PIIT28 - 2 Weeks Later

   I respect Cassey Ho a lot, I think she's a fabulously bubbly individual and the world could use more people like her - enthusiastic people who want others to share in their passions. But as much as I love her, I wasn't sure how effective PIIT28 would be. I expected Pilates moves in an interval system, and while I love resistance training, be it with weights or my own body weight, I really wasn't sure that there would be much sweating. And as much as I hate cardio, cardio burns fat and after my vacation, there was much cake-induced fat to burn.
   But, as almost always, my concerns were pointless.
   Pilates is hard, there's no two ways about it, but Piit28 doesn't focus exclusively on Pilates moves. Every workout consists of seven different moves which alternate between resistance and cardio, meaning you basically get great active recovery after every brutal cardio set, and you repeat it four times through; 45 seconds of movement with 15 seconds of rest.

   It is tough, but I actually think it's been set up in the perfect way:
• By alternating between resistance and cardio, even on days that focus a certain area of the body, your whole body gets worked, you get your heart rate up while also building lean muscle and melting fat, and you don't exhaust that muscle group to the point that completing even one circuit is impossible.
• The fact that there are seven moves keeps it from being too daunting - indeed, five moves would be too few and nine would be too many - and completing the circuit four times is also just right. I start feeling it in circuit three and begin slowing down, and by circuit four, the dread starts to kick in - but then it's immediately eradicated when I realise I only have to do it once more, and that helps me to muster more energy and complete it to the best of my ability, more or less matching circuit three - or circuit two if it's a good day!
• And by having a new workout nearly every day (Cardio Camp is the only workout repeated every week), it means I don't get the opportunity to dread it. There are two different bum workouts, leg workouts, ab workouts, upper body workouts, and total body workouts, and that means that, should one of them be particularly vicious, I can rest assured knowing that I only have to do it once more even though PIIT28 lasts - you guessed it - 28 days. And the single workout that you do repeat every week was still challenging but actually quite manageable, and it's the only one out of them all that I actually loathe the idea of doing four times.

   The workouts have been relatively consistent in terms of difficulty. My lower body is stronger than my upper body, but I find myself challenged at an equal rate every single day, and that's wonderful. Not once have I felt like I've wasted a workout, and though I've found while actually doing an area-focused workout that it didn't seem as effective as it could have been, I was somewhat silenced the next day. I did the bum workout day 1 (I shuffled the calendar along a day because I wanted to keep Sunday as my rest day rather than Saturday), and I was still feeling it in my cheeks a little on day 3.

   I've now completed all the PIIT28 workouts, and now, for week 3 and 4, I'm to do it all again. I'm not looking forward to it, because it's all very hard work, but neither am I dreading it, and sometimes that's just to be expected.
   So, I'll be back again in 2 weeks with my verdict, and after that with a review!
   Stay tuned, folks! Oh! And enter my ProWater giveaway for some tasty protein-packed fruity drinks!