1/2 THRU 30 DS: NEED ADVICE

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After today's workout, I am officially halfway through 30 DS (yay, me!). I'm a little discouraged right now though. I expected level 2 to be like level 1 in that I would get progressively stronger. I have not. The last two workouts felt significantly weaker to me; had to lower my weights, follow Anita more, as well as getting sore and winded much quicker. My shoulders are killing me, my back is killing me (I can hardly do the leg raises for abs), my knees and thighs ache and my moral is lowering by the minute. Now, the whole time I've been doing 30DS I've been going to the gym to do cardio after basically so that I have a calorie cushion to eat more if I want to later. The past week I upped my cardio from 30 minutes to 45 then 50 and finally 60 minutes yesterday. Is that zapping my energy for 30 DS? I really enjoy the cardio and don't want to cut it out. I want to get thru the rest of 30 DS but I'm dyin' over here! Ideas???

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  • wigglentwink
    wigglentwink Posts: 336 Member
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    You aren't alone in that. I did the 30DS every day for 30 days and ran for 6/7 days a week to supplement it. Level 2 is by far the hardest level, in my opinion. Power through. Do it anyway, even if you are struggling, and then one day, you wont struggle so much and you will feel like Wonder Woman. :)

    You may be a little weaker because you have doubled your cardio...so give yourself a little break, but for goodness sake...don't quit!!!
  • terihaddad
    terihaddad Posts: 114 Member
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    what about trying the video at a different time of day? I usually do it after work and have had some great improvement since day 1 (I'm on day 6), but day 4 I did in the morning and it killed me...I could barely complete it. Do you feel stronger at other parts of the day?
  • JaenaM
    JaenaM Posts: 251 Member
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    what about trying the video at a different time of day? I usually do it after work and have had some great improvement since day 1 (I'm on day 6), but day 4 I did in the morning and it killed me...I could barely complete it. Do you feel stronger at other parts of the day?

    Up until today I was doing it in the afternoon; yesterday was weaker because I ate too big of a lunch then tried to cardio the lunch off before doing shred. I got up this morning and thought I just wanted to get it outta the way and it sucked. I'll go back to afternoons tomorrow for sure!
  • Bridget28152723
    Bridget28152723 Posts: 372 Member
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    I am on level 2 also, It is challening but doable, sometimes i follow Anita, I also have trouble with the legs raises because my back hurts. I do my workout around noon when Im awake and ready to go, Im a stay at home Mom so I do it when the older kids are at school. I dont exercise on a full stomach or a really empty one , I need a little fuel for my workout! I do include turbo jam in my workout session sometimes because 20 minutes is not long enough, but I feel like i worked out for 1 hour when im done with 30 day shred! I have heard great things about this workout so Im going to power thru it, even though its tough. Im on day 2 of level 2 and have been doing it for 7 days total. The workouts do get harder so you probably wouldnt feel that each level gets easier but as long as you dont give up im sure you will get some good results from all your hard work, Can you do the 30 DS before your extra cardio? If not just do the 30 DS when u feel your best
  • teenysteaney
    teenysteaney Posts: 21 Member
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    I'm on Level 3, Day 6 of the shred and found level 2 really tough.

    As you said, I didn't feel like I was getting progressively stronger with it, despite having found I was quite capable of working up from Anita to doing all Natalie by the end of 10 days on Level 1.

    After having a particularly bad couple of days where I actually felt weaker, rather than stronger, I decided to just do Anita with lower weights and higher reps and build up gradually. I stuck with it for 20 days in the end and in the last 4 or 5 days I was able to do all Natalie with my original 5lb weights.
  • curiositycat
    curiositycat Posts: 111 Member
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    Had to comment on the leg raises in Level 2. Those are EXTREMELY bad for the lower back. I'm frankly quite shocked that a trainer would include those. I keep my legs perpendicular to the floor and simply raise my rear end off the floor like the move from Level 1. Also, the extra cardio may be the culprit in making you feel so weak. Your muscles simply may not have enough time to recover before your next 30DS workout. What if you tried scaling back the minutes of cardio and see if that makes a difference?
  • Corruptkitten
    Corruptkitten Posts: 157 Member
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    What if you tried scaling back the minutes of cardio and see if that makes a difference?

    I was going to say that too! I am on L2D1 and am feeling weak too. I was doing spin twice a week and fitting other cardio in where I can. I don't think I am going to do cardio this week (at least not at the beginning of the week) so that my body can get used to level 2 then I may add the intense cardio back in next Saturday. Just stick with the 30DS there are proven results just look at the pics on this site. You're almost there!!!