Cardio Recovery, Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs

I love Cardio Recovery.  I wish every other day was a Cardio Recovery day.

Not only is it the sanest workout in this series, but it's one of the easiest, in my opinion.  I love how it just stretches everything out AND helps you work on the muscles that might be giving you trouble.  Like for me, squats and anything involving jumping, hitting the floor, jumping back, then jumping up is nearly impossible for me to do.  At first, I couldn't do any of them, but now I can get 1 or 2 in, so that makes me a happy camper.

Cardio Recovery helps with that.  I hate the pulses.  Abhor the pulses.  And the holds.  But, I'll have kick ass legs soon, so it's worth it.

The one thing it didn't help with is my right leg.  I think I pulled something in it doing my Plyometric Cardio Circuit the other day.  I was doing the Hip Flexor Stretches, I heard a pop, and now doing anything with that leg is pretty damn close to agony, even walking up stairs.  I probably just pulled a muscle the wrong way, so I've been taking it easy on that leg during all the exercises and stretching it out every hour or so.

Doing Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs on Wednesday was fun with 1 1/2 legs.  I had to modify several of the exercises as to not injure myself further.  High Knees was terrible...I did them, but they hurt.

Let me tell you about Cardio Abs.  Whoever designed these exercises is a genius.  I HATE sit-ups.  It never feels like I'm doing an actual sit-up because the belly flab gets in the way.  I'm so glad these exercises include ZERO - yep none, nadda, zilch - sit-ups.  But, don't think that they aren't difficult.  They look so easy.

"Oh, sit on the ground in C-shape, keep my arms folded in front of me, and swing from side to side?  Piece of cake!"

Hahaha - that's what they want you think.  That deceptively easy swinging works those dormant core muscles like you wouldn't believe.  For someone like me, who thinks that muscles in the stomach area are a myth because I haven't seen them since my freshman year of high school, it's a huge wake-up call to realize that "Hey! Muscles are there!  You're working them out!  And not doing a sit-up!".

I love Cardio Abs too.  I'm actually thinking about adding it to the end of every normal workout since that area is one of my more flabby sections.  But, I must consult with Coach Brandy first.  I know you go into more ab & core strengthening in Month 2, but I figured if I could get a little jump start on them now, it might not be as terrible.  Especially since doing some of the exercises to their fullest is hard even now since the flab roll gets in the way.  We'll see what she says.  :)