Plyometric Cardio Circuit... again...

Day 10

So, I'm starting to think my husband has already opted out of Insanity... and I started it with him to help push him to complete it. Today makes the 3rd day he'll be behind me on it. I guess if he starts back up, I'll just repeat the days...

Today was a little more difficult than yesterday. The last series of the workout requires you to do a lot of pushups, which for a couple of weeks I have to avoid. I held plank through some of them, low plank, or jogged it out through them. I know I'm not getting the full "Insanity" experience since I was told to avoid a few things for the time being, but bouncing and hard cardio aren't included so I'm doing as much as I can!

I also went to PiYo today. It was my first class back in probably 5-6 weeks and I'd forgotten just how much upper back was included. I spent a lot of time sipping my water or holding plank since pushups are a big no-no until the inflammation has subsided.

One good thing though... My shoulder hurt today the least it has in probably atleast 2 MONTHS! We're making progress.

One too many Rest days...

So, I took a weekend blogging break and a mandatory rest day yesterday so here we are... What should be my day 10 is really my day 9 - and lots to catch up on!

Saturday was my day 7, or rest day... so I took it easy and hung out with my family. Our son, goofyboy, had his first ever t-ball game. He did pretty well and got to take a turn on the pitchers mound... which is basically where all the balls hit off the tee go in tball. He did pretty well, but watching them try to figure out what they are supposed to be doing is pretty humorous.

On Sunday, I did my Cardio Power and Resistance as scheduled and got to have a great night out with some great friends. I was going to wimp out on this day, as Sunday is usually my rest day, and if I pushed the schedule one day, it'd coincide with what my body is used to... but I decided not to wimp out. However, I waited until I barely had enough time to do the workout and throw on my clothes to go out with the girls.

Then we get to Monday, supposed to be my Pure Cardio day... but, I took it off. I'm not fan of excuses and if I'd gotten it in before my doctor appointment that would have been great, but I didn't. I saw a Physical Medicine MD and did get a real medical diagnosis on what's going on in my shoulder and neck. It's a form of migraine, so the good news there is that there's no injury, so no rehab is going to be required - I just have to figure out what to do to eliminate the migraine! She did some pain killing shots into the trigger spots and told me to take it easy for the day, but, she encouraged me to get back as close to normal as possible. Of course with that, there are a few exceptions - No over head movements other than stretches(no jumping jacks, squat jacks, etc), no push ups(but holding plank or low plank is fine), no pull-ups, and no hard punches. Of all the things she said I couldn't do until the muscle relaxes, the punches was the hardest to take... I've missed 6 weeks now of Turbokick, and that's a core component of the class! I want to be back in there! Soon enough though, soon enough...

Today - Pure Cardio. 38 minutes, just about 300 calories... and this includes about 10 minutes of stretching between the start and end. I had to do some modifications today to accommodate the restrictions I have until my trapezius calms down. The most notable modification was on the pushup jacks - I did plank for 30 seconds followed by a chataraunga and hold for 30 seconds(low position, nose/chin near floor but not on it - holding myself up still). Other than that, the rest of my modifications were mostly keeping my arms to shoulder height when they went over head.... pretty easy day to modify. :-)

I don't hate Insanity as much as I did a week ago... so we're making progress!

Day 6 - Knowing one's limits

Day 6

Day 6 should have been the Plyometric Cardio circuit, but I'm still dealing with the migraine from yesterday so after about 15 minutes of the workout I switched over to the Cardio Recovery workout. I still got in my 43 or so minutes, it just wasn't at the intensity defined on the Insanity calendar. I knew 5 minutes in that if I kept going I would end up making my headache MUCH worse and be putting myself in a bad position if I performed the whole workout, but I wanted to get a sweat on before I quit so I went at a lower impact pace until I was all sweaty and winded.

If you're not feeling good, by all means rest. If you're injured or over-sore, do what you can without pushing yourself to further injury. I know my limits when it comes to a migraine, so I'm taking it easy and will hopefully be ready to go hard on the next workout day .

Know your limits. Just don't make excuses. :-)

Insanity Day 5 - Pure Cardio

Day 5

So, today I woke up again way too early with a headache, only this time it was accompanied by severe nausea - aka... the nasty migraine, which are all too familiar to me. I fumbled around for some medicine and tried to go back to sleep. Sean was sweet to let me off the hook for the workout, but I still did it after I dropped our son off at preschool. While he was doing his workout, the nausea got the better of me... so I was already not in the best shape to start out the day. It can only get better from here though, right!?!

