The Rocky Effect

Recently my fella convinced me to start watching the Rocky movies.  He's a big fan.  Admittedly, I had never seen them.  Forgive me for saying it, but the first one was quite awkward and not exactly eye-catching to me until the fight.  The second was a little better, but the real intensity came when he started working out.  The music and that montage got my blood pumping. It inspired me to really want to get going.  I even got off of the couch and tried to do a one-handed pushup.  I can do about half of one.  haha.

 I'll admit I've been doing piddling, time-killing workouts while I wait for my 21 Day Fix and Shakeology, but why not start now?  If I'm being brutally honest, you know what really made me want to get serious (and soon)?  It wasn't the music or the whole community running behind him or the one-armed pushups.  It was the scene before the fight in the first movie when they call out Rocky's weight.  190 pounds.  He's got like a foot of height on me.  I died a little inside.  Yeah, I weigh more than the Italian Stallion.  That's...upsetting, to say the least.  

Lucky for me, I got an unexpected present today.  When you order Shakeology/sign up with Beach Body, you get these babies for freesies:

Um, yeah.

So this morning, setting aside the sinus infection from Hades (or so I think it is), I slumped out of bed, gave myself a good hearty slap on the belly, and popped in the 30 minute one.  I know how intense Beach Body workouts are from doing P90X workouts back in the day.  I wasn't about to jump into the 50 minute session while sick.  I'm ready to be fit, but hey, I'm not suicidal.  True story.

First impression:  The dvd is a full body workout that also includes cardio moves.  At the beginning, I was thinking This is super easy.  As it progressed, I changed my mind.  The cardio aspect wasn't extremely intense but certain moves were--like the series of different lunges.  And everything that involved moving and me coughing and getting red-faced.  The obligatory cutesy fitness picture below is like 20 minutes later and as you can see, my face still has a bit of a tomatoey tinge.  Oh hey--Valentine's color.  Look at me, I'm festive.

Hey, at least I cropped out most of the cleave and I'm not tanorexic/wearing my hair down like it was effortless.

If you're a beginner, this is definitely a good workout for you.  One person onscreen demonstrates lower impact variations of several of the moves to help if you have joint problems or just aren't at the level to complete all of the exercises yet.  For me, I have some wrist pain and weakness.  I can only do so many pushups before I have to switch to "girl" stance to do them (knees on the floor, lower legs crossed).  It actually gives you a better workout when you can maintain safe form, so I don't feel too guilty about it.

Feeling pretty nasty, but I know the workouts will be better when I've got better nutrition and don't have to put Vicks vapor rub under my nostrils to breathe.