my mini round of Les Mills Combat would have to include Shock Plyo then because it was the hardest workout that I had done over the past year. 

I put Shock Plyo off until the last workout of my mini round. It didn't really seem intentional as far as putting it off to avoid doing it. It just seemed to make logistical sense at the time. I didn't really have a solid plan for my mini round. Originally I had intended to make it a full two weeks, but then I decided to do each workout once and Shock Plyo just came in last. Now my last memory of my mini round is Shock Plyo, but it didn't leave any lingering negativity this time around. The workout was still brutally hard, but I've come a long way. It was brutally hard, but I put more into it this time. I got deeper in my squats. I didn't need to take breaks during the burpees. I didn't do them as fast as they did, but I got through them without breaks. I didn't do the plyo lunges, but that was more to preserve my knees than anything else. I wanted to die when I was done, but I could walk and didn't need to sit down to take a breather first. 

Overall, this workout was pure and utter torture for the 28 minutes, but I'm glad I did it again. I did not have fun while doing it, but I can appreciate how far I've come since doing it last summer. This really is the hardest workout I've done. I'm almost looking forward to doing it again in a few months to see if I've gotten any better at it.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

The workout is only 28 minutes, but my screen shot has a few more minutes on it. I forgot to shut off the workout tab and started hooking up my Roku streaming stick to the TV. As hard as this workout is, I think I should have more than 4 minutes of vigorous activity and more than 16 minutes of total activity, but there is a plank section so that's brutal, but you're not actually moving much. There's other stuff too where I moved slowly, but it was brutal and the BodyMedia device doesn't seem to think it was enough to count as activity. Oh well.

 

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 7 - Combat LIve 60 Ultimate Warrior Workout

Day 7: Combat Live 60 Ultimate Warrior Workout

Today was Day 7 of my Les Mills Combat Mini Round. Only one more workout and I've gone through them all. Oddly enough, I left Shock Plyo for the last day, but I was so dead set against ever doing that workout again. I'm doing it though, and it's all my hubby's fault for suggesting that I do whatever was most difficult for me. 

This workout was actually a bit slow paced compared to the workout from yesterday. That one was hard core from the start, but this one started out pretty slow. There was a lot of pulsing in between the punches. There was one section that I did not get through without taking some breaks! However, I got through more of it than I remember ever getting through before. The section starts off with doing split squats (or stationary lunges, whatever you want to call them) We went down three times and then came up and did a front kick. I'm pretty sure that in the past, I couldn't even get through this part, but I got through it! Then we did some lateral lunges, but they were different than normal ones. We pointed our toe out to the side and faced the side as well. We mixed those with the front kicks and stationary lunges. I made it through this section for the most part. I did have some balance issues. The next section killed me! We squatted down a bit on one leg and then the other leg went back and we pulled our knee forward. Then we pulled the knee in twice and then on the third pull we did a roundhouse kick. Well they called it a roundhouse kick, but it wasn't very roundhouses to me. It was more like just a back kick. This section was torture. My balance was all over the place and I couldn't seem to get the rhythm down. My butt got pretty sore too! I didn't remember this section which was weird because I usually remember the stuff that's pretty dang hard and this was pretty dang hard for me. The push ups were hard too, but there weren't very many of them. I was pretty impressed with myself on the ab section. We did some crunches which weren't a big deal, but then we did a thing where our legs went straight up and then we did scissor legs. I'm pretty sure this section was torture before, but it was almost easy this time. 

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Here are the screen shots. I got less vigorous minutes on this workout than the one on the previous day. 

 

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 6 - Combat 60 Extreme Cardio Fighter

Day 6: Combat 60 Extreme Cardio Fighter

I left the 60 minute workouts for the weekend. It's really hard for me to do the 60 minute workouts during the week because it means waking up and motivating right away. I like my 15 to 20 minutes of vegging out on the couch before I hope into the workout room. On the weekend, I don't have that issue. 

Today was tough! This workout starts out pretty fast and just keeps going. I did miss some of the first few reps in a few of the rounds because I was guzzling water. My breaks were shorter this time than they used to be. I did pretty well during the side kick round. I should have done this post yesterday because I've done another workout since this one and now I'm having a hard time remembering this one. I do remember that the push ups were crazy hard! I was so happy to be on the floor though and be done with all the bouncing around. I'm really frustrated that my plantar faciitis symptoms are back after doing a week of Les Mills Combat. They actually started up a few days ago. I don't workout with shoes on. I probably should, but I just can't do it. It will go away in a few days. You can see the play by play of the workout on Day 15 of Les Mills Combat.  

