I feel like a joke!

lisasp4 wrote: »

Thanks guys! I'll try again tonight and as long as I get past 5 minutes, I'll count it as a success!!

lisasp4 wrote: »

Did it again today and got to 10 minutes

futuremanda wrote: »

imo, do the whole thing. Make that your goal. Which means you can't run yourself into the ground -- aim to stick it out, so you don't push until you want to puke. (I know she'll tell you to push, just remember, as a beginner, you ARE pushing, even with all my below tips, so no, do not push to puking in 5 minutes. Endure. Conserve energy.)

- Go at a slower pace. (Ex. She does 20 pushups, you do 2, oh well!)
- Don't go as far into the movement. (Ex. Jumping jack without arm movement, small jump)
- Always choose the beginner modification.
- Take a break. (Walk in place)
- Substitute. Do something else that works for you. (Ex, march in place with high knees instead of jump rope)
- Hold. (Ex. Hold plank, instead of mountain climber plank)
- Use less weight / no weight.

You'll learn a lot more by doing the whole thing, too. For example, those arm punches, that would make a great cardio sub for the jumping if you're getting tired. But you don't learn them until later in the video.

You also teach your body how to recover. A lot of cardio is recovery (rather than blasting into "my lungs are on fire, my throat is sore now, my chest hurts, I'm going to die").

You'll also get to see little improvements on different areas. I think you'll see way MORE little improvements like that than you'll see if you're just trying to push through in a linear fashion. So instead of "hey I made it through 6 minutes instead of 5" you'll see "hey, I got all the way through that first set of jumping jacks, and I got an extra two knee pushups in today, and I took fewer breaks during the jump rope, and I think I actually enjoy those butt kicks and..." <-- know what I mean?

So sticking with it, but at a lower intensity, with breaks, modifications, substitutions, is how you'll progress faster, in my experience, than going FULL ON and quitting in a couple minutes.

Some day you'll be able to do the whole thing, no stops (with whatever modifications you still need). Then you can work on the next level, or you can stay there and work on things like putting more energy in (bigger jumping jacks, bigger arm movements, really "pop"), hitting pace, advanced modifications, higher weights, that sort of thing.

Oh, and with Jillian? Pay attention. She gives you lots of little spots to catch your breath, she really does! It's just, you'll miss them, if you're standing there cursing her out, or giving yourself a negative self-talk ("I suck at this, this is awful, etc"). Focus. Use every little break between circuits, when she's talking, etc to BREATHE.