Day 8 marks the beginning of week two. For the Beginner Pilates workout that means doing Pilates Flow 1. It is a total-body workout that builds on the concepts that were learned in the fundamentals workouts, but with a bit less modifying than those two had. There are definitely some challenging moves in the workout, and I did have to pause a couple of times. I still cannot do the double leg side leg lifts very well (a move in which you lay on your side and lift both legs off the ground without using your arms to help push you up). I did get my legs a little higher when I was laying on my left side today than I did last week, but when I lay on my right side I can barely get my legs off the ground. The reason I love (and hate) Pilates is that it definitely focuses on my weak spots when it comes to flexibility and core strength. I generally think that Pilates is tougher for guys because we tend to be tighter in our hips, low back, and hamstrings, sometimes regardless of overall core strength. There are some moves that I feel like I can barely move my body a centimeter when Lisa is completely folded forward with her head touching her knees. Of course, she has been doing Pilates for years and is in phenomenal shape whereas I have dabbled in Pilates off and on for years, and most certainly am not in phenomenal shape. But, I do what I can and just focus on getting better each workout.
The Lift-4 workout is another chest and triceps workout, but this week you do another two quad circuits (4 exercises, two chest exercises, and two triceps exercises, doing 10 reps of each exercise back-to-back with no rest). You do three rounds of each quad set, with 30 seconds between each round. After you do the two quad sets you do a blowout set, that is three rounds of wide push-ups followed immediately by triceps push-ups. After you finish those, the workout ends with two core-focused exercises. So, while there is no HITT cardio in this workout, your heart rate does get up there, and even lifting light weights, you get tired. It is still a guessing game for the weights for me. This week I mostly had to use lighter weights than last week for some of the same moves because the quad set is harder than doing two exercises back-to-back. The most I used was 20 lbs for the chest presses, and it was a struggle by the third round.
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