I find it interesting that I'm doing this post while watching the latest episode of The Biggest Loser. It's the flashback episode where they look at where they started and how far they've come. That's what this Les Mills Combat Mini Round was all about for me. I wanted to go back and do it again to see how much stronger I was now. These workouts are kicking my butt, but they aren't as hard as they were the first time. I'm sore, but I'm able to go deeper on the squats and harder on the cardio stuff. I'm taking shorter water breaks. I'm pretty proud of myself. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. Check out all of those vigorous minutes! The first time I did this workout, I got 23 minutes of vigorous activity! I did pretty much all of the modifications then. This time, I didn't modify anything. Well, technically, I did because I didn't do the bounce that they did during stuff like the knee strikes, but that's pretty minor in my opinion. All of that bouncing is just not good for my week little knees. 

 

Weight Watchers Day 5

Today was Day 5 for Weight Watchers! I went over my points again, but I'm still doing well for the week. All of my weekly points will be used up most likely, but my activity points won't get eaten. Next week will be better. I'm going to come up with a better plan for next week and it will involve more fruits and veggies and less grains. No more bread for breakfast and I'm dropping the peanut butter too. I actually already dropped the peanut butter. I didn't make the best decision for dinner tonight. I had way more tater tots than I should have had, but I'm still within my points for the week, so I'm okay with it.

I got some extra activity at work today! I normally walk around for an hour at work, but it's not an hour straight so I don't count it. Today, I was using the scanner and that means I'm stuck in one spot for like 30 minutes or more. While I'm there, I do side steps. Today, I did them as fast as I could and still maintain my scanning. Normally, it doesn't count as moderate activity, but today it registered as moderate. I did two 30 minute sessions and all of it counted as moderate, so I counted it as light activity. Look at all those exercise points adding up!

Points Plus Diary Screen Shot

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 5

Day 4: Combat Live 30

This was the second time for this workout. I didn't do it while doing the first round of Les Mills Combat because it wasn't on the calendar. I did it after I was done with the round so Shock Plyo would not be my last workout of the round. I didn't remember much about the workout. I did remember that it didn't have a cool down for this one. I tried to give myself extra time to do my own cool down, but I didn't do so well with that. I managed to do a quick shoulder stretch, a little Down Dog and a quad stretch then it was into the shower for me. 

I really liked this workout. It was fast and hard right from the beginning. It had a lot of the same stuff that the regular Combat 30 workout has in it, but the warm up is more intense and it doesn't have a cool down, so I was able to get a ton of vigorous minutes. I did all of the cross jacks and the scissor legs! I'm so happy that I figured out what I was doing wrong with those things. It used to drive me crazy that I was always a step behind, but now I rock those! 

Overall, I was impressed with how well I was able to get through this one. My back half still hurts! The rest day didn't really help with that, but it felt great sleeping in yesterday. 

You can check out a play by play of the workout from my post for Les Mills Combat Day 61. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot for the workout. Look at all of those vigorous minutes. 

 

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 4 - Rest Day

Day 4: Rest Day

Today was a rest day. I needed a rest day last week, but I couldn't because I was doing 21 Day Fix and then I didn't want to take a Monday rest day since it just seems wrong to miss a Monday workout. Yesterday, my body was screaming for a rest day, so I took one today! I set the alarm for an hour later and I slept in. It felt great! My body is so sore! It's mainly my entire back half. My whole back is sore and my hamstrings are sore. I haven't figured out what I'm doing with my Les Mills Combat! I know I'm working out, but I'm not sure which one! I started out following the week one plan just because those were the workouts I wanted to do, but I don't think I want to do Shock Plyo tomorrow since I'm still sore. I want to do that one when I'm not already in pain! 

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 3 - Combat 45 Power Kata

Day 3: Combat 45 Power Kata

Today was Day 3 of my Les Mills Combat Mini Round. The plan is to do Les Mills Combat for two weeks, but it might go up or down depending upon when the weights get here! I'm so excited about getting them! 

I was looking forward to this one because it was one of my favorites before. It was hard the first time I did it though. All of the lunges during the Ginga section was just torture way back when, but today it went pretty well. My hamstrings were already killing me, but I got through this workout and I was quite impressed with myself over that. I love the combat workouts. I fumbled around in this one though. I was having some stupid moments. There was a segment where it was supposed to be cross jab cross and I kept doing jab cross jab. I couldn't figure out why I was so messed up and never on the same arm as them. I didn't figure it out until I was on the second arm. I felt stupid after that. If you want to see a play by play of the workout, check out my post from my first round of Les Mills Combat on Day 3.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my screen shot. I'm not sure how many minutes of vigorous I had the first time doing this workout because I had issues with the workout tab during that workout. The last time I did this I didn't have the workout tab either, but the time before for the last time had 24 minutes of vigorous and 40 minutes of total activity. I improved my vigorous minutes by one minute. YAY!

