The Daily Balance

Hello everyone! My name is Lindsey, or LC, and you can usually find me over at Life According to Mrs. LC. I love Shannon and her wonderful blog, so I was excited to jump at the chance to do a guest post for her. Since it’s Wednesday, I’m sure you can guess I’m here for Work it Wednesday!!

Last week I blogged about a few online workouts I found at self.com. I decided to review them for y’all and let you know just what’s up with these workouts.

The Backside Slimmer

The video accompanying this little article is less than five minutes (hooray for those short on time!) but there’s no sound, which was a major downer for me. All you will need for this video are some hand weights and a stability ball. I personally did not find this video challenging at all, but I do most of these exercises on my own anyway. Also to note – the written instructions say to perform two sets of each move. Each move is only done 4-5 times, so I would personally probably do three sets of 12-15 reps, but this is also dependent on the size weights you’re using. A few of the exercises include:
• Squat with calf raise
• Squat with good morning
• One-arm angled front raise
• Ball butt blast
• Supergirl

The great one-month slim down

First of all, I like how you learn a little more about Jillian in the article (i.e. if you didn’t know already, Jillian is by no means genetically blessed with flat abs and had to lose 60 pounds before she got where she is today!). The video is about 8 minutes long and the Jillian that most of us know and love (well love-hate) guides Meaghan Murphy, the Self fitness director, through the exercises. I really loved the exercises and how Jillian occasionally pauses to talk about the benefits of the different exercises you’re doing. The article recommends 12-15 reps of each exercise every other day. I think all you need is a bench (or a sturdy chair), hand weights and a stability ball. The exercises included:

• Hot stepper
• Reverse squat
• Plank-up
• Prime Climb
• On Your Mark
• Take a Bow
• Power Pike
• Flye Crunch

Favorite Jillian quote: “You’re gonna get out of life what you put into it!” SO TRUE with working out, eating healthy, loving, working, playing and living!

Effortless Abs!

Now, before I get to my biggest “flaw” with this movie let me just say that it’s less than five minutes, it is shot in beautiful St. Lucia, and Meaghan says that if you can’t stand crunches, then you’ll love this! This video utilizes a lot of balance work in your core – one of the most challenging (and rewarding) things I love to do! For each move you’ll do two sets of 12 reps.

So what’s the flaw? The fact that every move utilizes balance pods. If you click on the link you’ll see what exactly these balance pods are that I speak of (this was my first time seeing them, but I could also have been living under a rock or something). The reason this is a flaw for me is that I don’t have them! However, they look like you can use them in a variety of ways to enhance your work out and they look like a lot of fun! I may invest in these pods one day soon.

Dance Yourself Slim

I think if anyone has been reading my blog for a little while, they will soon realize that I am mildly obsessed with dance shows like Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. One thing I really want for my own Mister and I to do one day is take dance classes! So you bet your bottom dollar I got more than a little excited when I saw this workout available!

Dancing With the Stars Edyta Sliwinska demonstrates a variety of dance moves from different dance genres and describes how they will be working your body, and how going slower or faster will change the focus of that move’s “work out”. My only complaint is that there is a lot of down time in this video, so you can’t expect do it and maintain a high heart rate. It’s a great resource to learn some new moves to incorporate into your dance parties or whatever! I can totally see myself busting out some of these moves during commercial breaks the next time I watch So You Think You Can Dance.

I hope you all enjoyed my reviews, and I hope you take the chance to check out these videos for yourself! If you find yourself in need of some perfect post-work out fuel, head over to my blog to check out the recipe for this great protein-packed smoothie!

Protein-packed Smoothie

Thanks again Shannon for this great opportunity! I had fun! To all you in Daily Balance land, I hope to see you all around my neck of the web later! Have a fantastic day, and leave some lovin’ for Shannon to read when she gets back!
Lindsey (aka Mrs. LC)

Tags: guest post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.