PiYo: Align - The Fundamentals Review

Hello everyone!


Last week, I mentioned how I would try PiYo out, and review each video as I do them.

Here's the first video!


It's called Align: The Fundamentals and basically what it is is an instructional video.  It's 40 minutes of Chalene demonstrating the poses and you do them along with her and the other three people in the video (each demonstrating beginner/modified, intermediate, and advanced)

I agree with all of these statements except the last one, the "strengthening flow that will have your blood pumping".   Maybe it does for some people, but to me there was a lot of stopping, a lot of talking, and I didn't totally feel that I got a "workout".

If you are experienced in yoga,  you will not need this, mostly you learn the different warrior poses, up/down dog, half moon, triangle, and a few moves like the PiYo flip.

I do recommend at least giving this a watch, but I do not agree with them using it as the first real workout.    I also do not recommend it as a replacement or an "easy" day.

Next review will be Define: Lower Body.

I hope everyone had a good week, see you next time with my next review!

Lazy Day...

Hello everyone-


Yesterday was somewhat eventful, at work we had a huge power outage that resulted in my getting to go home early. I took the opportunity yesterday to enjoy being free during the daytime and took a nice leisurely walk for about a half an hour to loosen myself up.


A friend of mine sent me a DVD made by Madonna's former yoga trainer- Bryan Kest's Power Yoga Collection.  It has 3 levels- beginner, intermediate, and advanced.


What is power yoga? In a couple words, ashtanga yoga (the kind of yoga Madonna does).  I have always wanted to try but previous resources seemed very intimidating. I gave the beginner level of Bryan's DVD a quick watch and it seems pretty doable for a beginner like me.  I will review the DVD later when I do it a few more times.  


Today I feel honestly, like a lazy sack of crap. I blame it all on my last week not being on Tracy's diet and not getting enough sleep. I really need to start sleeping earlier. Lately I have been running on 4-5 hours of sleep a night and my face especially is suffering not to mention a general lack of energy from it. 


The solution- Since my holiday weekend started yesterday (after the power outage) I am going to take the time to actually get some sleep and rejuvenate myself because I start my omnab (omni/ab) workouts on Monday and perhaps try some yoga over the weekend.


If I don't post before the holiday, have a happy 4th of July!

Day 31 and 32 Metamorphosis

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the delay in posts!  I have not been slacking off, I promise!

Day 31- 3/21/2011

Did Omni level 4 for the first time, and as usual, it took me some time to get used to, especially the arms and the floor abs (because it's hard for me to look up at the tv and do the moves at the same time)  As usual I eased into the legs with 15 reps. There IS plank work but on the bright side it's not the hell that level 2 brought me! No rugburned elbows!

Skipped DC that night, however in the morning I took a long brisk walk- an hour to be exact. 

Day 32- 3/22/11

Very bloated from you know what, so I took it easy again with the MS.  Still stuck with 15 reps per legs and all of the arms and abs.  Also took another walk in the morning.  Today was a busy, hectic school day, being back from Spring Break and getting used to having to go learn again. 

Those were my past two days, next is the subject of Yoga.  I hear Tracy is not a fan of Yoga ( I think she means things like hot yoga, Bikram, Power Yoga etc), but I am thinking of incorporating regular yoga into my day mainly for flexibility reasons.  As much as I love TA's method and Metamorphosis, to me there's not enough stretch going on. (This is just me, it could be plenty enough for you so please don't jump down my neck!!!) I feel really stiff lately and also read somewhere that doing yoga before bed helps with sleep (which I desperately need!!!!) A friend of mine sent me a few Yoga DVDs but I would be starting with this one in particular:

Kundalini for Beginners and Beyond

I gave it a watch and it looks good, going to try it tonight and see how I like it. I have never done yoga before so this should be interesting!