Work Out Tuesday, July 24

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I'm starting a 14 day core strengthening program that I read about in Prevention magazine online.  If you're interested in doing it with me you can read the article here.  I shamelessly printed the article out and took it with me to the gym, and I recommend that you do the same.

I was pretty skeptical when I started the movements yesterday because much of the strength training involves slow, controlled movements with little to no weight.  There is a lot of reliance on your body's natural resistance to make this program work.  I did manage to get a good sweat going while doing it yesterday and I woke up this morning with some sore muscles, so maybe I should trust the experts.

The exercises are designed with some flexibility and allow for folks who are at different stages to lift different amounts of weight, which is good.  Yesterday I did all the minimum requirements to get a sense of what is going to be good for my body.  I'll be posting progress each day.

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Strength Training
Hip Drop: 8 each side
Beach Ball Hug: 20 each side, 3 pound weights
Full Body Roll Up: 2 sets of 10
Breast Stroke: 3 sets of 10
Read the Paper: 10 each side

Cardio
Speed Ladder*:
0:00-4:00: Warm Up
4:00-9:00: Moderate Walk
9:00-13:00: Brisk Walk
13:00-15:00: Moderate Walk
15:00-18:00: Power Walk
18:00-20:00: Moderate Walk
20:00-22:00: Fast Walk
22:00-24:00: Moderate Walk
24:00-25:00: Jog
25:00-30:00 Cool Down

*I know that some of these walking speeds are confusing.  What in the world is the difference between a fast walk and a power walk?  If you visit the Prevention website where the original article is posted, there are more thorough instructions including intensity levels and what each of these looks like.  For me, a moderate walk was about 3 MPH, brisk walk 3.5 MPH, power walk 4.0 MPH, and then I went to 5.0 MPH and jogged for both fast walk and jog periods.  This might be harder to measure outside and not on a treadmill, but I think you could gauge based on your breathing and heart rate.

I feel like I need to note a couple of things with this workout.  First, awesome boyfriend and I had to be at a dinner at 8:00 last night so I was forced to chop my cardio time in half (fail).  Second, some of the exercises seem a little silly and I felt like people were looking at me in the stretching area of the gym.  This could just be my own insecurity but I might try to find a more private place to do them next time.  Finally, the idea of doing a walking cardio is still a little strange to me.  Normally when I do cardio I get on the elliptical or swim, and I am absolutely pouring sweat and red faced when I am done.  This cardio gets you moving, but not the way I expect a good cardio work out should do.

Complaints having been made, I'm going to continue to follow the plan per instructions because I assume that it was written by someone who knows more about exercise science than I do.  If this workout does indeed help me  "shrink a size in 14 days" I will be stoked because it means that I can take a break from my sweat pouring once in a while.

Stay tuned for updates, and if you decide to do the 14 day shrink with me please share your progress, results, and thoughts either in the comment field below or via email at lifelovelowcarb@gmail.com.