Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Days 55 and 56

For the last two days of this doubles workout I just did the two Lift-4 recovery workouts each day. I was a bit burned out on Pilates and just wanted to do short workouts each day. When I get a chance later this week I will give my impressions of each of the two programs. The next doubles program I am going to do is Beachbody's three-week yoga retreat and P90X3. After the three-week yoga retreat, I will figure out if I want to keep doing that or switch to one of the other flexibility-based programs as the second workout since X3 will last 12 weeks.   

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 54

Day 54 was Abs and Core in Pilates and it was the last regular day of Lift 4, which was another full-body HIIT workout. This one has three blocks of three exercises, that you again do for three rounds. The first block does the 1-minute, 45 seconds, 30 seconds rotation, in block two you do the three exercises for 45 seconds, 30 seconds, and 15 seconds, respectively, and then in the last block, you do the exercises for 30 seconds and 15 seconds (the jumping lunges, so 15 seconds per leg. Then you do three burnout rounds in which you do all nine exercises, back to back, for 30 seconds each. Then finish with core and stretching. The entire cast, with one exception who was on vacation, does the workout, and Joel joins in and does about 95% of the workout. He does stop and walk around a bit, but for the most part, he is doing the entire thing. It is, again, a very tough workout (even Joel is winded at the end), even if you modify some of the moves, but it goes by quickly (it lasts just over 30 minutes. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 53

Day 53 was the Flow 1 workout in Pilates and the shoulders and arms circuit workout in Lift-4. Again, you do all of the same exercises from last week but do them in a different order, and there is almost no rest in between the sets. It is another quad set workout in which you do three rounds of four exercises, ten reps each alternating one shoulder, one biceps, one shoulder, and one triceps, and then you do three rounds of burnout in which you do one shoulder exercise, one biceps exercise, and one triceps exercise, each for 30 seconds. Then, you finish with core and stretching. It is again a very tough workout, especially if you can up your weight. If you are a P90x alumn, be aware that, even though this workout contains many of the same moves (or very similar moves) as P90X and P90X3 contain, you have a lot less rest between sets, so you will probably have to use much lighter weights for some of the exercises as you used in P90x because you usually get 30-45 seconds between the exercises in P90x, where in this one you get 15 seconds, max (and sometimes not even that much time).

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 52

Day 52 was flow 2 in Pilates and the two recovery workouts in Lift-4. Nothing new to report about any of the workouts, as my flexibility level has stayed constant over the course of the past few weeks. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 50

Day 50 was Flow 1 in Pilates and Chest and Back in Lift 4. In the chest and back workout, you do the same moves as in the week 7 version of the workout, but you do them in a different order. This is another circuit workout doing two blocks of three rounds of four exercises (two chest exercises followed by two back exercises). When you finish the two blocks, then there are three rounds of burnout exercises which are the same as last week--regular push-ups, back extensions, and wide push-ups--then you finish with three rounds of core/ab exercises. It is interesting that the slight variation in the order of the moves makes as much difference as it does, but I really found myself getting tired earlier in the workout. So, it was a good way to start week 8. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 49

Day 49 was a total rest day for Lift-4, but I did the other 20-minute Pilates workout, Express Pilates. I actually like this one better than the other 20-minute workout. I think it flows better (at least for beginners) while still being challenging. Plus, getting it over with in 20 minutes is nice.   

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 48

Day 48 was a rest day in Pilates and the recovery workouts in Lift-4. This week I did not really feel any improvement in my flexibility but did not feel I regressed either. So really there is nothing major to say one way or the other about this one.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 47

For Day 47 I did abs and core in Pilates and then the last day of the first sculpt week in Lift-4 was a full-body HIIT workout. In that workout, there are three blocks of three rounds of three exercises. Some of them are leg-focuses, like squat jacks, and some are more upper-body focused like in-and-out plyo pushups. Once you are done with the three blocks, you do a burnout round doing all nine moves for thirty seconds with no rest between the moves, and then you finish with core. So, it is a very tough workout and pretty much everyone in the cast was modifying by the end of it. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 46

Day 46 was Flow 2 in Pilates and a shoulders and arms circuit workout in Lift-4. In the circuit workout (again meaning no HIIT cardio) there are three blocks of three rounds of four exercises, alternating between a shoulder exercise, a biceps exercise, and a triceps exercise.  After you do the third block, you do three burnout rounds doing a shoulder exercise (swimmers), a biceps exercise (full curls), and a triceps exercise (triceps push-ups), each for 30 seconds with no rest between the exercise sets. Then you finish off with three rounds of alternating core-focused exercises. It is another very tough workout, and because you are going so fast from set to set, it does not take much weight at all in order to get you to failure. I had to reduce the amount of weight I was using on the last set or two for a few of the exercises, and I definitely felt like I could not do another rep by the time the third round was over for each exercise. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 45

Day 45 was flow 1 in Pilates and the recovery workouts for Lift-4. I definitely needed the foam rolling workout to work some of the soreness out of my legs today. As far as Pilates goes, I did not feel as flexible this time as I did earlier in the week, but that is the nature of my flexibility level. I take a couple of steps forward, then regress a little, etc. I do think that the Pilates program would have been better to do two weeks of fundamentals, two weeks of flow, and two weeks of burn. The next time I do Lift-4, that is how I am going to set it up. Since I am getting toward the end of Lift-4, I think I am going to do another doubles workout, but this time doing one of the OpenFit yoga programs for the low-intensity, flexibility workout and P90X 3 for the "regular" workout. That will mean one day a week I will be doing yoga twice, and of course, X3 has a Pilates routine too so I will not be dropping that completely. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 44

