Tag: Exercise TV

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Body-for-LIFE: Walking the Plank

One of the hardest exercises I find about many of the workout programs I’ve been sampling on Exercise TV is plank position. Designed to strengthen your core (abs, back, legs — as well as shoulders and arms), the plank position is essentially the position you put your body into before starting a pushup, only you make sure your hands are directly below your shoulders.

Once you’ve gotten your body into that position, you can either stay there for a while, yoga-style, while your abs and arms scream in agony, or you can do any number of dynamic exercises, from plank jacks to mountain climbers to just plain push-ups…all of which are incredibly difficult for me. I am getting better at it, though, which is encouraging.

Only 13 days left in the Body-for-LIFE Challenge! I’ve got 1 more pound to shed before I get to my challenge goal, and I’m pretty confident I’ll get there. I think I’d like to drop at least another 15 pounds, so I’ll continue this same regimen until I get to my ideal weight.

In the meantime, here’s my girl Cindy Whitmarsh showing how to do the plank pose.

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Exercise TV Review: Abs of Steel

When I saw the “Abs of Steel” workout listing on Comcast On Demand, I couldn’t resist. I remember growing up with commercials for Abs of Steel and Buns of Steel on the television, and I always wondered what they did to make their abs so rock-hard. Since I’ve been concentrating a lot on abs during my workouts recently, I thought this new, updated version with Leisa Hart would be the perfect addition to my armamentarium.

At least, that’s what I thought.

Once again, I was disappointed that I strayed from my Jillian Michaels/Cindy Whitmarsh training. The workout was 25 minutes, divided up into 10 minutes of standing abs work, 10 minutes of chair work, and 5 minutes of mat work, none of which were extremely effective.

The standing abs portion was a series of fairly standard combinations targeting the obliques, mostly, but the combination of movements were put together way too quickly. By the time I actually figured out the series of moves, she was on to the next combination, so I never had any time to do the moves properly. I did get my heart pumping, though, and I was sweating by the end of the 10 minutes, so good for that.

The next part was seated abs moves, for which one needs a chair. Now, I do these exercises in my living room, and the only chairs we’ve got are soft and squishy couches — definitely not conducive to good exercise. I tried my best to keep my abs tight as I did all the exercises, but my couch kept sucking me into its vortex of comfort.

The last five minutes were for crunches on the mat, and this part actually was effective, but it was only for 5 minutes! And the last minute of that was stretches, so really it was four minutes of crunches. Very disappointing. All in all, I think if I want a good abs workout, I’m sticking with Cindy Whitmarsh. She knows how to get me into shape.

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Exercise TV Review: Slim & Sexy

I’m not sure how or why I got to this category, but I think I was trying to find something completely different. And I did. I have only tried one workout in the “Slim & Sexy” category and I was not impressed. The programs in this category (as of today) are:

  • Booty Beat (12 mins.)
  • Bootylicious Buns (11 mins.)
  • Camera-Ready Core (11 mins.)
  • Chair Dance (8 mins.)
  • Kendra’s Shape Up (11 mins.)
  • Kim Kardashian Abs (23 mins.)
  • Kim Kardashian Butt (23 mins.)
  • Kim Kardashian Step (23 mins.)

As far as I can tell, this is geared towards the Reality TV-watching, Cosmo-reading demographic — you know, the women who go out to night clubs every weekend and want to put a strip pole in their bedrooms for “exercise.” I ended up choosing the Kim Kardashian Abs program, because it was the longest program…and, sadly, because I had heard of Kim Kardashian (although I’ve never seen her show).

The first thing I noticed is that Kim wasn’t the one leading the workout; her personal trainer was. In fact, this was essentially a peek into what Kim Kardashian does when she works out…only she’s working out in full makeup, wearing a girdle (!!!) and a push-up bra. Oh, and her long, luxurious hair is down, so you know she’s not going to be exerting her head too much. I was rolling my eyes from the very first minute, but I decided to keep watching and working out.

Kim’s personal trainer (too bad they never say her name) is actually a pretty good trainer. I got a good workout on my arms and abs (not so much my legs, but the video did specify this was supposed to focus on abs), but I didn’t break a sweat because Kim never broke a sweat. I mean, if you’re going to cake that much makeup on for the camera, you can’t actually sweat it off, now, can you?

(Oh, I’m sorry. Was that my out loud voice?)

Let’s just say that although I do watch reality TV (mostly Survivor and Amazing Race, but yes, The Real World is a guilty pleasure of mine), I don’t really read Cosmo, and I am a lot more no-nonsense than the women this particular category is catering to. I’ll be avoiding the Slim & Sexy category from now on…and also anything by Kim Kardashian.

