Week two of Ripped In 30 is finished! I’m a couple days into Week 3 now, but here’s my thoughts on week two!
Phew. It was tough and definitely more challenging than Week 1. The first circuit had static lunges with rows, a pendulum lunge, and then on the floor with pelvic thrusts and chest presses. Those I enjoyed, especially the pendulum lunge. The cardio was a total killer! Ahhh! Plank Jacks, into mountain climbers, back to plank jacks and then finish out with mountain climbers. Two minutes in plank. Oh my gosh. The first day, I thought it’d never end! By the end though, it was still challenging, but I didn’t feel like I was totally going to die! I forget the abs moves for the first circuit though.
In circuit two, you did side lunges with a leg raise, ahold into a table top, and then crow pushups for strength. I have really short arms, and they weren’t long enough to really do an ab hold at all. I ended up towards the end of day three realizing that I could raise myself on on weights that would give my arms a little bit more length, but I had to be careful not to twist my wrist when I would transition into table. That was challenging in itself trying to figure out how to actually do the move with my super short arms! Ack. (Random fact: in high school, I used to have classmates tell me they wished they had my arms, because they were short. You should wear shorts at fingertip length, and technically, I could get by wearing a pair of panties if I were to go by fingertip length!) And those crow pushups? Damn. Those things were tough. I could hike my knee to my shoulder if I was in the advanced position, BUT I couldn’t get my arms to move in a pushup, so I did it on my knees, but then I couldn’t get my leg high enough, I didn’t think at least. Other times if felt like I did. I am really thinking of getting a mirror to watch myself to make sure I have all my form down completely. I need to work on my flexibility and my shoulders in general though. I loved the jump rope kick outs! I know Jillian mentioned they were like a Pollyanna move - I love Pollyanna. It was my favorite growing up, and the second she mentioned them, I was like, “Heck yeah. I’m the new Hayley Mills!” but then it was short lived because plank thrusts were the next move (before doing jumprope quickest again) and my poor arms were still screaming from the two minutes of plank before. The ab moves circuit two made me so happy though! Reason being, in Week 1, there was this move called hollow man, and I felt like it would never end. There is a move that goes from hollow man to where you crush up into a sitting up position. Hollow man’s killed me before, but I was able to go from that to a crushing position using the advanced version and I was so happy, I wanted to cry tears of joy. It was that move that reminded me how far I’ve come. The next move was crawling up your leg, with it extended up in the air.
Circuit 3 was not my favorite strength by any means, but I loved it because that meant it was almost over. Haha! You went with a sumo squat with tricep extension, stork stance with a low row, and then into plank for a renegade row. The first day I rotated my hips until I heard Jillian say not to on the DVD. So I worked my butt off to never rotate my hips again! In the 30 Day Shred, she had renegade rows with a leg extension, and I wasn’t able to do the advanced, but I was able to do the advanced in this one! So that made me excited. Another way for me to realize how far I’ve come, not only from the beginning, but since starting to do Jillian DVD’s in January. Cardio was jab cross high lows, and then high knees. I was pretty familiar with these. Jillian doesn’t switch legs for the jab cross, but after the third day I did, because I noticed my left knee was a bit sore. Maybe because I was using it a bit more with this move, so I actually did switch legs. That helped a lot with my knee (although this one I hurt a couple years ago and since then, it’ll hurt on and off). Abs were sit-ups with a leg extension and then a crunch with a leg raise.
AND THEN IT WAS OVER! WOOO! Week two was much more challenging than week one. And besides the jump rope kickouts, there really weren’t any moves that I can say that I enjoyed. Like, I’ve always been a fan of skaters, I like running man, jump rope, single leg hops. Rockstar Jumps are fun (I’m a total cardio girl). Even some strength like squat and press. But I did it and enjoyed it. I know Jillian says to take a break and do this 5-6 times a week and always make sure to take a break, but I went six days and then I moved on to Week 3, which I’m two days into. No breaks yet. I’m just worried that I’ll fall out of the routine. I’ll review week three when I finish, which should be in a few days!
After I finish the Ripped In 30 DVD, I’m going to reward myself with a deluxe pedicure! I’ve never had a pedicure before (or a manicure) so I’m really excited about it. I thought of the idea when I first started this with my new shoes and my feet killed me afterwards. I was soaking them every night, and that’s where I got the idea of a pedicure!
So this week, I realized how far I’ve come thanks to two different ab moves. Have you ever had that epiphany?
How do you reward yourself after a week well done?
Thanks for reading!