For the Pilates workout today it was Pilates flow 2. This one is mostly a seated core-focused workout doing a lot of leg lifts, leg circles, etc., mostly in combination with a crunch. Even though the workout is shorter than Flow 1, it is more challenging, and I found myself having to skip reps during more than one exercise, especially toward the end of the workout.
For Lift-4, it is back and biceps day again. This is another 50/50 workout with weights first, cardio second, and again finishing with core exercises. For this workout, you again do three circuits, for three rounds. In the first circuit, you do two back exercises. Then in the second circuit, you alternate between a back exercise and a bicep exercise, and in the third circuit, you do two bicep exercises. Again you do ten reps of each exercise with no rest between the two, and you get 30 seconds between the rounds. Then, once you are done with the resistance exercises you do three different cardio exercises for one minute, forty-five seconds, and thirty seconds respectively, and do three rounds of cardio. The workout then ends with two core-focused exercises that you do for two rounds.
This is a tough workout after the chest and triceps workout. Even though I used lighter weights in that workout, my arms are very sore today, and I suspect they will be again tomorrow. It does go by quickly, at just over 35 minutes, but it is probably the hardest workout of the bunch that I have done to this point.
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.
Day 7 was a total rest day for Beginner Pilates. It is an optional rest day for Lift-4, but I again did the flexibility and then the foam roller routines. Nothing really new to report about either of those two, as my flexibility (or lack thereof), was exactly the same as it was yesterday.
For Day 6 in Beginner Pilates, the workout is the Abs and Core workout. This one is short, just over 23 minutes, and focuses on just ab/core exercises. Although a couple of the moves in the workout also work hamstring flexibility and the lower back (which is a part of the core anyway). The moves are challenging, but doable. I did have to skip a couple of reps in some of the moves a couple of times, but for the most part, I could get through everything.
Day 6 in Lift-4 is another recovery day so I again did the flexibility workout and then the Roll and Recover workout. I do wish that they would have made each of those workouts a little longer...maybe 15 minutes each so that they could incorporate a few more moves and stretch a couple of other body parts. But otherwise, I think those are both good workouts.
Day 5 for Beginner Pilates was the Fundamentals 2 workout. This was supposed to be the workout on Thursday, but I accidentally mixed them up, so I just did this one today and moved on. Shockingly, I am seeing tiny gains in my flexibility even after the first week. On the modified roll-up, when I stretch forward I can get a little (and I stress a little) a bit farther with my reach. Even when I was a kid, and was much more flexible than I am as an adult, I could never do that seated stretch worth a damn. When we had to do that fitness test in school and had to sit with our feet against the box and move the slider at the top, I could barely reach the slider, much less move it.
The Lift 4 workout was legs, which was a 50/50 lifting and cardio workout. For this one, there are three blocks of two different leg exercises. You do 10 reps of each exercise and then rest, and then repeat for three rounds. Then, after you get through the three blocks of leg exercises you do cardio. There are three cardio exercises you cycle through, high knee jog for 1-minute, a move where you keep your knees two inches off the floor and hop side-to-side for 45 seconds, and then squat jacks for 30 seconds. You do three rounds of the cardio, and then you alternate two different core exercises (a version of a crunch and plank leg lifts). So, it is another brutal workout that will have you gassed by the end of it.
Day 4 was supposed to be Fundamentals 2 again in Beginner Pilates, but I kind of accidentally and then on purpose did the Hips, Buns, and Thighs workout instead. Meaning, at first I thought that was today's scheduled workout, was glad to see it was 27 minutes long because I had a work call get scheduled last minute, and by the time I realized I was not doing the correct workout, I was not going to switch. I will say that this is much harder than either of the Fundamentals workouts and there were a couple of times when I had to pause and skip a rep.
The Lift-4 workout was shoulders, which is an interval workout. There are three rounds. In each round you do two shoulder exercises (ten reps each, without rest in between) then you do a 30-second HITT cardio exercise. After the cardio move, you get a 30-second rest and then repeat everything two more times and then move to the next round. In the first round, you do shoulder presses and upright rows for the lifting moves, and then the cardio move is a quick jump-step kind of thing. In round two you do front raises and lateral raises for the lifting moves and burpees for the cardio move. In the third round, you do wide front raises and what Joel calls shoulder flys in which you start with your arms bent at 90 degrees out in front of you so your hands are at forehead level and your elbows are basically touching, then you open your arms so that your hands move to either side of your head and your elbows stay high at the same height as your armpits. Then, the cardio move is plyometric lunges.
Once you get through the three rounds, you do two core exercises, back-to-back for three rounds. The first is that you lay on your back and kick your feet in a scissor motion (kind of like the Pfeiffer scissors from P90x, but your feet stay about six inches off the ground as opposed to kicking your legs and feet up high and you kick your feet fast), and the second is a sit-up variation. It is another tough workout that will have you gassed by the end of it.
Day 3 was a total flexibility day. For Beginner Pilates it was back to the Fundamentals 1 workout and for Lift-4 it was a recovery day, so that means you can rest or do one or both of the recovery workouts. I decided to do both recovery workouts, first doing Lift-4 stretch and then doing the roll and recovery (which is the foam roller routine). While I cannot say that I noticed a marked change in my flexibility, but I can feel, especially after the foam roller routine, that my hamstrings and hips are a bit less tight. I still have way too much gut (along with the tight back, hamstrings, and hips) to make any of the forward-folding moves easy, and many times I cannot get my hands much past my knees. But, I have a feeling, with all the flexibility work that this doubles routine will have, that I will see improvement week-to-week.
For the morning workout on day 2 of the doubles workouts, I did Pilates Fundamentals 2. It is much like the first workout in which you do a series of moves that will lead up to doing "regular" versions of the moves in a more flowing sequence down the line. In this workout, Lisa Hubbard again modifies all of the moves and shows unmodified versions for people who do not have tight backs, hamstrings, and/or hips (which is definitely not me). I would not say that I noticed any marked increase in my flexibility from day 1 to day 2, but I would not expect that to be the case anyway.
Then, for the PM workout, I did Lift 4's back and bicep workout. This workout is a circuit workout that consists of two blocks of four exercises that alternate between a back exercise and a bicep exercise. There are three rounds of each block, and you do not rest at all between exercises, but you do get 30 seconds to rest between the rounds.
The first block consists of wide back rows, open arm bicep curls (if you have done P90x you will recognize those), standard back rows, and hammer curls. The second block consists of dumbbell pullovers, top-only bicep curls (you start with the weights by your shoulders and lower them halfway), back flys, and bottom-only bicep curls (start with the weights low and raise them halfway).
After you do those rounds you alternate between a move that is a cross between the cobra from yoga and the supermans from P90x and then do as many bicep curls as you can for 30 seconds. You do three rounds of those and then finish the workout by alternating two core exercises for three rounds. The first core exercise is a sit-up in which you bring your elbow as close to the opposite knee as you can, and then you do planks for 30 seconds.
While this workout has no HITT cardio in it, the workout is very hard and you get tired very easily. I would suggest picking lighter weights to use than you think you need because, with no rest between the exercise sets, the weights get really heavy, really fast. And, your heart rate does get up there so you do not really miss the cardio. There is again a modifier in the workout that you can follow if you need to. One observation about this workout is that you really need a selection of free weights. A set of selectable dumbbells like the Bowflex SelectTechs would not really work for this workout because you really do not have time to re-rack the dumbbells and select the new weight before they move on to the next exercise. Just something to keep in mind if you want to do this program.
