Month: May 2017

I Hate Turbo Fire!

I am still trying out workouts on my free trial of Beachbody on Demand, so you’re still going to hear about them!  Last night I did the Build: Legs workout from Body Beast, and in honor of the muscle-bound dudes in the workout, I even used my fiance’s 25 pound weights to do squats.  It’s a 40-minute workout that includes moves like lunges, Bulgarian squats (with one foot behind you on a step or chair or ball, and looking a heck more like a lunge to me than a squat), calf raises, etc.  The first time I stood up from my desk at work today, I felt the workout big time in my butt and quadriceps! Definitely a keeper.

Afterward, I wanted to tack on some cardio, so I tried Turbo Fire Low HIIT 20, led by Chalene Johnson.  I just don’t like any workouts on the Turbo Fire set.  I feel like the crew is too busy fawning all over themselves and admiring themselves and preening for the camera to put together a good workout, and Chalene Johnson’s choreography and cuing just suck in these workouts.  It’s a hodge-podge of rapidly changing moves so that I am constantly pausing to figure out what the hell is going on.  I tried a few of the workouts from Turbo Fire, but the 20-minute one last night was the last one.  I just can’t stand them.

Tonight I will try another Insanity workout.  It’s like the last-chance workout on Biggest Loser, last workout before the big weigh in!  I’m hoping for a good weigh in tomorrow.  I’ve worked really hard this week.  I lost quite a bit last week, though, so I’m afraid this week is going to be low, maybe a pound or so.  We’ll see!

Body Beast and Supreme 90 Day

I am trying to test drive as many of the Beachbody workouts on my 30-day free trial as humanly possible, so I can decide if it is worth paying for after the free trial ends.  Last night I worked my legs with Supreme 90 Day (not a Beachbody workout, just a DVD set I already had), then I added on a 40 minute Body Beast workout called Build: Shoulders.

Body Beast is led by Sagi Kalev, who I never heard of, and two other guys join him for the shoulders workout:

The workout consists of sets of 15, 12, and 8 reps for each exercise, increasing weight with each set. Exercises are typical shoulder moves like presses, lateral raises, upright rows, etc.  He talks a lot about getting big shoulders, and getting huge, and basically brags about the size of his own muscles, but I could easily tune it out and focus on my workout.  I won’t hold it against him that he has no apparent self-esteem issues!

The workout ends with a few ab moves, then a stretch.  All in all, I really liked it, and I want to try the legs workout next.

I thought after a 40 minute workout of nothing but shoulders, I’d be crazy sore today, but I’m not.  I always worry if I’m not sore, then I didn’t get a good workout, so that concerns me.  Sometimes I am not sore until 2 days later, so maybe I will be feeling it tomorrow.

My legs, however, are a different story.  The 35-minute Supreme 90 Day Legs workout left me hobbling today.  My hamstrings and butt are quite sore.  I had picked up the Supreme 90 Day DVD set for maybe $20 back when it first came out, and it’s been discontinued.  It has many workouts in it, from cardio to legs to upper body to full body.  There’s not a lot of chit-chat or trying to make corny jokes, like some other workout sets (I’m talking to you, P90X), and the workouts move quickly, which I like.

On tap for tonight: I’m going to try another Insanity workout and see if I like it any better than the first one I tried.

Insanity

I have an endearing habit of trying new workout DVD’s, going gung ho for a few days, then letting them sit and collect dust on the shelf of other orphaned workout DVD’s.  I tend to keep returning to my tried and true comfort-zone favorites after these brief flings.

Yesterday I signed up for a free 30-day trial of Beachbody on Demand, and one of the workout series I can try is Insanity.  That’s the one with the funny, goofy guy, Shaun T, from Hip Hop Abs, except he’s quite serious in the Insanity workouts.  Check out this “I mean business” gaze:

My reaction to workouts like Insanity is mostly a puzzled “Why would I want to do that?”  The infomercials show people leaping around, contorting their bodies, grimacing, looking to be in various stages of torture.  But a wild idea entered my crazy little head last night: why not try an Insanity workout?

So I did.  I started with the 40-minute Plyometrics Cardio Circuit.  I was surprised that I kept up as well as I did.  I had to take breaks, sure, but not nearly as many as I expected.  Until we got to a circuit full of mountain climbers.  God, I hate mountain climbers.  I hate any move that turns my head upside down. Why?  Who knows, I just can’t tolerate it.  I get grumpy.  My nose starts running.  I took more breaks during that circuit because I was starting to catch an attitude with our good friend Shaun T, wondering what his damn problem was with all these freaking mountain climbers.

My verdict? I didn’t care for it, but I will try a few of the other workouts listed under Insanity, see if any of them are mountain-climber free.  I doubt it.  He’s also quite fond of jumping jacks, and I will do those, but not without a heaving sigh of impatience and an exaggerated eye roll.

I want to increase the intensity of my workouts, but I also still want my workouts to be fun.  The mechanical, drill-based, circuit-repeating format of this workout just didn’t light me on fire.  I love Shaun T, so I will try a few more Insanity workouts during my free trial and see if any of the others are more my speed.

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