Physique 57 Challenge 2 Weeks in!

Well, here I am a full two weeks into the Physique 57 8-Week Challenge and I thought it was time for an update.

I’d be lying if I said it’s been easy trying to fit in the daily workouts on top of teaching all of my classes, but for the most part I’ve been getting most all of them in and I’m pretty proud of that!

I have to juggle some of the days around each week to work with my teaching schedule, but overall it’s going well!  I think I’ve only missed one day of workouts so far which makes me happy.  If I can get to the end of the 8 weeks and only have missed 4 workouts I’ll be pretty pleased!!

There have been days where I was suppose to do 2 30-minute workouts and opted to wrap it up after just one because I figure teaching 4 Zumba Toning classes/week must count for 1 or 2 30-minute P57 workouts.  When I do that I always try to choose the workout that is more lower body oriented since Zumba Toning really destroys my upper body.  That usually happens on Saturdays when I do my workout immediately after Zumba Toning which is pretty much an upper body destroyer!  And I have to say, I feel like a bit of a cheat when I do that, but I’m pretty sure most of the others doing the challenge aren’t also teaching 12 hours of fitness classes on top of these workouts so I try to keep that in mind!

I’ve been really enjoying the challenge of the workouts, and the private Facebook group and emailing back and forth with Natasha have really been keeping me motivated to get them in.  It’s so easy to decide to do a challenge like this, the hard part is actually following through and doing it.  Knowing people are there checking in with one another certainly makes is harder to sneak off and not get the workouts in.

On Friday I was so tired, and I really wanted to skip my workout but I knew I would feel bad if I did, so I sucked it up and did it and was so glad that I had afterwards.  The workouts are hard, but at the same time so motivating and you feel stronger (and more sore) having lived through yet another one.  Haha, that sounds bad but it’s so true!

One thing that has really surprised me since starting this challenge is how quickly I die during the abs sections.  Like I am literally collapsed on the floor during a good portion of it.  I think that my ratio of doing the exercises to being dead on the floor is improving, but there still seems to be ample “dead on the floor” time.  I’m really hoping that by the end of the 8 weeks I’ll see a huge difference there for sure!

^^^FYI if the pretzel appears easy, it’s becuase you don’t really see everything that is happening in this photo.  It is no joke.  Especially when you take your hands of the floor!  Owe.  The end.

I can certainly see an improvement in my stamina and strength in the upper and lower body exercises though.  I’m having to take less breaks and am starting to do more of the advanced exercises (especially the lower body ones).  They might not look very pretty right now, but I’m doing them and that’s what counts -right?? 😉

Today I was on rested legs as I hadn’t exercised since Saturday morning so I think that may have contributed at least partly to my improved stamina, but I know I took way fewer breaks during the cardio blast today versus the first time I did did (like 3 or 4 breaks today versus probably 7 or 8 the first time), and I only took 3 breaks during the advanced 30 minute express workout while doing the advanced version during a good 80% of the workout.  And while I was certainly dying during the workout, it was nice to know I was doing a more difficult version than I had in the past.

Also – my new goal in life is to be able to do scorpion push-ups.  One day it’ll happen.  However that day wasn’t today 😉

I’ll round this post out with my stats as far as weight and inches lost these past two weeks:

Ponds lost=1

Inches lost=4 1/2 (1 off each thigh, 1/2 off my hips, 1 off my lower abdomen {around my belly button}, and 1 off my natural waist.

Not too shabby for 2 weeks!

Disclosure:  Physique 57 has provided me with a complimentary enrolment in their 8-week challenge.  In return I have agreed to share my experience with the challenge as I complete it.  All thoughts, opinions and results expressed in this or any post are 100% my own.  Those are not for sale.