Shred it with Weights

Today I did Jillian Michaels' Shred it with Weights workout, which uses Kettle Bells.  I don't have Kettle Bells and JM says that you can use a dumbbell from three-eight pounds.  I have ten pound dumbbells and four one-pound weights so I hooked my one-pound weights together and used them mostly, although sometimes the ten pound dumbbell and it was fine.

It's similar to the Shred, you do a warm up, a cool down and three circuits in between.  It didn't seem too hard so maybe I should use more weight.  In the third circuit, it got pretty challenging for me but that could be because by then I was really doing it for several minutes in a row.  I was messing around with Anthony in the first circuit and had to keep pausing it.

I enjoyed it, I'd do it again.  It makes me want to get a Kettle Bell and see if it makes a difference.

Wednesday

Turbo Sculpt

Yesterday, I was feeling the need to do some weightlifting, so I did my Turbo Sculpt DVD.  When I first heard about Turbo Jam, I looked online and I thought it might be a little more workout than I needed, because it was pretty expensive and you got like a million dvd's, meal plans, etc.  I mean, it's As Seen on TV, so they are selling a lot.  So I bought two DVDs from half.com and I love them.  On one is the "cardio party", which is the Turbo Jam that I did the other day, there's also a training workout and an abs workout.  On the other dvd is the Turbo Sculpt, which is about 45 minutes long and it is a total body workout, mostly with weights.  It's excellent, Chalene Johnson is the trainer and she has some of her regulars behind her.  It has good music and the timer that times the section that you are doing, as well as the entire workout.  I like it a lot and recommend it.  Chalene recommends that you do the Turbo Sculpt WITH some cardio but I never have time to do two workouts in one day anymore.  I remember I used to go to like a 6:00 class at my gym and then I would just STAY for the 7:00 since I already had my spot.  It seems like a totally different person had the time to do that, but it was me.

Bootcamp Cardio Burn

Kendall Hogan is the trainer for this workout, I've done his workouts before on Exercise TV and I really like him.  He has two VERY EXCITED women behind him, they are THRILLED to be there, as far as I can tell.  It's 30 minutes long, and you really are working for the whole time, which is great.  Often with a 30 minute workout, you spend five minutes at the front and end, warming up and cooling off and it feels like kind of a cheat.

You do a VERY long sequence that he puts together, bit by bit.  There are jumping jacks and mountain climbers and pushups, step-touches, step-hops, skating moves, boxing shuffles, skiing runs, but you don't do anything for super long, it's a very fast paced workout and I liked it.  I feel good and like I have done some cardio but I was able to have success with it.

Turbo Jam

Turbo Jam is not available On Demand, but I did it twice this week - once because I felt like it and once because our O.D. was out (booooo Comcast).  I love it, though. I love Chalene Johnson, the inventor and lead trainer, I just LOVE IT.  I also love Turbo Sculpt, which is about as long as Turbo Jam (about 50 minutes) and is more of a weight lifting/sculpting video.

Turbo Jam is cut into sections, and there is a timer at the bottom which tells you how long you have left in the section, and how long you have left in the whole thing, which is fantastic.  Some of the O.D. workouts say how long you have left in the whole thing, but it can be daunting.  In this, even if you have 40 minutes left in the workout, you might have only seven minutes left of kicks or whatever and it's nicer.

She says this in the commercial, but the music is great and it really does help.  There are several worker-outers behind her - two are doing a modified version of the workout and the other ... four?  or so are jamming their hearts out.

It's super fun, it goes fast, and it is effective.  Chalene is very good about constantly talking about form, and about where you can work your abs, etc.  There are other Beach Body workouts available now (Chalene Extreme, Turbo Fire), and I'd like to try them but for now I am really happy with Turbo Jam.  Oh and I meant to say - I think that Turbo Kick, which they do at a lot of Y's around here, is either the same thing or similar to Turbo Jam, if you belong to the Y and want to try it in a group atmosphere.

Bellydancing Fitness / Bellydancing

I did this workout and one that is just called Bellydancing and I didn't find much of a difference.  Even though I am, like, the least funky person in the WORLD, I enjoyed this.  I felt like it was a really good cardio and sculpting workout.  Plus I did shake my ass a little by the end!  They're short, less than 20 minutes each - you just learn a routine and keep putting it together, but I enjoyed it.

Kickboxing

I did this yesterday, so it's a little out of order.  This is excellent, it's Phillipe Till, the same guy who did the other kickboxing workout I did.  It's about 23 minutes long and it's straight up, old school boxing moves, which I like a lot.  I wish it were longer, I bet the real workout is longer.  It was good though, and he's very straightforward.  I would like to do this one weekly.