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 2 - Power HIIT

Day 2: Power HIIT

Today was Day 2 of my Mini Round of Les Mills Combat. My back was a bit sore from yesterday's workout. I wasn't planning on doing this workout again, but hubby said I should do whatever was hardest before and do it again. It sounded like sound advice, so I decided to do this one and Shock Plyo. I haven't done Shock Plyo yet though. That's for Thursday or next week. 

So the workout was crazy intense, but while I was doing it, all I kept thinking about was how the hell did I make it through this workout the first time around. There were so many squats in this! My legs are going to be in so much pain tomorrow! I did all of the jumping sumo squats, but I didn't do the arms with it. I used 10 pound dumbbells for the lifting section. It was rough, but I got through it. I was pretty surprised with myself. The last time I did this, I used 5 pound dumbbells and they killed me! I didn't do the plyo lunges in this. I just did rear lunges. I'm not quite up for plyo lunges yet. I did the burpees at my own pace and I did the mountain climbers up on my toes! The last time, I did the mountain climbers on my knees and I had to take breaks for the burpees. I've gotten a lot better stronger since August! Woot Woot!

You can read a play by play of the workout from my original round of Les Mills Combat on Day 2. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. I got three extra minutes of total activity over my first time doing this workout. It must have been the jumping during the sumo squats. 

Les Mills Combat Mini Round Day 1 - Combat 30 Kick Start

Day 1: Combat 30 Kick Start

I've been wanting to do Les Mills Combat again, but I didn't want to do Shock Plyo or Power HIIT. I had planned on doing a 60 day round with Les Mills Combat and PiYo. I was talking to my husband about it, and he said that I should do whatever was the hardest thing I've done so far so I can see how far I've come. I decided to do a mini round of Les Mills Combat and do all of the workouts. The plan is for it to last two weeks, but if the Bowflex adjustable weights show up before the two weeks is up, I might start Body Beast early. A few posts back, I said that I was going to start Les Mills Pump on February 2nd, but I changed my mind. Hubby bought a weight bench for the workout room and he bought the Bowflex adjutable weights, so I decided that I want to do Body Beast as soon as I can! 

I decided to start my mini round at the beginning and I picked Combat 30 Kick Start. If you want to see a play by play of the workout,, check out Day 1 of Les Mills Combat from back in July. I really liked doing this workout again. I love martial arts workouts and this is a really good one. My glutes and hamstrings were all tingly today. I was able to keep up with the workout. I did all of the cross jacks and all of the scissor legs. I also discovered why I was always one step behind. We did 7 Upper Cuts, but only 6 scissor legs! How did I miss that in all of the workouts before. Live and Learn! 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here are the screen shots for the workout. I got 24 minutes of total activity today! That was awesome. It felt amazing! 

Review of Daily Burn Kettlebells Days 5 and 6

I did Day 5 and 6 of Daily Burn Kettlebells the same day. I was also the same day as Day 49 of A person called Piyo. It was a busy day. The coming week is going to be rough. I've got the last week of PiYo, plus Daily Burn Kettlebells. There are too many long workouts in the coming week to double up, so I tripled up today and will probably have to do the same next Saturday and Sunday. I need to get Kettlebells onto a Monday through Sunday instead of this Wednesday through Tuesday thing that I've got going right now. It's going to be a very long week!

Day 5: Recover Yin Yoga

I actualy did Yin Yoga after DBK1 today. It just made more sense to end my triple workout day with Yoga. This was my first real Yoga workout. I did a Biggest Loser Yoga workout before, but that wasn't the same as this. This was more traditional calm music, slow deep breathing and very slow movements for stretching. This was not a weight loss yoga workout. I'm not going to go over all of the moves that were done because they all had Japanese names except for Pigeon, Down Dog and Up Dog. This was HARD! I was a bit disappointed to have the Down Dog Split thing like in PiYo. I didn't do so well with it either. I was pretty much fried by the time I got to this workout. 

The set up was just like Kettlebells. There was a timer that counted down the whole workout and there was a bar that filled as the move progressed. Once the bar was all the way across the screen, we were done with that move. However, this was a bit different because the person doing the routine wasn't speaking. She flowed through the movements and then she did a voice over on it. I found that to be a bit weird. It sort of kept me disconnected from the workout. It makes sense why they would do it, but it was just weird. I had a hard time following the moves with just her voice cues and I had to keep looking at the screen which made it a bit awkward in some of the moves.

