Whatever other challenges this week has thrown up to far, at least I’ve broadly known what to expect from the workouts, as each of them is similar to their equivalent in A Little Obsessed, albeit longer and with some different moves. But today brought Cardio Flow, which doesn’t have an ALO equivalent, so I had no idea what to expect. “Cardio” made me nervous, while “flow” made me think it might be relatively gentle and perhaps incorporate elements from yoga.
It turned out that it was a really unique and really challenging workout. There were ten moves, most of which were named after an animal, which added a strangely cute touch. Some were serious cardio/plyo moves, others were gentler. But the real impact of this workout came from the way it built.
You do the first move – inchworm – four times. then you do it four more times, but this time, add the second move – spider push-ups – on the end, and do that four times. Then four more inchworms, four more spider push-ups, and this time, four reps of move three. This goes on until all ten moves have been brought into the sequence. It’s a bit like singing the Twelve Days of Christmas, only with more sweat. Once you’ve completed the full sequence, you repeat the ten move version twice. By this time, you’ve repeated the first few moves an inordinate amount of times and if you’re anything like me, are exhausted.
As I touched on below, the moves varied in difficulty and intensity. Some, such as crab, where you do a tricep dip then kick onto leg in the air and touch it with the opposite hand really challenge balance and strength. Others, like mule to frog, where you kick your legs right up in the air then land and jump, are pretty high-impact and really set your heart pounding. Others, like the inchworms that start the whole thing off, are relatively gentle at first, but build in intensity.
Where the other workouts are at least 40 minutes long and most are closer to an hour, this is 30 minutes, which is more the sort of length I’m used to. After a week of acclimatising myself to longer sessions, it felt good to get it over and done with so quickly. But it was also a timely reminder that shorter does not equal easier. The longer workouts haven’t had many breaks or recovery exercises, but they’ve had some. This was pretty relentless, with little to no time to catch your breath.
Overall, this was a good, challenging cardio blast.
- inchworms
- spider push up
- flamingo (this is the same as the “good morning” from leg day, despite the cute animal name)
- diamond squat jumps (not sure why these didn’t get an animal name!)
- duck walk (another reappearance from earlier in the week)
- gorilla
- bear
- kick throughs (in plank, kick one leg to the opposite side and twist to meet it – again, no animal name for this one, oddly)
- crabs
- mule to frog
So that’s the workout. With today being Saturday, I was worried about sticking to the nutrition plan, partly because I work to quite a different schedule on the weekends, partly because weekends mean treats.
Somehow though (other than the wine that I’ve explicitly allowed myself at the weekend) I stuck to it. I decided to work out first thing (well, if you can call 10am first thing – I do like a bit of a lie in) so I started with shakeology, battled through cardio flow, then made an amazing scrambled eggs, spinach, and black beans combo. I had a driving lesson in the afternoon, and was very good about taking a little blue box of pecans along to keep me going. And in the evening, I went out for dinner with my husband, and with a steak salad and a bit of rice, managed to more or less stick to my one red, one green, one yellow, one spoon evening meal plan. If I’m 100% honest, there was probably a little more meat than would strictly fit inside a red box, but I’m not yet quite obsessed enough to take a box to a restaurant with me to check, and it definitely wasn’t excessive. I’m annoyed I didn’t take a photo, because it looked amazing. Unlike last night, having had my wine ration, I really wanted more – or perhaps one of the restaurants delicious looking cocktails – but I resisted.
So a good day all round, with a nice balance of sticking to the programme and maintaining my lifestyle. My legs were very sore by the end of the day though (yesterday’s leg day plus today’s jumpy cardio is a killer combination) so looking forward to tomorrow’s rest and recovery day.
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If you don’t currently have access to BOD, you can get a year’s subscription, a month’s supply of Shakeology, and all the accessories you need for 80 Day Obsession for just £180 here
If you’re already a Beachbody on Demand customer, you can get everything you need for 80 Day Obsession (workout calendar, resistance bands, strength sliders, portion fix containers) with Shakeology here, with performance supplements here, or with both here.
There are a variety of different combinations of BOD access, 80 Day Obsession accessories, Shakeology and performance supplements available. Do drop me a line if you’re not sure which is right for you or if you’d like more information about this programme or anything else.
Munday Morning Fitness 