My general philosophy is if I'm going to take the time to work out, I want it to be worth my time. So I try to work hard even if I am only able to spend 20 minutes exercising. Now I am good at doing cardio but I have a terrible time motivating myself to do any kind of weight training which is a huge part of keeping your body looking the way you want it to. I love classes because I am good at following directions and the gym I belong to used to have some really great resistance training classes that had me in the best shape of my life. But sadly these classes were canceled (doesn't that always happen). So I was kind of in a slump for a while trying to figure out how to get my strength training in, in a short but effective way. Enter, the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.
(source)Jillian Michaels is that crazy trainer from "The Biggest Loser" that always makes people cry but is definitely hard core! I had seen a couple of good reviews of this DVD and for $7.50 on Amazon I thought I would I give it a try. Each workout is only 20 minutes long and includes three 6 minute circuits consisting of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. Since it was Jillian Michaels I knew that it would be a pretty intense workout so it really fit all of my qualifications for a good workout. As an added bonus I could do this at home and not have to go outside in the freezing cold to get to the gym. Yeah!!
There are 3 different workouts that increase in difficulty. The premise is that you are supposed to do this workout for 30 days and you will be "shredded" by the end, hence the 30 day shred as the title. It also claims you can lost 20lbs in 30 days though you are supposed to be following a diet which I was not exactly doing. I was more interested in the "shredding" than with the actual number on the scale. So I set out to do this after the New Year for 30 days. I started at level 2 because I convinced myself that level 1 was too easy. Dumb idea! Start at level 1 and move up if it's too easy for you. Anyway, I did 15 days at level 2 and 16 days at level 3 and I was very happy with the workout and my progress. While I don't think I really lost a whole lot of weight, I wasn't really sticking too hard to the diet (shame on me!) but I definitely noticed a difference in my strength and the overall firmness of my body. Who doesn't want that??
I found Jillian to be a very good trainer, not perky and annoying like alot of video instructors, but motivational and good at explaining the movements and why you were doing them. I'm not gonna lie, it's not an easy workout even though it is only 20 minutes long and it was not easy to do the video for 31 days (yes I did it for 31 days, I'm an over acheiver). You think it's easy for the first few days but then you get to the point where you just want a day off. It was definitely tough to make it to the end but so worth it!
The actual workout includes some real basic stuff like jumping jacks, butt kicks, lots of squats and even old school sit-ups. But there is also some cool and different stuff in there like walk-out pushups, supermans and mountain climbers (all of which are evil but very effective). One thing I didn't love is that there is alot of plank work (aka essentially in a push up position) that can be hard on the hands and makes it sometimes difficult to watch what the are doing on the video. But by the end I could actually hold a plank position, do a real push-up (not the girly kind) and I just felt in general more fit and toned. It's a great workout and the best part is that it takes only 20 minutes. Most people can find 20 minutes in their day to squeeze this in. I also really liked that you only do each activity for about 30 seconds. So if you hate it, you only have to do it for a short time and you can move on to something new. On days when I had more time I paired the video with 20-30 minutes of low impact cardio like the elliptical, tread climber or my handy Gazelle. By the time I finished I was officially addicted to Jillian Michaels workouts, hence the reason I heart her, but at the same time during the workout I hate her! Right around the time I was done with the 30 day shred, she came out with two new workout DVDs that I like just as much if not more. I am planning to review these videos next time and tell you about a move called "the surrender" that I promise will make you want to raise you white flag and indeed surrender.