I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but I really liked it. I found that I was a lot more flexible than I thought I was. I also feel really really stretched out right now. It felt pretty good! It wasn't a big calorie burn according to the BodyMedia, but that's okay. I wasn't going for calorie burn with this. I just wanted to feel like I had been stretched out, and this definitely did that. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

There's not much to say about the screen shot other than, I don't think I did 100 steps. Most of this was on my butt. I did find it funny that she actually used the word butt several times. You don't hear people in workout videos use that term very much. 

Day 6: DBK1

I did Day 6 on Day 5 since it was going to be a rough week trying to work in all of the workouts. This sounded like a good plan at the time, but sitting here now a few hours later, I'm not so sure! I'm getting ahead of myself though. First I should talk bout the workout. 

The first time I did DBK1, I started out with the smallest bell that I had and I worked my way up. This time, I started off with the 15 pound bell. It made a HUGE difference. The fact that I had already done another workout today could have also made a difference, but I'm pretty sure the weight had a lot to do with it. This time around, this workout felt like a workout. The first time, it seemed pretty slow paced, but not this time! I was huffing and puffing for the bulk of the workout. I used those 1 minute rest periods to catch my breath! By the fourth set, that weight was getting heavy! I was grunting and groaning pretty good. The last four reps of the row were HARD! I didn't quite make it to failure on anything, but I came pretty close! 

My body took a beating today. I'm seriously wondering if I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow. My glutes are all tingly. I really felt it in my hamstrings today too. I think that I had better form today. I really worked on the hip extension thing that they talk about. I'm really excited to move on to DBK3 and DBK4! I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to wait until week 5 for that, but I'm not sure when to make the jump up. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I got two minutes of vigorous activity! Yahoo! I thought with all of that huffing and puffing that I would have had more than 13 minutes of total activity, but I'll take it! Three workouts in one day! OMG!

Review of Beachbody PiYo Day 49 Seven Weeks Done!

Day 49: Strength Intervals

Today was Day 49. I've completed seven whole weeks of PiYo. I only have one week left before I earn my T-shirt! I'm so happy that I've made it this far. My body hates me though. Not so much because of PiYo, but more the decision to do PiYo and Kettlebells at the same time. I'm not really sure what prompted that crazy decision, but that's what I decided and that's what I'm sticking with. 

Today was the last time for Strength Intervals, and I can honestly say that I will not miss this workout. I feel like I'm constantly saying how much I hate these workouts, but honestly, it's just three workouts out of the entire thing that I don't like. Sweat, Strength Intervals and Drench. I just do those three so much more than the others it seems. I love Buns, Core, Define: Upper Body and Define: Lower Body. I haven't done Hardcore on the Floor yet. I really should have done it. I'll do it next Sunday so Drench isn't my last PiYo workout of the round. I also have to do the Turbo Fire 20 minute workout that came with PiYo. 

Okay so the workout......As I mentioned already, I'm just not a fan of it. My foot doesn't like all the running in place. I should wear shoes, but I hate working out in shoes. I'm also not a huge fan of the fast paced cardio followed immediately by some strength training thing. The change from super fast cardio to hardly moving usually makes me want to throw up. I got through it and the workout is pretty short. This workout is refreshing in a way though. It's completely different than the other workouts in the series which is nice. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

I got 9 minutes of vigorous activity! That made my day! Those 9 minutes were torture though. I just haven't been doing much vigorous stuff lately so my wee little heart and sad lungs can't really take it. I was huffing and puffing more than I feel like I should have been. Just like skipping leg day for too long makes your legs all wimpy, skipping high intensity cardio for too long makes your lungs and heart wimpy! I'm hoping that as I get further into Kettlebells, I'll get more cardio involved. Those swings were pretty intense during that swing clinic, but we don't get to do those just yet. We need to work on the techniques that will make us good swingers first. PiYo is definitely making my legs stronger though. 

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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. 

My 61 Day Experience with Beachbody Les Mills Combat

I realized today that I never did a 60 day update for Les Mills Combat! I wanted to do an overall review of the program and put all of my BodyMedia screen shots in one place, but that never happened and I don't have time to find all of the pictures now, so I'm going to do an overview and skip the screen shots. You can read about My full 60 days of Les Mills Combat. Unfortunately, it's backwards. Maybe next weekend, I'll put them in order.

What the program comes with

The basic program came with an instructional DVD and six workouts. I bought the program from a coach, so I got a free DVD. Be sure to buy from a coach so you get the free DVD with your Tworkouts. Most of the programs have one and if you don't buy from a coach, you might not get your free DVD. If you need a coach, you can sign up through my Beachbody site. You also get a tape measure, the booklet that explains the program, a card to record your stats before and after and a nutrition guide.

