Sore Muscles, Sore Eyes ... but Beautiful Vision

Everything is sore from sore muscles to sore eye. lol! I do love sore muscles as I know I did some crazay effective workouts. Like yesterday's amazing Xtrain Cardio Leg Blast by Cathe which made my quads and hamstrings sore and the day before Travis' Ultimate Yogi Flexibility which darn well did in my butt, hamstrings and shoulders. So, I've got DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) setting in nicely now. Yowza! With that a rest day was in order today. And to top it all off my left eye began feeling achy when doing some minor grocery shopping in my neighbourhood. Today was the first day I went out with my eyes fully undressed from the protective sunglasses the doc gave me. And my eyes felt the wonky vision full on in broad beautiful daylight. My eyes are so miss matched blurry that the walking around trying to focus through the brilliant haze proved a little too much too soon. Thank goodness I wasn't out too long and still managed to enjoy the fall sunlight. I even took this beautiful vision of a picture above on the way home which made me almost and I say almost love fall! lol! But I digress ...

Xtrain Cardio Leg Blast by Cathe

 

 

I did Cathe's amazing Cardio Leg Bast for the first time yesterday. I had this disc for a while but had to shelve it until my knees grew stronger. So, now I'm enjoying some good ol jumping cardio. It reminds me of my ballet days doing all the beautiful jumping floor work. I felt so light, lithe and strong back then and it makes me feel the same now, so exhilerating being finally able to do it again.

This is a great cardio and moderately heavy weight leg circuit workout with 12 rounds of about one minute plyometric cardio blast (HIT) with one moderate weighted leg work for about a maximum 16 reps which you repeat 12 times. The first 6 rounds are done off the step and the next 6 rounds are done on. No exercises are repeated so it's really fun. At first I used slightly lighter weights than Cathe and crew wanting to play it safe with my knees but then realized if I wanted to feel any burn with just 16 reps I needed to match or go heavier with the weights. So when I hit the round where we did plie squats — my legs are strong for this — I went with my 50lb barbell than their lighter pound dumbbells. I also added some extra pulse squats to the squat section to feel more burn and instead of doing their side lunges after that set — my knees do NOT like side lunge motions — I did pop squats interspersed with jump ropes. I found this more effective for my quads following quad style plyos with weighted quad work. It employs the quad muscles in a way that forces the quads to get strong very fast. Also, I noticed that, especially with the jumps on the step, I bend my knees more than the crew does. I think my ballet training has alot to do with this. This technique creates a softer, quieter, more controlled landing and also takes the impact into the quad and calf muscles more than the knees. Thus protecting the joints while building powerful, more explosive lean legs. I did have to take some extra breathes here and there but all in all I was able to keep up nicely and ALMOST completed the workout. I got to round 11 and quit. Naughty girl! I didn't realize there was only one more to go!

The music was great and keeps you going when it gets hard and was one of the reasons I was able to even get to round 11 and also I love step work. Cathe's a pro at using amazingly hip music and crescendoing it at just the right moments to keep you fired up and getting that extra wind to take you to the next level. Really amazing! (Can you tell music is very important to me for workouts. It actually will make or break what would be a very good workout for me. Cathe is a genius for this most of the time. The one time she derailed was when she did her amazing STS heavy weight periodization program where for me the music did NOT work.)

I forgot to do the bonus Burn Set Bi's at the end. But was probably wise that I forgot. As I'm feeling the sore today and don't need anymore added to it. That's another wonderful thing about Cathe is she's so generous (Amy Bento does the same too) she always adds premixes to all her dvds and sometimes adds bonus workouts from her other dvds in the set. Which she really went all out on with her Xtrain set. Kudos Cathe!

... so practice, get nice and sore, and all is coming.