Ripped In 30 - July Challenge

jae6704... Instead of the side lunges, I keep my legs apart and just do the basic left to right movement with the weights. I'm so worried to injure a knee or ankle if I lunge like that.

I do that too. I don't have a huge amount of room so I keep crashing into my sofa if I don't *l* And I have a dodgy right knee so trying to not crash into anything and keep form is just too much. Just planting your feet wide and concentrating on pushing your butt back is much easier (logistically, anyway) I find!

Still can't 'Give it to God', my lower back feels like it's going to break in half! Even with my palms on the floor. Oh well, just keep practising I guess. And though I've been using my 1.5K (about 3.3 pounds... I think? these are my heaviest ones) for everything so far and not having too much trouble, this morning for the chair fly I had to go down to my 1Ks, my arms just couldn't seem to lift the others. Always had terrible upper body strength. I have been using the weights for the boxing though, like we moved on to in L3 of the Shred, and I find that a really good workout. W1 seems to be a mixture of the cruelly impossible that I'm still struggling with after 5 days, and some that I feel are almost too easy, the bending forward ones especially.

Tomorrow is meant to be my rest day, but I'm almost tempted to keep going as I really feel like I still haven't mastered W1 (though the soreness is almost totally gone after 5 conscutive days - yeay!) and that would only leave one more day before hitting W2... maybe I'll push that back a day or two - considering there are 31 days in July it means we have 3 extra days to play with on top of the four 7 day weeks )

Anyway, despite feeling horrible yesterday (tummy ache and headache - the heat is getting to me) I managed W1D4 in the evening, and W1D5 this morning before work, so feeling generally positive, despite feeling rather like I'm wading through quicksand in regards to my ability to actually get through it! Glad to see we've all had a positive start and got our collective teeth into it, keep up the good work!

Finished the first 4 days! I am hoping to have the stamina to go right through all 30 days, but we'll see after a couple more days if i need a day off. I have been putting it in as 25 minutes after I noticed on D2 that the video was longer, but very happy to know I can add another 5 minutes and a few more calories burned each day!! I definitely give as much as I can during the video - the amount of sweat that drips from me and my tomato red face both give that away! lol

I know, I look like I've just spent an hour burning under really hot sun when I'm done! I went with 30 minutes based on what others have said they know they're burning due to using a HRM (I don't have one) and the fact that I feel like I'm pushing myself as hard as I know how, which is far more than I ever did when I went to the gym (which I hated - this is so much better - and cheaper!) for example.

The only reason I'm having a rest day is she tells us to in the intro - for the Shred I didn't schedule a rest day (I had to take a few here and there due to life getting in the way tho ;o) - just tried to burn all the way through which I found really effective, but I figure she knows what she's talking about so maybe it will help? And I have to admit it's nice knowing I can skip a day once a week without feeling guilty!

Getting quite annoyed with my weight, I tend to fluctuate between 123 and 126 (I am 5ft 3) which I know isn't overweight, but it's heavier than I ever was before I settled into my desk job. Since I started the Shred a month and a half ago I've maybe lost a couple of pounds (I now seem to fluctuate between 122 and 124) - and I know that muscle weighs more than fat and all that, but it still feels rather demoralising. Weight, although maybe it shouldn't be, is the first thing we think of when we think of becoming slender, and it would be nice to hit 120, considering I used to weigh a solid 114 for years with very little fluctation or effort *sigh* Sorry - rant over!

Badminton tonight - now THERE I've noticed a difference! My speed and agility has gone way up, I won my first match EVER about 3 weeks into the shred. I do it every week, for the social aspect as much as the fitness, but it's so good to see the improvement that a bit more body strength has had on my game )