Nutrition Guide

I did not use the nutrition guide during the program. I skimmed through it, but I wasn't in a place where I could tackle the workout program and the Nutritional program. I'm a rather picky eater and I had finally come up with a food plan that was working for me. I didn't want to feel forced into a nutrition plan while committing myself to 60 days of a workout plan too. 

The Fitness Guide

The Fitness Guide mainly talks about the program and the people in it. There is an overview of the different martial arts that make up the program and each person in the video gets a blurb. The Fitness Guide also has the calendar. There are three different calendars. Two of them can be done with just the basic program, but the third one requires the extra DVDs that are in the upgrade package. 

The Workouts

The Basics

The Basics is an instructional DVD that you should go through once, but you probably won't do it ever again. They show you the different types of punches and kicks that you'll be doing. They also talk about the different martial arts that are in the program. I highly recommend at least watching it even if you don't get up and actively participate. 

Combat 30: Kick Start

This is a 30 minute combat workout. It's all about punching and kicking. I really liked this workout. I have a play by play for the workout on my first day of Les Mills Combat. This was a great workout because it gave me room to grow. I didn't do the jump kicks to start, but over time, I got stronger and I was able to do them. The workout is doable even when you're 290 pounds and out of shape. I was breathing heavy and sweating up a storm, but I got through it. The more I did the workout, the more effort I put into it. I didn't get bored with it because I continued to grow with it. This workout falls off the calendar after week 5 in the Warrior Program.

Combat 45: Power Kata

This program is a little under 45 minutes. It's all about punching and kicking. I really liked this workout the first time I did it. There were a lot of moves that made me feel all badass and gangster. There were downward punches and these descending elbows. There was also a section of lunges disguised as martial arts. I didn't mind doing lunges in this workout. We started this one on Day 3 and we did this one all the way through the program. It continued to be one of my more favorite workouts even though I did it about once a week for 8 weeks. I never got bored with it. I was able to put more oomph into it and make it just as intense as day one. You can read a play by play of the workout on my Day 3 review of Les Mills Combat.

Combat 60: Extreme Cardio Fighter

Whenever I did this workout, I thought it was my favorite and then I would do Power Kata and think that was my favorite. I really did like the combat workouts as a whole. I started my weight loss journey back in 1999 with TaeBo and I still love martial arts workouts today. This workout was really only 54 minutes even though it's called Combat 60 and they talk in the DVD about it being a 60 minute workout. That worked out good for me a time or two when I was running late. Those extra six minutes can be the difference between getting to work on time or coming up with an excuse for being late. You can read the play by play from Day 15 of Les Mills Combat. The workout appears on the first day of Week 3 and runs through the first day of Week 6. Before and after that time frame, you don't do this workout. I kind of missed it when it was gone!

Combat Live 60: Ultimate Warriors Workout

This was a 52 minute combat workout that was filmed live in Bristol, England. There are about 400 people in the crowd all doing combat. I have no idea how no one got kicked or punched in the face. Madness. I really liked this workout. It appeared in week 6 for the first time and went through the end of the program. You can read a play by play on Day 40 of Les Mills Combat. I needed to modify some stuff the first time I did this one. I don't remember it having any jumping kicks in it though which is odd because Combat 30 had them and that was the beginners type workout. Writing this review is making me want to do these workouts again. Once I'm done with PiYo, I might need to do a Les Mills Combat rerun week.

Combat Live 30: 

This workout was actually longer than 30 minutes and it didn't have a cool down which made it even longer. I was running late that day. Eeek! Okay so, you can swap Combat Live 30 in for Combat 30 to mix things up a bit more for you. I didn't do that because I wanted to follow the program as it was laid out, but after doing this workout, I realized that all I did was miss out on some variety. It's a nice 30 minute workout and has a bunch of punching and kicking in it. You can read a play by play of the workout on my Day 61 of Les Mills Combat. I refused to end Les Mills Combat on Shock Plyo, so I did the bonus workout once I was done with my 60 days. 

Power HIIT

This was a 30 minute HIIT workout. HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training. In my experience, that has always meant some sort of structured timed workout. For example, you go crazy for 40 seconds and go slower for 20 seconds. Crazy would be running on a treadmill and slower would be walking as an example. This workout had it's intense moments, but it wasn't very structured as far as the high intensity periods and the rest periods. I wasn't a fan of this workout the first time I did it, but I got better at it and modified less. I still hate burpees and push ups, but I feel stronger doing them now. This workout did have one section that I really liked. I love lifting weights! I got to do that in this. It was pretty much all shoulder stuff which I'm not very fond of, but it was lifting weights so I got over it. You can read the play by play from Day 2 of Les Mills Combat. Just ignore all of my whining. I survived this workout. You start this on Day 2 and it runs through the entire program except one week towards the middle where you have NO HIIT workouts. It was my happiest week ever on Les Mills Combat. 

