January: POUND

Read Also: 2 Weeks Later, 5 Weeks Later & POUND DVD Review

Fun Rating: ★★★★★    Difficulty Rating: ★★★☆☆     Results Rating: ★★★☆☆

   One of the most important things about fitness is variety. Even athletes don't do the same thing every single day, both to aid their performance and their sanity. This is part of the reason that I change it up every month. The other reasons are that I'm still striving for my dream body and I know how quickly my body adapts to workouts, stopping them from remaining effective, and also because I do get bored. If fitness isn't fun, you're not going to be able to stick to it, so changing it up is essential - be it just a new circuit, or a whole new style of working out.

   I love Jillian Michaels, and I don't adore her because she's the 'in' thing, but because she honestly and truly gets results. In short, she's deserving of her fame.

   But that doesn't mean I won't stray and try something new, despite what this blog may suggest. And this month I'm so excited to be able to try a new workout I've had my eye on for a long time. I've not tried it yet because it's expensive, imported from the US, so I've not been able to spare the money to try it, but I was lucky enough to get it for Christmas - as well as a few other things from my wishlist, none of which I truly expected - and that meant I had January's workout sorted.

   POUND is a workout inspired by drumming, a mix of cardio an sculpting while using lightly weighted drum sticks, dubbed 'Ripstix'. I've tried drumming - it's hard, and it's exhausting, and that's all while sitting down. It takes co-ordination, pace and strength - so imagine doing it while standing and moving/jumping around. The Ripstix are there to throw you off balance as well as give the workout a whole new vibe and feel, and while I love my dumbbells and kettlebells, I'm excited to use my sticks!

   Album 1: Sweat. Sculpt. Rock. comprises of 4 20-minute workouts - upper body, lower body, ab and cardio, and there's an introduction to form to help you out. My intention is to rotate the upper body, lower body and ab workouts like I did with Killer Body last month, and add on the cardio section at the end. Of course, this is my intention. I'm slowly learning that this can easily change depending on the demand of the workouts in question - they may be too demanding, or not demanding enough. I won't know until I try it out - and I can't wait!

   If you're in the US you get the wonderful choice of being able to purchase a number of different workout packs, or attending a class instead, but for the rest of us, all we have is Sweat.Sculpt.Rock - though the fact that it's tagged as 'album 1' implies that there is indeed more to come.

   POUND is another independent but fully licensed fitness trend, like Buti Yoga and Kukuwa African Dance, which means the DVDs tend to be region-free rather than region-bound. In theory, they should play on any DVD player from 2010 onwards, or on games consoles. My DVD player is too old for this or Kukuwa, but my Xbox 360 plays them perfectly, so I'm all set. It's best to check out whether your machine will play the disc before you buy.

   And, as you can see, I also got the gorgeous leggings from my wishlist! They're even more gorgeous in person than on the website - the black and white looks like a flurry of snow, while the gold foil spots make for a wonderful festive touch, be it for Christmas or New Year! I also got the N7 Mass Effect workout racer back which I'm - heh - over the moon about, and it pairs perfectly with my starry sky leggings :D

I'll update, as always, in 2 weeks!