30 Day Shred- Day 1

I finally got out of my comfy green chair tonight and worked out. Instead of heading all the way to the rec center, I opted to stay in my dorm room and just do the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred that I mentioned yesterday. And man or man did I get a workout, this video is tough!

The video consists of 3 different difficulty levels, it's recommended that you begin with level one and continue after the workout becomes comfortable. Each workout lasts 27 minutes and consists of 3 stage circuits. Each circuit is broken up into strength, cardio, and ab exercises. All of the exercises that Jillian has you do are easy to follow and simple to learn. I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up, but most of the exercises I'd done before. I never knew that simple things like jumping jacks and squats with weights could be so difficult. She had me sweating in no time....granted it's already a sauna in my room and I had to open the window all the way to cool it down enough. One of the women you follow does the modified version and the other does each full movement (I can't imagine what goes into filming a workout tape). Normally, I always do moves full out because I feel like the modified versions are just me being lazy, but many of the times I had no other choice but to stop and go to modified.

One of my worst problems are my weak arms. Most of the time I don't lift weights or do push-ups so that was the real challenge. My arms are so sore their shaking at the moment. Five pound weights were definitely a bad idea. I might have to go buy another set of lighter weights to start off with. By the time I got to the side lunges with the arm raises I could hardly lift my arms.

I think my favorite part is the amount of time it takes. It's so easy to give up 27 minutes of your day to make yourself feel good. And not having to walk out in the cold to the gym definitely helped. I still haven't decided if I'm going to actually do the 30 day challenge and stick with this every day. I feel with running that might be a bit much....not to mention how sore I'm going to be tomorrow! Which really is a good thing, being sore means you're working new muscles and after years of dance I've learned to appreciate the feeling :) I can feel tighter muscles already.

I'd definitely recommend this video to anyone looking for something new to try and people who want a challenging workout. Maybe it was just because I watch Biggest Loser and have seen Jillian Michaels be so tough on the show, but I felt like I couldn't quite or else she'd start yelling at me like she does to some of the contestants. She was a good motivator to keep me going even though I wanted to just stop. Plus for beginners Jillian takes the time to indicate when to breath and gives you tips on proper positioning. From my past experiences I've learned when best to breath, but like I said I don't know much about weights so those cues came in handy.

Now off to bed, I've gotten horrible sleep all this week and am exhausted! One more day of waking up early, then a long weekend.