Jillian Michaels' Six Week Six Pack - Level 1

Jillian Michaels Six Week Six Pack - Level 1

Here’s the rundown for Level 1 of Six Week Sick Pack. This is a six week program where you do Level 1 for three weeks and then Level 2 for three weeks. Like every Jillian workout, there are two girls who do the advanced version and the modified. Basheerah is the advanced and Matty is the modifier. In this workout, Basheerah has a weight and Matty doesn’t. Get ready because Jillian is a mean woman and you have been warned. 

After a quick warmup that consists of military march, squats with x’s, lunges, and rotations, you begin the first circuit. In this workout, you do one long circuit that’s about 15 minutes long, and then repeat the circuit again, going quicker. You go up and down from doing mat work to standing ab work in this workout. You begin with knee thrusts and then backwards lunges with back extensions. You move on to burpees, and then squat rotation, where you squat down and then twist so you touch your right elbow to left knee and vice versa. After that is side lunges with a side bend. I had to drop the weight for that one. 

Next you hit the mat and extend your right leg out straight and your right arm straight, and then crunch up. After that she has you roll over and your do supermans with a lat pull. Raise up into plank position and do plank jacks. Next you do the same arm and leg crunch on the opposite side. Then she has you doing double leg stretch, which she says is a pilates move. That one was tough and I learned my core wasn’t as strong as I thought it was! Afterwards, Jillian has you doing side crunches, and then diagonal getups. Next comes extended walking plank, which I really liked, and then repeat side plank and the diagonal getups on the other side.

And next comes the last five moves that make me want to cry. Okay, not really. Well. Who knows! Even Jillian admits it’s cruel but for our own goods! It’s side plank with knee twists and spider planks with alternating legs. Both moves I imagine are what the people who are stuck in hell are doing. ;) Then comes mountain climbers, and you repeat side plank and knee twists on the other side. Finish up the circuit with bridge kicks. 

That’s it! Now you just get to repeat it, and faster! ;) 

I really liked this workout, but I will be honest. When you do the circuit over faster, some of the moves seem less safe. My back actually hurt consistently while doing this workout. I’m not sure if it’s because I may have been doing the moves wrong (I don’t think so though), using too heavy of a dumb bell (I was using 8’s), or if I was just trying to go too fast and keep up with Jillian. Once I remembered that I didn’t *have* to keep up with Jillian, it helped ease my back some, but that kind of killed my ego, and for that, I’m thinking that may be why Level 1 of Six Week Six Pack isn’t my favorite. It could also be the fact that I still really hate ab work. ;). Nothing will ever change! 

While I didn’t take measurements or really track my weight, I did notice significant changes when I looked in the mirror. Definitely was starting to get definition by the end of the three weeks, which was super exciting! Before this, I really wasn’t doing a lot of ab work, so this was really encouraging to see. As always, Jillian delivers!

Well, that lasted long.

Well, that lasted long.

My breakup with Jillian, that is. I was shopping at Sam’s Club back in January and I saw Six Week Six Pack for $8. It just sat there taunting and taunting me. Buy me, buy me. You’ve been doing the GymRa youtube videos for six months and you’ve been thinking of switching back, perfect opportunity to buy me, buy me. 

I gave in to the temptation and bought it, and a couple days later I started the program, or at least began Level 1. I’ll go further in depth soon (I promise) but after doing Level 1 for just over three weeks, I switched to Ripped In 30, which I loved the second time around even more! (I will touch base on that also soon!) But then I realized that it was time to buck up, and do Level 2 of 6W6P. I’ll be honest, this one *scared* me. The moves looked SO HARD! And Level 1, I learned that my core wasn’t as strong as I thought and it made my back ache. But once I did it, I loved it. 

And since mid-to-late January, I’ve been doing Jillian workouts again. That breakup lasted long. ;) But it’s been nice to go back to something familiar. Sometime soon I’d like to try some new workouts that I’ve been holding off on trying (such as One Week Shred, particularly the strength workout) and find some new workouts on GymRa’s youtube and maybe make up a schedule of a new routine a day to see what happens. I’m not sure if I’ve hit another plateau or what. I put about 7-10lbs (depending on the day) back on in November and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get those 10lbs off. It’s only a few pounds, but technically, I’ve never hit my goal weight since starting this journey. I have my “realistic” goal weight, my “unrealistic” goal weight (which is more like a dream weight, who doesn’t want to weigh 120lbs?) My body may just be at the weight it likes to be with, and if so, I’ll have to come to terms with that. I’m still not happy with my body and I’m not sure I ever will be. That’s a scary thought, because I’ve hopefully got another 55+ years in this body! (That puts me at 84+). But I’m willing to try and trick it and see what’s going on. Probably eating the same thing over and over again and running on the treadmill every day for an hour doesn’t help; I know I should mix it up, but that’s where I’m hoping strength comes in because I just love running so much. I never thought I’d be the girl that would get up and go for a run. 

I haven’t forgotten about this blog. I want to inspire others but I also want to make this an accurate account of what goes on when someone loses a lot of weight, and just like any journey, whether it’s a health journey, a weight loss journey, a journey from here to there, there are bumps in the road. Occasionally you have to go in another direction. But even though we all know that, it’s still hard for me to talk about those bumps in the road. 

Until next time! (Which should be very soon!)