Hardest workout ever...

Another post about exercise. I'm not sure why exercise is so much on my mind lately. Possible reasons...

1. Silly article about how exercise makes you fat. Already wrote long post about this but figuring out the most efficient way to exercise to improve fitness without ending up starving is kind of tricky.
2. I have achieved a bit of muscle definition and it's kind of fun to have it so I want to make sure I maintain it.
3. Indya asked me a question about it the other day.
4. Morning schedule changed so I have to rethink my exercise routine in general.

Well anyway, personal psychology aside here is my story. So today it was pouring and instead of leaving for work I was cruising exercisetv on demand and found that my favorite trainer, Marco Reed, has a new workout. Did an alien inhabit my body and type that sentence? I can't believe I just wrote anything about a favorite tv trainer. He is pretty dreamy though, with his slightly slow-voiced California "I like what I'm seeing" gentle encouragements. And I really do like the combinations in routines. Lots of twisting and variety. This new one was listed as 40 min and I figured with warm up and cool down it would be perfect - 34 min or so. I saw that it said "hard core" or something but I figured that I'm in good shape now and that it would be fine.

Well, I did not know what I was in for. I was ready to keel over after about 2 min. This workout makes Jackie and Jillian seem easy! There is NO warm-up. You just go right into various squat-dumbell presses or impossible plank-push-up torture moves or burpee-style jumping combinations. I literally had to go upstairs half way through and have a few bites of yogurt just to keep going. I am sure this workout is fantastic for burning calories and building muscle. He kept saying that it was the most efficient way to spend 40 min and that it was a super advanced workout etc. and that even 10 minutes of this would be great. He was calling it an anaerobic workout, which means it's muscle building not cardio. I don't even know if Dave could do this. I challenge any of you to do it with your husbands and see how they do. I immediately did all push-up exercises on my knees. I did try to use my 8 lbs most of the time, but did some 5 lbs too. But it was kind of fun because there were so many different exercises. By the way - no cool down either. No stretching, no relaxing, no 'you did it' chit chat. Marco and his studly back-up trainers finish the last sideways-lunge-side-arm-pull, Marco gives us a "good job" and goes back to hang out with all the hotties in his LA gym, leaving me to heave my weak-kneed body up two flights of stairs, contemplating working up to doing that workout properly, and feeling a little alarmed at how far I was from doing so.

Despite feeling very loser-like and incapable, I did do most of it (military-style push-ups aside) it was fun to feel like I had pushed it to the limit and was ready to sit on my arse at my desk at work all day. So here I sit.

You can find in on exercise tv on demand (Comcast) under "hard core" and it's called "Rock Hard Total Body" OR you can purchase for computer here for $7....once you download it you can burn it to DVD for playing on a tv, or you can play it on the computer.

Good Luck!