Shock Plyo

This also a 30 minute HIIT workout. It didn't like this workout the first time I did it and I never really grew to like it. Anything with burpees, skaters, mountain climbers and plyo lunges is just ot  my thing. I love the Combat workouts. They make me feel like a badass. I feel like I can do anything and conquer the world, but the HIIT workouts make me feel like a fat out of shape lump on a log. As I got far enough into the program to start noticing improvement, I started to dislike the DVD less, but I never great to like it. I still can't do a blasted push up on my toes! When PiYo is done, I had better be able to do one! You can read a play by play of the workout on Day 5 of Les Mills Combat. It's a good thing it followed a rest day. Otherwise, I might not have made it through! This workout started on Day 5 and went through the end of the program. It actually ends on Shock Plyo. There was one week where I didn't have to do Shock Plyo. That week was my happiest week during the program. 

My Results

I started out at 290 pounds and I ended at 275. I lost 15 pounds doing Les Mills Combat. I was hoping to lose 20 pounds, but I may have put on a little bit of muscle with all of those lunges and squats. I went down a size in my jeans as well. The measurements that I took on Day 1 were not correct. I haven't included my final measurements because I can't find them and because if Day 1 was messed up, there's not really much point in comparing them to Day 60. I'm stronger, I'm lighter and my pants are smaller. It was successful. 

I had non scale victories during this program too. I stuck with the program for 60 days. I worked out when I didn't want to. I worked out when I knew I would be late for work because I woke up late. I didn't let being tired or cranky get in the way of doing this program. I did all 60 days. The only deviation was one day when I read the calendar wrong and I did the wrong workout. I switched the Friday and Saturday workouts. 

I loved the structure of the program. I loved that for 60 days I did not have to think about what workout I was going to do. Before this program, I would plan a week at a time. I didn't always have a good plan either. I would get DVDs from the library and mix up some strength training and some cardio, but it was just kind of a whim what to do when I woke up. With this program, I was forced to do things that I did not like such as burpees and lunges. I got better at them. I got stronger. I'm having real life positive changes because of this program. I love photography, but not portraits of people. I must prefer to take pictures of mother nature, but to do that, I have to get outside and hike. I'm able to get to places I wouldn't have gotten to before this program. 

Back in 2005, I started losing weight by focusing on weight lifting and doing a little bit of cardio. My husband and I would go hiking on the weekends. I always wanted to die when the hikes were over. I could leg press 500 pounds and 20 pound bicep curls, but I couldn't walk to the top of a hill without wanting to die. I would be gasping for breath. My heart would be racing. My glutes, hamstrings, calves and quads would be on fire. That's not happening this time. I'm attacking the hills! I still get out of breath. I still need to take breaks, but I'm not gasping for breath. My heart doesn't feel like it's going to beat out of my chest. My glutes, hamstrings, calves and quads are not on fire. We did a hike yesterday, and I didn't even feel it this morning when I woke up. 

Overall Thoughts

I'm quite happy with my results from Les Mills Combat even if I didn't lose the 20 pounds that I was hoping for. I love the program. I plan on doing it again once I get the upgraded DVDs. I would recommend this program to anyone who likes martial arts type workouts, but I will warn you that it can be killer on the knees. They show modified stuff, but it's so hard to tell yourself to modify! I want to go all out all the time! 

Review of Beachbody Les Mills Combat Combat 30 Live

What I did and why

Today should have been a rest day! My body screamed for a rest day. I woke up 45 minutes late, but I said that I was going to do Les Mills Combat 30 Live which was the free workout since I bought my DVDs through a coach. I risked being late to work so I could do it. I really wanted to do it since I said I would and because I didn't want my Combat round to end on Shock Plyo. I'm glad I did it too since I did like the workout. I wish I had done it sooner. It would have been nice to use this instead of the studio version at times.

Combat 30 Live

WARNING! This workout is actually 33 minutes and has no cool down included in it. I wanted to make sure you all knew that before doing it. I think it's great that it's a longer workout, but I woke up 45 minutes late and was hoping to make it to work on time since I was going to be leaving early. I barely made it. I had to skip the hard boiled eggs for breakfast and the salad for lunch though to shave some time off getting ready. I went with a Jimmy Dean Delite breakfast sandwich and leftover shepherd's pie. It's not real shepherd's pie though. It didn't have gravy. 

