The 60 Day PiYo Challenge – check in

Okay so yesterday was day 20 of the challenge. I started on the first of March… which means that my plan on doing 60 days straight uninterrupted has not worked out. Between watching Luca and not feeling well (my iron levels are really terrible right now), I managed to only skip three days!

Now, I’ve been meaning to do a check in blog, but I have been so busy doing PiYo every night (amongst other things in between), so I decided to just hold off and do a check in for when I am about 1/3 of the way into the challenge (I say 1/3 because  I am also still doing PiYo with Move and Groove Fitness once or twice a week so my 60 day challenge is actually a 60+ day challenge).

General Review:

All in all, I would say that the workouts provided in this DVD set are great. The first two that you do are really basic, so I found these quite boring and not very challenging, but I understand that there are people who may not have done yoga or pilates prior to starting this challenge that could greatly benefit from these basic workouts.  I will do a quick review of the different workouts I have done so far so I can share my likes and dislikes:

Alignment: The Fundamentals - 40 mins

This is a good overview of the different poses PiYo uses. It helps you improve your alignment as you hold each pose so that you are decreasing the risk of/avoiding injury. It also shows you how to modify poses (keep your eyes on Michelle for modifications!)

Define: Lower Body - 25 mins and Define Upper Body - 20 mins

After first doing Lower Body by itself, I decided to combine both workouts together to make it more challenging for myself. These are both pretty basic and I just didn’t feel like I would be pushing myself if just doing each workout separately. To be fair, because I combined these two workouts together, I got bored of them REALLY quickly. 

Something I didn’t like in Lower Body: It REALLY bothered me how during the “warrior series” we did the right leg twice but the left leg only once. I mean seriously! You would think that BeachBody would have caught this mistake and re-done this take? Who wants to be lopsided strength wise?!?!

Sweat - 35 mins

I love this workout!! It really does get you sweaty but you feel really awesome after. You get a great lower and upper body AND core workout! Of all of the workouts I have done in this challenge so far, this one is my favourite! After not being able to do tricep extensions/crouching tricep push ups for the longest time, I can finally do them!! Success!!!

Core - 30 mins

Great core workout – not my favorite but mainly because my core is not in the best shape it can be. I look forward to getting better at this!

Buns - 25 mins

I’ve only done this once and am honestly blanking at what we even did – I’m sure it was a great workout tho ;)  I mean, I think we can all use a derriere workout to keep our backsides perky!

Overall, I am enjoying the 60 day challenge. And now that I no longer have to do the Lower/Upper body workouts, I am excited for the new (and hopefully more challenging) workouts to come! 

My PiYo story:

When I first started PiYo last summer, it was the first time I worked out in YEARS. I did it once a week (Saturday mornings) and I would seriously hurt for two to three days post workout. Many people who are just starting this challenge probably feel this pain.. and I just want to say that I have been there and I understand!!! My instructor only offered PiYo once a week on Saturdays for about a month or so, and then she started to offer classes on Monday nights as well (due to studio availability, it had to be Monday nights). So I would go to PiYo on Saturday and be in so much pain and then attend on Monday while still sore... I pushed through this and after a month or so, I found that I could REALLY push myself in class and only be a little bit sore (lingering pain for less than a day). After a couple of months, I could push myself and not be sore at all. I know every body is different, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel - don't give up!! You can do this!! :)

Now that I am doing PiYo everyday, I am definitely a lot more fatigued than I normally would be (on Saturday I had to take a nap!), and my body definitely gets sore/tired. However, I have gotten to the point where I no longer hurt for long periods of time (eg: more than one day). I feel stronger, my clothes fit better... and people have commented that I look skinnier (huge ego boost which pushes me to keep going strong with this challenge!). So.. in short, keep on keeping on!! You too will see results :)