I've made a decision

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Hi Guys,

I hope you don't feel let down by this post or my decision, but think of it as me trialling something for you guys and we can all hopefully learn something.

I've been reviewing some of my therapeutic exercise books, because of my issues with upper body strength, and I feel even more sure now, that doing the shred every day, particularly on top of running, is not the optimum way to go. This is for a few reasons: -

1) I'm not giving my muscles time to repair, which can easily result in injury, and my shoulders have been bad now since a few days after starting.
2) Having done quite a lot of lower body stuff in the shred, I'm not allowing my running to progress speed wise, which is mentally frustrating, and lets face it, you need your mental faculties even more than your physical ability to change your life forever.
3) What about once I've done the shred? Unless I'm planning to work out every day for the rest of my life, and every other day working out twice to do both a dvd workout and also my run, then I am not going to sustain the results. I may workout every day for the rest of my life, but likely only to be once per day, with a gradual increase on duration and intensity.
4) Another issue with the shred is that, in order to increase your capacity to do any sort of exercise, you have to work yourself to fatigue, which I know I am not doing with the arm exercises, I don't even feel those, so other than calorie burn they are literally a waste of time (when I say arm I mean mostly the curls).
5) I am sick of bathing twice a day on the alternate day where I do both workouts at opposite ends of the day!

On the other hand, the shred is fab because: -

1) Maximum calorie burn from a well thought out compilation of different types of exercise.
2) A set program so easy to keep to if motivated.
3) Teaches you exercises you may not have thought/heard of before.

Therefore I have decided to run one day, do the shred the next, and so on and so forth. I will try to do this without any rest days and see how it goes, and I think it's sustainable because of the limited duration of the workouts I'll be doing.

I have recently upped my calories to lose 1lb per week, so I don't get the same sinking feeling about only working out once because I have enough calories to get me through without chewing sticks of celery all day.

I'm going to treat this as an experiment and let you guys know my results, and hopefully if it has good results you guys might choose to give yourselves a break from the shred every other day, and choose a different sort of exercise to add into it.

I hope you don't feel I've let you or myself down (I don't feel that way about it) and I hope you don't think it's a cop out.

Che xxx

Replies

  • supermomtoo4
    supermomtoo4 Posts: 27 Member
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    You scared me! When I started reading your post I was thinking you were quitting the Shred. I was all prepared to hear your excuses and be so disappointed. Don't do that to me again!

    I see your posts everyday and am so inspired by how much exercise you are doing and that you are almost always under your calories. You are so very committed and that is not something everyone can do. On that note though I have often wondered how you can possible do it all. I don't know where you find the time or motivation. It looks like you have put a lot of thought into this decision and I think your choice is more sustainable in the long run.

    I'm not disapointed in the least. You are not quitting just rearranging your work out. I'm proud of you for choosing a more sustainable plan. Just keep swimming!
  • chezileigh
    chezileigh Posts: 255
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    awww, thanks for the lovely post supermom! I will keep you well posted on whether it works out and whether I feel I did the right thing

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • zanasush
    zanasush Posts: 35 Member
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    Good on you Chezileigh.. I think you have to try different things out to see what actually suits you.

    Look forward to hear your outcome..

    good luck