shoulders – The Shrinking Jeans of April

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August 4, 2009 By april

First, let’s talk about ChaLEAN Extreme.  Early this afternoon, I noticed that my hamstrings were SORE.  I was super excited about this.  Why?  I never have been sore in my hamstrings.  They’re already really strong, so the fact that I worked them to the point of soreness is an awesome thing!!  (I know, I’m weird.)  Then right before my work out, I started to get sore in my shoulders.  I’m not sure if the soreness came from Burn It Off or Recharge.  Either way I’ll take it!  Means it’s working!

As far as today’s work out, it was back to Burn Circuit 1.  As far as the Burn Circuits go, this is my least favorite.  But I still like it!  And can I get a “HELL YEAH” for doing all 12 push-ups with leg lifts on my toes?!  I can already feel my body getting stronger, and that just makes me want it more!

Next, I’d like to address a question from yesterday’s post.  Karena asks, “I’ve got problems with my knees, and you’ve mentioned the same problems. How are your knees holding up after a week of this?”

Karena, this is a GREAT question.  Of course, as long as your doctor has cleared you for exercise, you can absolutely do these work outs if you’ve had knee problems. After a week, my knees feel just fine.  Let me tell you what I do to keep them in good shape.  First, I always wear knee braces when I’m strength training and have them close by during cardio.  When it comes to leg work, I mainly focus on form as opposed to how low I can go in squats and lunges.  For example, with squats, I make sure that my knees stay over my ankles and that all of my weight is shifted to my heels.  Form is key, and Chalene does an excellent job on focusing on showing good form with these work outs.  Also, if my knees are tweaky, I don’t use weights.  My body weight is just enough to still give my legs a good work out.

NOW.  Let’s talk about our new challenge!  I’m excited for this one!  We are challenging ourselves for 21 days to create a new healthy habit!  My challenge for myself?  To take my multi-vitamin every day.  I know how important my vitamin is, but I swear to you, the thing is a horse pill and I have to choke it down twice a day.  So, I “forget”, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t taken it in a while.  (Boo!)  So, I’m going to take my vitamin every day for 21 days!!!

So, what are you going to do??

August 2, 2009 By april

Day 5 – I actually switched this to a rest day.  I like having Saturdays to rest, so you may see me do this from time to time.  Also, I was SO sore yesterday that I’m not sure I could have lifted heavy weights anyway.  Sometimes you just have to listen to your body.

Day 6 – Today was Burn Circuit 3.  The work out itself concentrated on the shoulders and the legs.  I love working shoulders, so it was a good work out, but I don’t want to concentrate on this in my post.  One of the reasons that I wanted to document this program was so that you could follow along.  You’re going to see highs and lows during this with me.  And today was a low.

Without going into great detail, today was stressful for me.  I felt like every time I turned around there was something that was either going to annoy me or frustrate me.  After a few hours of this, enter bad mood.

I didn’t want to work out.  I would have rather crawled into bed.  But because I made a promise to myself (and you) to complete and document this, and because I took yesterday of, I knew the work out had to be done.

So, I dragged my feet back to my room, dragged my work out clothes on, dragged my feet back to the TV, and put in the DVD.

And I worked out.

They are so right when they say exercise will improve your mood.  It really does.  Chalene addressed this herself in the cool down of the work out.  It was like she knew I had a crap day and was talking ot just me.  She was right, though.  I don’t feel as stressed now.  Before I felt like 1000 pounds was weighing me down, now it’s not so bad.  I feel lighter.  And that feels good.

Now, I see that tomorrow is the Recharge DVD and I’ve heard from a friend that has already tried this program out that Chalene was a little sneaky and has put some yoga into this program.  I’m not a big fan of yoga, but I’ll try it.  )