Overall, the workout wasn't too bad. I had several minutes logged on my armband as 8.8-14 calories a minute according to the read out device... and then the dang thing fell off again. I think I need to get a new strap, this one's velcro must be worn out. It's loading my calorie burn now... but I'm sure it's going to be off b/c it kept coming off my arm. I swear I spent a good portion of the workout trying to hold the dang thing on...

Anyway, back to the workout. It wasn't so bad - only he only gives you like 3 planned breaks throughout. However, he tells you when your form starts to go to take a break... so its up to your discretion to do so. I only had to really pause once, and it was during the suicide jumps, or what I know from TKB as sumo burpees.... some combo of that move plus migraine medicine was a recipe for disaster. I got dizzy and nauseous, and rather than describing it, lets just say it wasn't pretty.

As Shaun T says, "This Sh*t is Bananas Yo"! All in all, I look forward to doing this workout again when I feel better. :-)

Insanity Day 4 - Cardio Recovery

Day 4

So, today I woke up with a monstrous headache about an hour before our scheduled time to wake up for our workout. Of course, being half asleep still, I didn't think about why my head hurt and it wasn't until after I got up for the workout that I realized it was because I had low blood sugar and was seriously hungry! Even after my usual breakfast, I'm still hungry... AND somehow I'm up 4lbs from Sunday's preworkout weigh in! OUCH.

Today was actually a workout that I didn't mind doing and I didn't feel like cursing at the tv! I am more sore than I've been in MONTHS. I know this program is working, and cardio recovery was exactly what I needed today!

Insanity Day 3 - Cardio Power and Resistance

Day 3

So I woke up a little sore today. I think I over did it some by doing both Insanity and an hour of Zumba yesterday and my shoulder was not super happy. I pressed on anyway because I am committed to doing the series - and my shoulder felt better during the workout than it did before it.

I still had to modify a few things because of the shoulder, things that put my arms up over my head. I still did my pushups, granted at first I thought I needed to do the moving pushups on my knees, but I quickly moved up to my toes and just pushed through it. I'm sure my doctor and chiropractor would just be *thrilled* to know that! Haha

I loathe Power Jumps and Globe Jumps... Now I'm starting to see why my coach said this is a workout that you'll love to hate! It works in ways that I'm not used to being worked though, and that's a good thing. However, I didn't find today's workout as hard as yesterday and didn't sweat quite as much. Now, that's not to say I wasn't sweating.. b/c I was dripping. We did mix a lot of pushups and tricep work in today instead of all high intensity cardio, and while my mind may not have thought it as hard, my muscles are saying something else entirely! My calves are screaming, my quads are sore and my triceps are in the beginning phase of soreness. I know tomorrow morning is going to be tough!

I'm not sure on the burn today... I don't trust what my FIT logged because it kept falling off and appears it didn't register for around half of the workout.

More tomorrow. :-)

Insanity Day 2 - Plyometric Cardio Circuit

2 days down... 61 to go...

I felt so much better when I thought that was 58 to go, but I just looked at the calendar and its 9 whole weeks. ACK! I don't like boot camp style drills, but I am committed and I am going to push through it, and who knows... after a week or two, I might start to enjoy it?!?

I only had to stop a couple of times and it usually coincided with Sean having to stop also, so we paused the dvd and did every second of it. There were a couple of excercises in the last series that made my trap hurt, so I modified them to take the hop out until it is comfortable for me to do it.

40 minutes, 330 calories... Not bad for someone who is not a morning person at all! Time to get ready for Zumba. :-)

Insanity Day 1 Fit Test Results

Today my husband and I started Insanity. I just completed the fit test, and I am seriously whooped but wanted to post my results before I crash for the night!

Switch Kicks - 100

Power Jacks - 68

Power Knees - 101

Power Jumps - 31

Globe Jumps - 10

Suicide Jumps - 18

Push Up Jacks - 16

Low Plank Obliques - 50

My Bodymedia FIT registered 192 calories for the 25 minute test. This includes 8 minutes of rest, 1 minute between each exercise - Not to shabby!

I've taken several weeks off to rehab my shoulder for a trapezius injury, and this is my first venture back into working out, so I'm wondering what my results *could* have been like had I not been coming of a long rest/injury. However, I am pleased with my initial starting point and it'll only get better from here!

I will have to take my pictures and measurements, but I think I'll do those in the morning before our next workout since I forgot before the fit test to do that! Always measure before you workout - it's a rule I go by :-)