Monday 28 October 2013

No More Trouble Zones?

It's been a long time. 

I've been conscious that I've not posted on here for some time and over the last few days a number of people have mentioned to me TheMelican has gone very quiet.

So, here I am.

I've been up to a fair bit over the past month plus, but I thought today was a good point to come back to the blog.

No, not because of the great storm in the UK and travel chaos today. Not because the clocks have changed and we're going to and coming back from work in the dark.

Nope, today I decided to finally try out my new batch of Jillian Michaels DVDs. We all know I had pretty good results from the 30 Day Shred and it's become a bit of a go-to for me when I need to give my body a shock. 

I became a bit obsessed with it - I would Tweet each day I exercised and looked at other fellow shredders and their views. This is how I came to know of the many other workout offerings Ms Michaels has made. 

The ones that caught my eye were Six Week Six Pack, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism and No More Trouble Zones. 

Tonight I decided to try No More Trouble Zones (NMTZ). If I'm honest this appealed as the cover explained there were '6 minute fixes' so I thought I could maybe just try out a few.

Once I started though I had my usual fitness fanatic head on and selected the full 40 minute workout.

Now I do 1hour/90 minute workouts in the gym and 45 minute/1 hour spinning classes. When it comes to Jillian Michaels though my only experience has been the 20/25 minute 30 Day Shred workout. 

Forty minutes seemed a long time.

So what did I think of this one? 

Split into different circuits this is hardcore.  When you're feeling tired in the warm up you know you're out of shape so I was feeling pretty nervous.

Each circuit is split in five moves split into two sets. A majority of the exercises consist of mat work, as Jillian herself says some of them are old moves but they are classics.

What I love about NMTZ is that throughout it all you can feel it all working. I dread to think how I am going to ache tomorrow...and the plan is to do it all five days of this week. 

I was absolutely dripping with sweat and at the end I felt quite nauseous and had wobbly legs!

What results I see will remain to be seen, but I'll be sure to share any progress/updates on here as I did with 30 Day Shred. 

You need your trusty weights and a mat and be prepared to burn. As usual Jillian combines moves so you're not just working on one area. So you'll work biceps and quads, triceps and butt, abs and shoulders for instance. 

Expect planks, double crunches, donkey kicks, chair squats, sumo squats and lot more and all of course with a twist.

Be warned. It burns. However, sitting in now post workout and following a dinner and shower I do overall feel better for it. Even if I do also want to go straight to bed and sleep! 

Let's see if I do manage to reach a point where I have no more trouble zones.  Well, at least slightly less troublesome anyway...