Okay so the workout....It starts with an introduction of everyone. All of the people are the same as the 60 minute live workout. The first section was 3-1/2 minutes. We did jabs with our right hand 16 times. Then we alternated uppercuts right left right and a pulse. Then we added two jabs to the upper cuts and got rid of the pulsing. Then we did a double right hook and scissor legs! The song for this workout is a song from a different workout which kind of sucked. I like new music for new workouts. Then we did the low block and rising block. We added the decoy to it too. I wasn't thrilled with adding this part to it since it's in the 60 minute Live version twice. I like new stuff in new workouts! Then we switched sides and did it all over again. 

The next segment was about 4-1/2 minutes. It started off with a leg stretch. Then the kicking began! We started with alternating knee strikes. Then we did alternating triple knee strikes. Then we did the side kick set up. I'm not sure why we have to do these set ups, but whatever. After the set up stuff, we did actual side kicks. That was followed by shuffling left and right and doing side kicks. Then it was alternating front kicks. Then alternating push kicks. I actually did the push kicks this time. They really do work the abs! Next was alternating roundhouse set ups. Then of course we did the roundhouse kicks. Then we shuffled with the roundhouse. Then back kicks! Back to alternating knee strikes followed by alternating hip rolls.  The section ended with alternating triple knee strikes again. This whole section seemed a bit slow, but it was still the warm up really. 

The next section was 6-3/4 minutes. We started out with the claw which I didn't really get. Then we jabbed to the corner. Then we did a cross with a pulse. We went back to the jab with the pulse and then back to the cross and pulse. We turned to face the front and did a jab cross jab. Then we added an uppercut to it. Then we added a roundhouse kick. There was a bunch of pulsing between reps which really made it feel slow. We switched sides and did it all over again. We did some bouncing around again. Then we did a claw kata. I didn't really get the whole claw thing! Then we did front kicks into the corner with pulses in the middle. Then we added a hammer fit. So one hand went out in front and the other slammed down into it. We did the claw kata thing again and then kicked into the other corner of the room. We then added the hammer fists. We went back to the first side and did the corner kicks with the hammer thing without the hand to punch it into. Then we switched sides again.

The next round was about 6 minutes. We started with jabs and then jab cross. We combined the jab cross with four jabs. Then we did a hook on one arm with an uppercut with the other. Oh then we did hook upper hook and did crossjacks with it! I'm not a fan of cross jacks. I kept up for the most part. Then we did upper cuts 7 times and scissor kicks! Then we pulsed and ran in place. We switched sides and did it all again. Then we did a 8 jabs and 8 uppercuts. We alternated between those. We finished by doing 15 seconds of just uppercuts. 

The next section was 6-1/2 minutes. It started off with the same Kata that is in Combat 45 (I think it's that one) and it even had the same song. Then we did back kicks. Then we did a back kick, two knee strikes on the opposite leg and a front kick. Then we did a knee strike with the back leg and a front kick with the front leg. Then we did a step kick which led into the jump kick. I've missed the jump kick! It's in Combat 30, but not the rest. Well not this jump kick at least. We went back to the back kick double knee strike front kick. Then we switched sides and did it all again. We did 117 kicks on one side and then the other. That's the same concept as Combat 30 the studio version. 

The last section was just over 5 minutes. We started with alternating jabs. I love these! It was always my favorite part of TaeBo. Then we did alternating uppercuts. Then we did double uppercuts. Of course when you add double uppercuts you know you have to do scissor legs too. Then we did alternating hooks. Then we did double hooks which of course led to adding in scissor legs! They really like scissor legs! Then we did some running in place. Then we did it all over again. The last minute started with double jabs alternating each arm. Then we did singles! I really do like this part. Then the workout ended. They talked a little bit and did some shoulder stretches, but they mainly just said to get the stretch DVD and do some stretching. I don't have the stretch DVD because it comes with the upgraded package that I didn't get. 

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Here are my BodyMedia screen shots. Since this was my first time doing this workout, I don't have anything to compare it to. I did like this workout. I think it would be a nice to alternate this one with the studio version. I'm not sure why they didn't include that as an option on the calendar. PiYo includes the free one on the calendar. You get the free workouts by ordering from a coach.

Polar FT7 Heart Rate monitor

Here is a picture of my heart rate monitor after the workout. The calorie burn is so much less than with the BodyMedia Fit. Crazy crazy crazy. My husband did point out though that if BodyMedia has a 10% margin of error and the Polar has a 10% margin of error that will account for a possible 20% difference. So let's say that BodyMedia is high. So 10% of 467 is about 46. Let's say the Polar is 10% low. So 10% of 259 is about 25 and 46 + 25 = 71. There's still a 130ish calories difference! I just wish I knew what was more accurate! I tend to think that the BodyMedia device is since I lost the amount of weight I should have lost based on my calories in versus my calories out during my 7 Day Commitment to Food Logging. So, what does that mean for my heart rate monitor? Do I keep it? Do I return it? Oh decisions decisions! I want to find a purpose for it in my life, but it can't just be to show me some pretty chart or graph. It needs something more. I'll have to think about this and do more research.

