Week of December 29, 2008

I am not titling my posts by week number anymore.... then, when I have a bad week I feel like I failed and I would rather keep those feelings for when I actually do fail. So, I will title them by the actual dated week.

For Christmas I received a new DVD, Jari Love's Get Ripped 1000. I'm loving this DVD. I watched it this last Saturday to see what I was in for and she alternates cardio with weight training. I didn't count how many sets (which I consider one cardio and one weight routine a set). I will alternate Get Ripped 1000 with the Billy's Banks Ab BootCamp. I will admit that yesterday I fell to temptation and purchased Zumba. I thought that it would be a good cardio to alternate with Jari's workouts. I also remember when I danced the Lambada dance in Brazil that my midsection was always sore the next day. So, I know those kind of moves really work. I was convinced by their moves allegedly working all of the body. We'll see. It will 4-6 weeks before it gets here so I have time to build strength with these new workouts and I should be ready for a change by the time it gets here.

Monday: Jari Love's Get Ripped 1000. I did 2.5 sets. Wow, this is hard and I was taking it easy. I also climbed 203 stairs at work. (I've just added #14 to my instructions on How To Make an Exercise Video that was inspired by this workout. When we are starting the cardio I can't see what her feet are doing because the camera-person is zoomed in on her and they stay there during the first few steps of the cardio. So, I can't see what she is doing until they are fully in the screen. I will have to memorize her order of cardio in order to start with her.)
Tuesday: I climbed 216 Stairs at work.
Wednesday: The holiday really messed with my sleeping schedule and I couldn't get up on time with any amount of energy worthy to exercise.
THE NEW YEAR - Thursday: Jari Love's Get Ripped 1000. I did 3 sets. This time I used less weights and worked harder than I did the first time. I had to sit and catch my breath after the first set before moving onto the next or I would've quit right there. One set I didn't use weights at all so that I could focus on proper form, work hard and make it through the routine. Next time I'll add another set. The workout is really targeted and my strength will need to be build up through time. I look forward to being able to kick butt through this DVD and feel up to par with my old self. I climbed only 16 stairs today.
Friday: Billy's Bootcamp Ab BootCamp. I made it through an extra routine today. I'm adding each time to each of my DVD's as I get stronger. There is only one more routine to add before they get onto the floor, so as far as I'm concerned I only have one more routine before I'm finished. I don't do floor work, for many reasons, namely physical limitations. Sometime, when I'm feeling that I have reached my max potential for the DVD, I will add to this workout a few sets from my Body By Jake's ab machine.
Saturday: Jari Love's Get Ripped 1000. I did 3.5 sets. I only used weights for the arm routines. I worked really hard. Next week I will focus on building my strength for these 3.5 sets. During my other Get Ripped DVD one of the very last routines I found the hardest and challenged my cardio, was the side squats off the step with lateral raise. I was always grateful it was toward the back end of my workout. This Get Ripped 1000 starts out with that routine with a different twist. We side squat off the step and then do a lunge off the the step and then alternate those. It kills me. This is why I need to rest after the first set. I then get back to it and am grateful that after the quick cardio we go to an arm routine. But, then after another quick cardio we are back to another version of squats and lunges off the step. She's killing me! That's good, though, because my pear shaped figure needs those routines. So, the difficulty of these routines is why I've chosen not to use weights during the lower body segments. In the end, I made it through another half of a set, but I stopped when I saw that the second part of that set are the push ups. I don't do push ups. I will be skipping those when I am ready to move on. I'm very happy with my results this week. I am eager to continue building my strength.