Showing posts with label JIllian Michaels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JIllian Michaels. Show all posts

ohmyword my hamstrings!

Yesterday's workout have left me all kinds of sore. To say I'm awkward moving, is an understatement.

LOVE IT!

I broke out the kettlebells and dusted off the Jillian Michaels dvd....



About half way through the workout, I really thought about increasing the weight & using my 10 pound kettlebell because the 5 pounds felt way too easy.

Here's a sampling....


It was a lot of swinging and a butt ton of squats.

I would definitely recommend Jillian's kettlebell workout. It was a great weighted cardio. The circuits are not difficult. The cueing is great - the moves are easy to understand.

She is constantly reminding beginners to not let go of the kettlebell during the swings - I could only imagine if MattyB came home to find the TV totally smashed because I threw the kettlebell at it.

You go through the circuits twice before moving on. Not a lot of abdominal movements, but you are engaging your core through the entire workout.

Around the last circuit I finally started feeling the burn. So after the cool down, I went ahead & did my chest & back circuit, since I was not totally sore. (Plus I like maximizing B's nap time!!!!)

This morning however, totally different story. My hamstrings & quads are killing me!!!

But I love it. It's a pleasant reminder of all the work I did.

Do you agree with the "no pain, no gain" philosophy?

De-Stressing...

Yesterday was a day from you know where. I was utterly stressed out & I hate that feeling. My shoulders & neck were achey, I was in a horrible mood, and I really just wanted to go to bed since it was raining.

Besides shopping, my other 2 "mood lifters" are working out & crafting. So I did both. (As opposed to digging a hole & putting my head in it.)

I am hosting a baby shower for my sis-in-law, so I started working on my infamous clothespins.


Those are one variation of the clothespins that I did for a lingerie shower. The ones I'm working on now will not be pink, since she's having a boy.

While I let the paint dry I popped in Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown dvd. It was seriously, just what I needed. My back was too tense to run & I thought I'd punch the tv if I put in a P90X dvd. (I think Yoga Meltdown may still be available on Fios OnDemand.)
Yoga Meltdown has 2 levels ~ & I find them both challenging. Yesterday I did level 2. It's not your typical "yoga" class. I've mentioned before in previous posts how fast paced it is. Jillian does not "build" on moves as you would in a sanctioned yoga class. Rather she takes you through a series of "power poses", incorporates repetition, and then has you hold on the last rep for 15 seconds. It's like yoga at a cardio pace.

By the end of it, I felt like me again.

Which leads me to: what do you do to "de-stress"?

When your body is put under "stress", it releases cortisol. Cortisol is an important hormone that regulates blood pressure, insulin release, glucose metabolism, & inflammatory response (to name a few).



Some positive effects of cortisol are: quick bursts of energy (think of 'flight or fight'), lower sensitivity to pain, & heightened memory function.

Our bodies have what's called a "relaxation response" where our bodies move from physiological arousal to physiological relaxation ~ once the perceived stress has passed. However this predominantly applies to acute stress. During chronic stress this is far more difficult & often takes the outside help of yoga, stress management techniques, or breathing exercises. This is why it's so important to "de-stress".


Or you could get yourself one of these kits...

As with anything else, too much cortisol can be a very bad thing. (Except shoes....I mean really, can you ever have too many shoes?)

Keeping high levels of cortisol in the bloodstream causes negative effects like: supressed thyroid function, higher blood pressure, blood sugar imbalance, & increased abdominal fat. The increase in abdominal fat could be linked to the fact that cortisol makes your body crave carbohydrates & want to eat more. Plus abdominal fat is the worst fat to have - - -> Abdominal, or visceral, fat is of particular concern because it’s a key player in a variety of health problems — much more so than subcutaneous fat, the kind you can grasp with your hand. Visceral fat, on the other hand, lies out of reach, deep within the abdominal cavity, where it pads the spaces between our abdominal organs. Visceral fat has been linked to metabolic disturbances and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In women, it is also associated with breast cancer and the need for gallbladder surgery. (Harvard Health Publications)

(Abdominal fat is clearly a post all in itself ~ and don't you worry, I'll save that super interesting post for a later date!) :)


This is why, when you're on a new fitness regimen or healthy eating plan, it's so important to not stress if you have a day that you forget to exercise or splurge & don't follow your diet. It's not worth stressing over. Just kick it in gear the next day & by all means don't count is a failure if you eat a cookie!



Every person is different ~ even down to how much cortisol their bodies secrete. Stress (cortisol, specifically) could be what's keeping you from your health & fitness goals. (Especially if it's causing you to eat cakes like THAT every day!)

Warrior 1, 2, & 3 with a side of Down Dog

I love yoga.

My husband does not.

So with P90X we're supposed to do 1 session / week of yoga. The dvd is actually 1 1/2 hours or so. Our first round of it was last Thursday - the hubs lasted all of 20 minutes. (Well technically, 10 minutes of properly executing the moves...the last 10 minutes involved him critiquing ME & then jumping in sporadically to do a 10 second hold of one stance...of course complaining the entire time). Needless to say, I wanted to punch him & in no way did I feel any sort of physical benefits that I normally feel from yoga.

With that said...when he realized yesterday was YOGA DAY (YAY!)...his first inclination was to skip. That's when my persuasive training skills came into play :) I convinced him to do Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown. It's 30(ish) minutes of a fast paced yoga...broken down into 4 circuits. Love it.

Of course the 30 minutes were not able to pass without some sort of off the wall remark about how "stupid" yoga is...BUT he did make it through the ENTIRE workout. That's a milestone right there folks.

Now if only I could get him to go 100% organic....