This was the 2nd time doing the Tummy Safe Gentle Blend. I think I actually found it more challenging the second time around, or maybe that was just because my son decided to sit on me in almost every possible posture of the workout.
This workout may move at a gentle pace, but I wouldn’t call it easy. Doing all the various positions and stretches while will keeping your abdominals engaged and pulled in is still quite a struggle for me. I can do it, but it requires continued concentration.
Kelly Dean Total Body Toning / Full Body Workout
This was very difficult for me. It is definitely a good workout. While Kelly Dean is a fine instructor, I’ll be honest and say that I don’t like her style quite as well as Bethany Learn. That being said, the workout just killed me, though mostly in a good way. This will get both your upper and lower body while also activating your core throughout the workout. At times I felt that there were too many repetitions of some of the movements. I’d rather do two or three different kinds of movements that work the same set of muscles than the same couple of movements tons of times. I just get easily bored and it’s also easier to give up when it gets hard if you don’t have a change of muscle group or position. But in a pinch, for a 25 minute workout, it pretty much covers almost all the major areas you are looking to hit. I also enjoyed that it was done entirely standing. I like floor workouts, but they usually result in my son sitting or bouncing on me, so it’s nice to avoid that added challenge sometimes.
I also noticed that during the arm portion I got pain in my right middle back, just under my shoulder blade. This is a familiar pain for me that first started when I was pregnant with my daughter and still flares up from time to time. It got particularly bad during my 5K training. I still don’t know exactly what causes it, and I’ve tried a few stretches to alleviate it, but it always shows up eventually. It’s possible it’s some muscle tension or weakness. But it definitely made the arm movements in this workout more challenging.
I switched things up a little mid-week due to some technical difficulties. I decided to try out one of the cardio workouts available on the Fit2B Studio Roku channel. I ended up doing Kickboxing and Basic Aerobics. Basic aerobics is exactly what it sounds like, simple. It is a little dull, especially if you’ve done it before. But it is also a good short workout if you are short on time, or if you want a nice warm up before something more intense. I’ve done it many times before, and I actually liked it a bit better this time.
As far as the kickboxing goes, it was a very basic workout. I actually liked it for that. Don’t be mistaken, you will still get a good cardio workout, but you won’t learn all the kickboxing moves and it might be boring if you are a serious kick boxer. But it was just right for me. I appreciated the continued core reminders. I’ve always struggled with studio dance or group fitness classes, sometimes even other DVD or streaming workouts because I was concerned that the movements would aggravate my diastasis. I liked that she kept us core aware and tummy safe the whole time.
I like this workout. I even tried a variation this time of keeping the volume a little lower while playing my own music in the background. At times it was a worshipful experience. But my biggest recommendation is that if you can do this workout without kids around, you really should. 40 minutes is a long time to expect your children to happily play along. I had to pause the video three times to break up fights and dispense punishments. During the closing meditation I had both kids trying to sit on my lap, let me tell you, it was anything but peaceful. This is actually a quite intense workout, in part because it is so slow. One of the tenants of movement I learned during my years of ballet is that slow sustained movement is actually harder than fast movement. Slow movements require constant micro-adjustments within the body to make them work and they really test your endurance. This work out is physically challenging without being a sweaty, high impact experience. (That being said, I’m pretty sure it still had me sweating a little). 40 minutes is a challenging length and while I used to love exercising for an hour, that only works when I am sans children.
This was my last workout and it was a little anti-climatic. It is a nice long stretching workout, but to be honest, I’m someone who prefers to stretch at the end of a workout, rather as an end unto itself. However, it would be great if you are recovering from illness, injury or generally just exhausted. It is low impact and slow moving. It was very hard to do with my two children around and I was tackled and kicked several times during the workout. Sometimes I think faster moving workouts are easy to keep out of their reach! So I was a day short of cardio this week, but I did at least finish. Next week I’ll be moving on to Fit2B Advancing. I know the workouts are going to be longer and harder, but I want to keep working towards being in the best possible shape. Hopefully when the weather warms a little and the ice melts from the sidewalks I will return to walking or running as a cardio exercise.
I hope you’ve enjoyed following my journey through Fit2B Beginning and maybe you even followed along. See you next week for Fit2B Advancing.
Starting Slow: Fit2B Beginning Week 1
Building a Habit: Fit2B Beginning Week 2
I’m Finally Enjoying Myself: Fit2B Beginning Week 3
Diastatis Awareness and the Tummy Safe Path
Kicking It Up A Notch: Fit2B Beginning Week 4
Don’t forget you can use the coupon code laundryblog to save 30% off a Fit2B Studio yearly membership. That’s less than $7 a month.
