Sunday 16 November 2014

Kettlebells & Booty Barre - 2 Weeks Later

   After substituting the Insanity-style workout with the booty barre, I have to say I've stepped up my game this month. The kettlebell workout used on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is made up of 9 moves as I've added in the rear lunge to dead lift from last month because I felt my obliques (side abdominal muscles) weren't getting targeted enough, and I've increased the weight from 4kg to 6kg on 3 of those 9 moves, and I'm almost ready to do the same with another one or two. It's a tough workout, but I'm still going for 4 circuits a day. By the time I finish the 4th I'm exhausted, but I think if I pushed it I could manage 5. The circuits are 2-3 for beginners, 3-4 for intermediate, and 4-5 for advanced. It takes me about 30 minutes to complete 4 circuits.
   The booty barre, similarly, is made up of 8 moves. These are tougher than they look and while I'm still at 10 reps of the abdominal reach, I'm pushing 16 reps easily for the rest of the moves, and I do the circuit twice, which takes me 20 minutes.
   I still feel a little bad at having substituted Insanity, but I know that I'm doing better now than I would have been had I stuck to it. The lack of enjoyment I had for that workout gave me little motivation to do it, which drained my energy before I'd even begun. It's true that, had I been doing the workout perfectly, it would have been more effective than what I'm doing now, but I wasn't doing it perfectly, I hated it, so it wasn't very effective at all.

   In all honesty, I've got little to say as an update for this month's workout so far. Usually I'd be noticing changes in my body, but nature's called and I'm not feeling too slim and fancy lately. Not only that, but I've come down with pityorisis rosea so any focus on my body at all is directed to the itching. I'm proud to say, however, that the rash, while distracting, has only affected my exercise once, where I did 3 circuits instead of 4. The rash is self-isolated, and according to the doctor, there's no known reason for developing it, it can happen to anyone during the autumn. It's not at all contagious, but it also can't be hurried or healed by anything, it can only be left to run its course, which sucks. The best I have are antihistamines and cream, but that's at least given me back my focus because my mind isn't completely occupied by trying not to scratch. So, because of these two factors, I've not noticed any changes in my body because I've been quite distracted. Hopefully in another 2 weeks I'll be able to give a good verdict. It does feel like a good workout, though.

   Good sweat, good burn, good physical stress, so I'm quite confident that it's worth my time. Of course, I won't know until I get on the scales and grab the tape measure which I only do at the start of the month, but I doubt there will be any pictures this time around unless the rash has cleared. I'm a blotchy monster, but fortunately, mercifully, the rash doesn't spread onto the face, so I can hide it with a long-sleeved top and a scarf, which are, fortunately, not unusual choices this time of the year.

   So, I'll update again in 2 weeks!



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