Making the Cut: Extreme Shed & Shred

There is usually such a sense of accomplishment when I complete a workout program. I usually feel awesome because I did something that I probably wasn't sure I could do when I first started. But this time around, although I am still incredibly proud of what I did do, the sense of accomplishment is less because I didn't do as amazing as I would have liked to do. It's not that I didn't give it everything I had while I was doing it, it was more that I didn't do it as often and as much as I initially set out to do. In a sense I let myself down by not fully committing myself to this workout.

But like I said I'm still proud of what I did do. This workout was a bit of a killer. It was a struggle every day. It was extremely tough. But that was a good thing because I felt like when I did commit myself to it, I was getting an awesome workout. I didn't feel like I was wasting my time at all. I didn't give up but kept going. I just wish I had given more days to this workout to really see the difference it could have made. I know I could give it more days but I'm ready to move on. I do hope to go back to this workout one day however.

To start, I was a little scared because this was the first workout I had done that was 45 minutes, not including warm-up and cool-down. My normal workout is 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down so a 55 minute workout seemed crazy to me. I wasn't doubtful that I would be able to keep up my intensity for the full amount of time. But I surprised myself by what I actually could do. I kept pushing and was able to do more than I thought I could. I had to take breaks especially starting out but mostly I could keep up and even keep the pace with the women who are way more fit than I am in the DVD. I was definitely satisfied with this workout because I could feel every muscle in my body working. I was sore in places I had never been sore before. I was exhausted. I felt like I could barely move some days. And yet there was always more to give. There was always more ways I could improve and push myself harder.

I actually liked level one. The warm-up actually wore me out more than the actual workout itself did but that didn't mean that I didn't feel every muscle working during the workout. I was definitely sore after. But there wasn't anything I felt like I couldn't do. I felt like I was advancing fairly quickly and I could keep up my pace with them fairly quickly. I was definitely surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this level.

Level two was a different story. There wasn't a part of me that didn't struggle. I couldn't keep up. I had to take frequent breaks. I was sweating like it was 100 degrees in the house. My entire body hurt and it continued to hurt for days. Although it was unpleasant, I knew that it was working. But the trade off was that it was much harder for me to get up in the mornings because of this workout. Even though I knew it was so rewarding and I would feel awesome, I just couldn't get myself started. That was definitely my biggest struggle.

As whole this workout was hard and one of the hardest I've done of hers. Part of that was due to the moves and combinations and part was due to the length. I loved it though. I felt like I got the most out of this workout, but I really had to push. I can only imagine the difference it would have made if I had fully committed myself the way I planned to!