Ripped in 30, Week 1

Well, I have some bad news…I am not yet ripped. I’m still pretty…soft. But I guess the DVD does say “in 30” so I’ll have to be patient! That being said, week 1 was no joke. I thought by like, day 4 or 5 my breathing wouldn’t be quite as hard and I’d be mastering the moves at a quicker pace. This was not the case. I keep blaming it on the altitude but I’ve been here for a month so I think that excuse is no longer valid. I think the actual reality of the situation is the DVD is hard.  I suppose it’s a good thing that it keeps me sweating every time I do it.

So, just to give you an idea of what week 1 is like, here are some examples of workouts you do:

Squat with Shoulder Press– This is a pretty standard exercise, but those shoulders start to burn after a couple seconds because you’re holding the weights up the entire time. That alone, no press, is hard enough! I started with only 8lb. weights but just couldn’t do some of these exercises with them so I bought 3 pounders. I think I need a 5lb. weight set in there somewhere but for now, 3-8 pounds will do.

A couple other examples of strength exercises in week 1 are Lunges with Bicep Curls, Deadlift with Row, and Side Lunges with Front Raise.

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The thing about the strength section of her workouts is, they’re also a great deal of cardio. For example, at the end of week 1, we start the 3rd set of strength exercises with chair pose and fly’s, then immediately go into side lunges with front raises, then into lunges with bicep curls. There is no break in between exercises so your heart rate is through the roof. Then you move onto cardio which of course, also has no breaks. But that’s the point, short and sweet…or short and painful…more short and painful.

The cardio moves aren’t too bad but they get tough too of course. You wouldn’t expect anything less right? One example is Ice Skaters. 

Basically, you start in this position, say with your left leg behind you, then using your right leg, power up and jump to the left landing on your left leg. Try to stabilize landing on just the one leg, swinging the opposite leg behind you, then start again. Of course, if you can’t balance quite yet you can definitely put your other leg down to help. Jillian has 2 examples in her DVD’s, one is advanced and the other is a modified version so you can always start in modified.

The ab workouts aren’t too bad in week 1. My least favorite is side dips, they get really hard!

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Starting in side plank position, you just dip your hips towards the ground, then bring them back up. That counts as 1 rep. I think these are really difficult! I guess Jillian does too.

I did my first week 2 set yesterday and it was brutal! That Jillian is a crazy lady I’ll tell ya..but she’s got a bangin’ bod so I trust her. So far, my jeans are still a little too tight but I have 3 more weeks of craziness that will hopefully loosen them up. I also went for a run yesterday after the DVD which was surprisingly nice. I’ve been avoiding running since it’s so chilly out, but I was warm from the DVD so I thought I’d face the beast. I ran 3 miles and it felt pretty good. My face, ears, and hands were frozen (I was a bit underprepared) but my body felt okay.

Anyway, here’s a teaser video of Jillian’s DVD if you’re interested in checking it out!