Day 44 was back to flow 2 in Pilates and was a Legs 50/50 day in Lift-4. In the legs workout, there are three rounds of three exercises, with no rest between the exercise sets, and 30 seconds of rest between the rounds. Then, you do three rounds of HIIT, but this time you alternate three exercises all of which are done for 30 seconds. Again, there is no rest between exercises and just 15 seconds of rest between the rounds. So, the workout moves quickly, and then you finish it off with three rounds of core exercises.  I think this is probably the toughest of the 50/50 workouts in the program, and my legs were definitely spent by the time I was finished. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 43

Day 43 was flow 1 in Pilates and the first workout of the two "sculpt" weeks of Lift-4. That means switching up the workout order a bit, so the first workout was a chest and back circuit workout. It follows the same three rounds of four exercises, doing 10 reps of each exercise. In each round you do a chest exercise, then a back exercise, then another chest exercise, and a final back exercise, with no rest between the sets and 30 seconds of rest between rounds. After you do the three rounds, then you have three rounds of burnout in which you do regular push-ups, lying back extensions, and then wide push-ups, back-to-back without stopping, with again 30 seconds between each round. Then you finish with three rounds of alternating two core exercises.

This is a tough workout, number one because your body will be used to the chest-triceps, and back-biceps workouts from the first six weeks, so even though it seems like a small tweak, it is not. Plus, Joel is again encouraging people to up their weights, especially for the first round, from the prior week. I would have liked them to do a different workout sheet for the last two weeks because it is harder to keep track of what of things when the chest and triceps and the back and biceps exercises are all bunched together. When I do my workout wrap-up at the end I will explain in more detail. But, overall, it was a good workout.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 42

 Day 42 was a rest day from the Lift-4 workouts and then the hips, buns, and thighs workout in Pilates. I actually felt that one went a little better than it did the last time. I had a bit more range of motion in the exercises and in some of the moves in which I had to pause or skip a couple of reps, I could do more of. So, again, I am making progress.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 41

For Day 41 I took a rest day from Pilates and did the two Lift-4 recovery workouts. There is nothing really new to say about the recovery workouts. They went the same as they have the past few weeks.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 40

For Day 40, I did the abs and core workout in Pilates and the Legs workout in Lift-4, which was another pure HIIT workout, meaning three rounds of four exercises that last 1 minute, 45 seconds, 30 seconds, and 15 seconds. Then, you do two burnout rounds in which you do all of the exercises for 30 seconds with no rest between the moves and then finish with three rounds of side planks for the core exercises. It was tough, but thankfully was very short. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 38

Day 38 was Flow 1 in Pilates and a recovery day in Lift-4. I did both of the Lift-4 recovery workouts in the evening. I continued to improve during Pilates, especially in the side leg lifts, being able to get both legs up on each side a little bit more (although still not nearly as far as Lisa can get them up). It was nice to have a break from the heavy lifting workouts since my chest and arms were still pretty sore. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 37

Day 37 was Pilates flow 2, which I am not as fond of as I am of the Flow 1 workout, but it is still easier than the last time I did it last month. Then, the  Lift-4 workout as back and biceps, another 50/50 workout and that was hard. I am writing this the next day, and I am very sore. Moving from one exercise to the next without stopping is definitely not easy to do, even when using lighter weights for some of the exercises. The HIIT portion was also tougher and included doing catcher jumps for a minute, then doing wide plank runs for 45 seconds and jump squats for 30 seconds. And, of course, it ended with alternating two core exercises for three rounds. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 36

For Day 36 I switched to the flow workout week in Pilates, which will alternate Flow 1 and Flow 2 M-Th, and then do hips, buns, and thighs on Friday and Abs + Core on Saturday. Then, this was another Chest and Triceps workout in Lift-4.

The flow workout went very well. I was actually able to get deeper into the stretches and get both of my legs farther off the ground for the side leg lifts. The Lift-4 workout was another circuit workout, doing two quad sets for three rounds, then a burnout set with wide push-ups and triceps push-ups back-to-back for three rounds, and then finishing with three rounds of alternating core/ab exercises. My arms and chest were definitely toast by the end of the workout and I felt like I was doing a HIIT workout by the end of the quad sets. So, both workouts today went very well.

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 35

For the day 35 workout, I went back to doing the regularly scheduled (although a day later) abs and core Pilates workout. Again, I feel like the workouts are getting a bit easier over time, and my flexibility is very slowly getting better. So, I definitely plan on sticking with it. I did not do the Lift-4 recovery workouts today since I think they are a bit redundant when also doing Pilates. Plus, I did the workout later in the evening than I intended to, so I just wanted to do the 23 minutes of Pilates and not bump it up to 40 minutes by adding the two recovery workouts from Lift-4. 

Workout Update: Lift 4/Beginner Pilates Doubles Day 34

For Day 34 I just did the two recovery workouts from Lift-4, which went well. During the foam roller workout, I felt like I had fewer "knots" in my calves and hamstrings and it does not hurt as bad to roll my IT band (on either side).  I'm still not to the point where I would dare try it with the rumble roller, but it is getting better.