Jillian Michaels Six Week Six Pack - Level 2

Look up cruel and unusual in the dictionary and you may very well see Jillian’s face. I’m not even kidding. I’ll be honest: Level 2 scared me. I did another program in between Level 1 and 2 because it intimidated me so much! But finally did Level 2 and I’m not going to lie. It was hard, but it’s also probably one of my favorite workouts. And here’s the rundown! Basheerah and Matty are back. Matty is still the modifier and Basheerah is the advanced, but Jillian has Matty hold on to a weight, which was the main modification in Level 1. You start with your warmup, like always, and it’s your regular warm up except…THERE ARE BURPEES IN THE WARM UP. Well, not exact burpees, but up-downs which are basically a burpee without the jump at the end. Isn’t that a bunch of crap? ;) Who thinks of burpees in the warmup. Oh. Yeah. Some crazy lady named Jillian. ;). A few other moves; lunges, squats, that sort of stuff to get your muscles loose and then you begin to torture yourself. It’s all worth it!

Like in Level 1, you do one long circuit, and repeat it a second time going at a quicker pace. I held on to one 8lb dumb bell the whole time. You begin stepping into lunge and doing lunge with chops, where you’re basically wood-chopping to one side. Then you go to an oblique crunch with your weight up, touching your elbow to knee. Drop the weight and do jumping jackknives. Yes. Jumping jackknives. Repeat the lunge chops and the oblique crunch on the other side, and then you move on to low to high. This move is where you are holding the weight up high up in front of you over your head, and then twisting and pivoting into a 180, and dropping into a lunge. After that, you do repeater knees with the weight. Jillian takes mercy on you for two seconds - she lets you drop the weight, and then get into plank and do plant twists. Repeat low to highs on the other side as well as repeater knees. Next you do a lunge twist with a pass through, which I actually really liked. Lunge forward and twist, same leg lunge back, and pass the dumbbell under the front leg. Then she had you do light house swings, which I also enjoyed. Swinging your arm out straight in front of you and turning your hip and pivoting on the ball of your foot side to side. Next she has you do bicycle crunches, and after that you repeat the twisting lunge with a pass on the other wise, but instead of light house again, she has you do dumbbell swings, which are like swinging a sledgehammer. That’s always fun, right? 

Now the fun begins. Get into plank. Now. Plank moguls. After that, you have my sympathies, because she has you doing t-stand kicks. That’s where you start in plank and move into side plank, and then kick your foot out. And then back into plank, and do so on the opposite side. Those are tough. It got a little bit better for me when I realized to keep my hands pointed straight out in front of me and not turn my wrists. Otherwise, I’m asking for a broken wrist because I lose my balance easily. After that, you do double crunches, and as if she’s not evil then you do hollow man. And then flip over into mountain climbers. 

And guess what? You get to do it all over again, but at a quicker pace! On level 1, it seems like the quicker pace was almost too much, but this one wasn’t too bad. Even going at my own pace, what I felt was safe, was pretty much on time with the girls. So that was awesome! Not that modifying is bad at all, you still get an incredible workout when you modify, but it kind of kills my ego a bit. ;) 

Seriously though?? I really like this one, as hard as it is! Maybe because there isn’t lot of mat work, which we all know I hate. It’s more standing ab work. With how much I didn’t want to do it, and how bad Level 1 hurt my back, I’m surprised by how much I liked it! I expected this to be a terribly painful experience. It is, kind of. Haha! But it’s one that I like afterwards, which I can’t say I had that experience as much with Level 1 just because how bad it hurt afterwards. I’d say the DVD is worth it just for Level 2. I didn’t take measurements and I didn’t take my weight reliably but I definitely notice a lot of changes in my body. Positive changes! 

Christie Cash's Full Body Workout with Dumb Bells via GymRa.

In my last post, I talked about breaking up with Jillian. I’m going to talk about the first non-Jillian workout that I began doing consistently. The trainer/instructor is a woman named Christie Cash. I really like this one and I like Christie. This workout is similar to Jillian’s workouts and only 30 minutes long. What I like about it is that it gives a totally different scenery, she’s doing the workout with you the whole time (Jillian had two girls doing the workout for her the majority of the time while she does a few moves here and there but not the whole time - smart woman!), and while the moves are basically the same that Jillian does, it’s still different. Different mannerisms, different everything. You do fifteen exercises for one circuit, a couple minutes of cardio, and then you go through the circuit again, ending with the cardio again. There are a lot of lunges, which isn’t always very knee friendly and she does go quite fast. One thing I’m not sure I like is how fast she goes through the moves, especially if you’re needing a second or two to transition, but since I generally watch the workout before doing it so I have a good idea of what to expect I was okay most of the time, and now that I have the routine down pat, I do well with it. The warm up and the cool down both seem really quick and maybe not quite enough. She doesn’t talk much about correct form, so a beginner might need to watch or make sure they have the form down right before going through this one. Making sure you have the right form is something that Jillian is very good about in her workouts. (You know how I said above that Jillian does a few moves here and there while her modifier and her advanced girls do it all? Jillian is usually showing you the right form!) I always get a good laugh when Christie ends a move with, “You’re [insert body part you just worked] should feel great!” and by great if you mean burning then yes!! Haha. But really, I do like this one. It gave me a much needed change when I needed it the most!

This workout includes bicep curls, shoulder presses with squats, rows, deadlifts, pyramid squats, lunges with lateral raises (which I absolutely abhor), lunges with a knee tuck (which I hate, hate, hate!!), and ab rotations, woodchoppers, side crunches. There is no mat work on the floor but since I hate floor/mat work I like that. ;) Occasionally it seems as if their might be editing problems because there are times where she’ll have you do the moves 20 times instead of 15. It’s all in the first circuit (that I’ve noticed). Cardio is plyo squats, knee tucks, and fast feet. 

I haven’t taken photographs and I didn’t take before and afters with his because I didn’t think that I would do it consistently when I started, but I think I can tell some good changes in my body since doing this one! But because I like it, I recommend it anyway. I use my eight pound dumb bells and I find that I burn anywhere from 200-250 calories as according to my Fitbit Charge HR.