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Exercise TV Review: Jillian Michaels

Yes, Jillian Michaels has her own category on Exercise TV. And well she should; she is a good motivator and an excellent teacher. In her 30-Day Shred videos, she’s got the same two women working out behind her: one does the modified moves, and the other one does each move to the max. The workout is only 20 minutes, but as she says, “If you’re only working out for 20 minutes, I want you moving that entire time.” And she maximizes those 20 minutes through strength and cardio intervals which kick my butt even though they’re only a few minutes each. At the end of each workout, though, I feel energized (and sweaty) and sore (and sweaty), and I feel great about myself.

The 30-Day Shred Level 3 is not up on Comcast On Demand right now (which is fine, because I’m not ready to progress to level 3 yet anyway). On Demand is funny, because it’s almost random the things you find in there from day to day…but while I’m waiting for Level 3 to appear, I want to try Jillian Michaels’ Boost Metabolism and No More Trouble Zones that are in the category.

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Body-for-LIFE Check-In: Week 7

Well, I’ve made it past the 6-week mark in my 12-week Body-for-LIFE challenge, and I’m finally starting to see results. Although I have only broken the 180-lb. barrier for one day (and then promptly went back up to 181), I think I’ve gone down one dress size, because all my pants are too big. This, to me, is more important than the weight loss (although I still want to lose at least 5 more pounds by the time this challenge is over!), because I know I’m building muscle as I’m losing fat — and muscle weighs more than fat.

The program I’m on has me alternating strength days with cardio days, and for my cardio days, I’ve been going to Exercise TV on Comcast On Demand for some workouts that really kick my butt. Almost every TV workout I’ve tried does more than just get my heart rate up and start me sweating, because most of the workout shows build strength training in with cardio “for maximum calorie burn,” or that’s what they keep telling me as I sweat buckets onto my yoga mat.

Because I’ve been trying to mix up my workouts (so my body doesn’t get used to the same thing every other day), I’ve been looking through the various shows on On Demand, and since I have a captive audience, I thought I’d review some of them here. I’ll write each On Demand category as a separate post so you can more easily find and read them.

As for my eating habits, I still need some work. I’ve been getting better; I signed up with eDiets.com to to tailor a meal plan for me, but I haven’t actually started following the meal plan. Sigh. A huge part of this is because I’m out so much, especially around dinner time, and I just haven’t gotten in the habit of bringing dinner with me. I also had some slip-ups last week because I went to a fancy restaurant for a friend’s birthday (and drank lots of wine), and then an opening night party for Butterfly, and then went out a few times after rehearsal with some friends. It’s the going out part that really wreaks havoc on my caloric intake…but I don’t want to be antisocial, and eating is a part of my social life.

Ah well…I’m still learning, and it is a process.

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Shaking it up with Cardio

So as much as I like Jillian Michael’s 30-day Shred, I like variety in my workouts…otherwise, I get bored and stop doing them. The way the 30-day Shred is supposed to work, you’re supposed to do Level 1 for 10 days, Level 2 for 10 days, and Level 3 for 10 days. Now, I’ve only done Level 1 for two days (remember, the Body-for-LIFE Challenge asks for alternating strength & cardio days – and then I fell off the wagon for Labor Day weekend), but even after two times, I thought, “There must be other programs I can do for my cardio days.”

And so I leafed through the Exercise TV menu on Comcast On Demand and decided to try some different workouts.

On Thursday, I went holistic with a Gaiam video (they’re known mostly for their yoga and pilates DVDs) called Total Body Cardio with Tanja Djelevic. Granted, I started on Day 4 of the workout, but I wasn’t really impressed. Yes, I sweated, yes, I felt tired, but a lot of the movements didn’t feel like I was working the muscle groups I could have been working. Plus, she did the crunches pilates-style, which I simply don’t understand, so I couldn’t really get any kind of abs workout. I think I’ll be skipping that one next time.

Today, I worked out with the 6 Pack Abs in 6 Weeks package, Level 1. Boy, am I glad I started on level 1. It starts with 30 minutes of a cardio dance routine led by an INCREDIBLY upbeat guy named Kendell. Not obnoxious Richard Simmons upbeat, but in the way that makes you want to laugh and smile all the way through the workout. Which I did. Even though I was sweating buckets by the end.

After the cardio, the video switches to a 10-minute abs workout which is INTENSE, led by Cindy Whitmarsh. Finally, I think I found an abs workout that is effective. So many of the crunches people suggest I either execute poorly (i.e., I have no idea how to do them so that I feel any kind of burn) or they’re way too hard. This definitely had me yelling at the TV, “What?! You want me to do MORE?” by the 3-minute mark and panting, “Oh, God!” by the 1-minute mark, but luckily they have the countdown on the left-hand side of the screen so you know there is an end in sight.

Now I’m sweaty and totally happy. Gotta love that adrenaline. I think should probably go take a shower, for everyone’s sake.