Read Also: 3 Weeks Later
February would usually be the ideal month for my workout intentions. Being exactly 4 weeks long, I can start a new workout on the 1st and end it on the 28th with a nice, clean, crisp and tidy feeling, and start the next workout at the very beginning of March. February is a very purposeful month, giving the year some stability and organisation quite early on. Come on, you already know I'm weird.
But, as Seeg and I were going away for the whole first week of February, that kind of changed things around a bit. It takes between 3-5 days for me to settle into a new workout depending on difficulty, difference from the norm and, lately, number of different routines involved. So, the first week of each new workout is spent learning the ropes. It's only after that that I'm able to really throw myself into it with confidence and get the most out of it, but since the whole first week was tied up in another country, I wasn't able to begin, and that left me with just 3 weeks - or, two weeks, after the first week of coming to grips.
Because of all of this, planning out February's workout was hard. I wanted to do something fun, but I wanted something effective, something that I wouldn't have to learn too much new stuff for and could jump into a lot quicker.
Well, I decided.
First of all, let me say that I'm changing enough of this up and creating new combinations so that, even though I've done it all before and quite recently, the whole thing will still be effective, just not as effective as a whole new workout would have been.
So, I'm sticking with Kickbox Fast Fix for three more weeks, but I'm changing up the 20 minute body band routine that I did before it following a spontaneous decision on January 6th. Actually, I'm making a few changes.
Last month went like this: 20 minutes of resistance training with a body band and then the 20 minutes of a Kickbox Fast Fix routine. I did one a day, keeping to a regular rotation, and the body band would always correlate to the kickboxing section: upper body resistance and upper body kickboxing; lower body resistance with lower body kickboxing; ab-focused resistance with ab-focused kickboxing.
This month I'm changing that up, using November 2014's Kettlebell and Booty Barre routines in place of body bands. So instead of upper body resistance, I'm using a much harder 20 minute kettlebell routine and then going on to the upper body kickboxing. Kettlebells are heavy, but because of their funny shape and the amount of skill required to control them when compared to controlling dumbbells, they require the whole body rather than just the upper body, making them much more effective and increasing calorie burn.
Instead of lower body resistance before the lower body kickboxing, I'm turning back to the Booty Barre, a much harder routine using balance and body weight to work the bum and legs, and it gets amazing results as well as an awesome sweat, and as the legs and glutes are the largest muscles in the body, working them all more intensly with this routine rather than the body band will also increase the fat loss.
But there is one more change. The third workout of the Kickbox Fast Fix is focused more on ab toning moves than it is on actual kickboxing moves, which made it much less exciting for me, and the two days a week I lacked the same enthusiasm were the two days a week I had this routine. But, you can't neglect the core, of course, so I do get it. However, this month, as I've already spent a month going through the Kickbox Fast Fix, I've decided to replace the ab-focused workout from the DVD altogether, in favour of another workout: Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown. I've come to discover that throwing in more focused body weight moves and stretches between higher impact days can really help the body recover faster while still getting in a great workout, and changing the pace every few days can have amazing results.
So, it's safe to say that I'm familiar with everything I'm doing, though I have to wonder how difficult it's going to be, as the kettlebell routine alone left me dead after 20 minutes back in November. But I intend to stick with it before truly changing my workout in March. It's just three weeks, and it will give me a chance to get tired of the kickboxing DVD while getting the most out of it, and not have to waste a week coming to grips with a new workout only to use it for two more because I'd rather not overlap into March if I can help it. But, as I've said, I've changed enough about this month so that the kickboxing is just another part of the day's workout rather than its focus, and that will help. I loved it so much last month that it makes sense to just continue doing it, but I need to change the whole thing up enough so that it's still effective, and I believe that that is what I've done.
Time will tell!
But, as Seeg and I were going away for the whole first week of February, that kind of changed things around a bit. It takes between 3-5 days for me to settle into a new workout depending on difficulty, difference from the norm and, lately, number of different routines involved. So, the first week of each new workout is spent learning the ropes. It's only after that that I'm able to really throw myself into it with confidence and get the most out of it, but since the whole first week was tied up in another country, I wasn't able to begin, and that left me with just 3 weeks - or, two weeks, after the first week of coming to grips.
Because of all of this, planning out February's workout was hard. I wanted to do something fun, but I wanted something effective, something that I wouldn't have to learn too much new stuff for and could jump into a lot quicker.
Well, I decided.
First of all, let me say that I'm changing enough of this up and creating new combinations so that, even though I've done it all before and quite recently, the whole thing will still be effective, just not as effective as a whole new workout would have been.
So, I'm sticking with Kickbox Fast Fix for three more weeks, but I'm changing up the 20 minute body band routine that I did before it following a spontaneous decision on January 6th. Actually, I'm making a few changes.
Last month went like this: 20 minutes of resistance training with a body band and then the 20 minutes of a Kickbox Fast Fix routine. I did one a day, keeping to a regular rotation, and the body band would always correlate to the kickboxing section: upper body resistance and upper body kickboxing; lower body resistance with lower body kickboxing; ab-focused resistance with ab-focused kickboxing.
This month I'm changing that up, using November 2014's Kettlebell and Booty Barre routines in place of body bands. So instead of upper body resistance, I'm using a much harder 20 minute kettlebell routine and then going on to the upper body kickboxing. Kettlebells are heavy, but because of their funny shape and the amount of skill required to control them when compared to controlling dumbbells, they require the whole body rather than just the upper body, making them much more effective and increasing calorie burn.
Instead of lower body resistance before the lower body kickboxing, I'm turning back to the Booty Barre, a much harder routine using balance and body weight to work the bum and legs, and it gets amazing results as well as an awesome sweat, and as the legs and glutes are the largest muscles in the body, working them all more intensly with this routine rather than the body band will also increase the fat loss.
But there is one more change. The third workout of the Kickbox Fast Fix is focused more on ab toning moves than it is on actual kickboxing moves, which made it much less exciting for me, and the two days a week I lacked the same enthusiasm were the two days a week I had this routine. But, you can't neglect the core, of course, so I do get it. However, this month, as I've already spent a month going through the Kickbox Fast Fix, I've decided to replace the ab-focused workout from the DVD altogether, in favour of another workout: Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown. I've come to discover that throwing in more focused body weight moves and stretches between higher impact days can really help the body recover faster while still getting in a great workout, and changing the pace every few days can have amazing results.
So, it's safe to say that I'm familiar with everything I'm doing, though I have to wonder how difficult it's going to be, as the kettlebell routine alone left me dead after 20 minutes back in November. But I intend to stick with it before truly changing my workout in March. It's just three weeks, and it will give me a chance to get tired of the kickboxing DVD while getting the most out of it, and not have to waste a week coming to grips with a new workout only to use it for two more because I'd rather not overlap into March if I can help it. But, as I've said, I've changed enough about this month so that the kickboxing is just another part of the day's workout rather than its focus, and that will help. I loved it so much last month that it makes sense to just continue doing it, but I need to change the whole thing up enough so that it's still effective, and I believe that that is what I've done.
Time will tell!
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