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I DID IT! Review of Beachbody Les Mills Combat Day 60!

What I did and why

Today was Day 60 of Les Mills Combat! I FINISHED IT! I have earned my T-Shirt! I'll have another post with official stats and everything, but I just needed to say once again that.........I FINISHED IT! I went all 60 days of Les Mills Combat. I did not miss a single workout in those 60 days. I swapped two because I read the calendar wrong, but I did all 60 days. If I woke up late, I still did it. I cut the shower short and risked being late to work, but I did it! If I woke up sore or tired or hungry or PMSy, it didn't matter! I still did it! It's quite the accomplishment for me! I get bored easily, but I stuck with this thing! Okay, enough tooting my own horn.

Shock Plyo

Someone's idea of a sick joke was to put the most difficult workout as the final workout, but I will fool them! I'm going to do the Free DVD tomorrow! Take that Les Mills Combat Calendar Creator! You will not make my last memory of this round of Combat by Shock Plyo! You can read my full play by play review of Shock Plyo on my Review of Day 3 of Les Mills Combat. You can read about how much I disliked it my first time around. It's growing on me, but it still has burpees, jumping lunges, jumping squats, mountain climbers, push ups, planks and skaters. Pretty much everything I hate about exercise. It's like real exercise. I prefer fun exercise. Things like hiking or combat. With the combat workouts, I can pretend it's not a workout. I can pretend I'm training to be an MMA fighter. With the HIIT workouts, I'm just working out. There's nothing fun about burpees! 

I still do backward lunges instead of the forward ones. That may never change. I didn't do the plyo lunges either. I didn't "drop" into the drop squats, but I did do all of the mountain climbers on my toes. I still did the push ups on my knees though. After the workout, I tried a push up on my toes. Let's just say that I'm not nearly as buff under all of this fat as I thought I was. I thought I'd be able to power out one push up on my toes. Well, not so much. I made it down an inch or two, but that's about it. I did try it after the workout though so I'm going to say that I was too tuckered out from all of the push ups on my knees to do one on my toes. I'll give my muscles a few days to recover from 60 days of Les Mills Combat and then I'm trying that push up again! 

I did all of the jumping stuff in that last torturous song! I so need a rest day! I can't wait until this weekend! I'm not going to workout either day. I think we're going hiking though. Hopefully, it won't be too much elevation gain. 

I'm really nervous about what next week will hold. For two months, I haven't had to think or plan my workouts. Before bed, I make sure I know what workout I'm doing so I know how much time I need in the morning and then I just wake up and do that workout. That has reduced my stress level significantly. It's also made me realize that I really do need a more structured plan like this. If I do the plan, I tend to let myself slack off with 10 minute workouts. I can't keep doing that if I want to get rid of another 108 pounds or more. Oh it feels so good to see that number instead of the 150 that I started out wanting to lose.

I'm excited for hubby to get home in an hour so we can do pictures! I never wanted to see pictures of myself, but now I want to see them so I can see if there are changes that I notice! I really wish I had my 317 pound pictures, but I was too embarrassed to have anyone take pictures of me and I didn't even want to take them of myself.

BodyMedia Screen Shots

Here are my screen shots for the workout. The HIIT workouts always make me feel like I didn't do enough! The stats are just terrible! I always hear about how HIIT workouts will increase your calorie burn throughout the day, but my BodyMedia Fit doesn't seem to show anything higher than my 1.6 when sitting down doing nothing. I'm not really sure what's up with that. Maybe I'm really burning it but it doesn't trigger the right sensors for the BodyMedia. I'm not sure. 

Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor

Well, this workout was the reason I got my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor. I didn't think the BodyMedia device was very accurate for stuff like this. Yesterday's workout didn't work for the BodyMedia, but the HIIT workout on Tuesday did. I wasn't thrilled with the results on that one, and I'm not thrilled with the results on this one either. BodyMedia is still higher and since I thought BodyMedia's calorie burn was low, I'm really bummed with the HRM's version of my burn. I think the difference was less today than it was on Tuesday though. I'm still going to play around with the HRM some more. I still think it will be helpful during my attempt to run. I also think it will be good to look at the percentage of time I was in the Fat Burning mode versus Cardio mode, but I've yet to sit down to learn how to use this gadget. 

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