A couple of months ago, I was at Ross (which is a clothing store like TJ Max) and bought a bundled pack of Crunch tapes. Work out videos are hella cheap at Ross and I usually buy three or four when I am there. During that particular trip I believe I got belly dancing & yoga for my mom and then a Crunch set for myself. The Crunch set had Crunch Salsa and Crunch Cardio Pilates.
And until yesterday I though "Cardio Pilates" was an oxymoron.
You see, yesterday was the day that the me from the past promised the me in the future that I would start working out again. Because the me in April wants to not look like a whale on the beach.
In ten weeks and two days, this chic and her girls will be pairing up with The Cake Lady and her family and Snakeman and the whole lot of us will vamanos down to the beach for an extended weekend of sun and fun :)
And since there are only ten plus weeks left until that event, this chic needed to get her ass in gear and start working out again.
Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 4:45a and I looked at The Death Machine and I swear it stood up, stretched out and cracked it's knuckles menacingly. I believe I whimpered and rolled over to go back to sleep. But I couldn't because I promised myself I would get up and work out and by golly I keep my promises.
So I lay there for a few minutes contemplating my options.
There was The Death Machine.
Or, I could put on my gloves and beat the crap out of my heavy weight bag... but I'm not sportin' the anger necessary for that at 4:45 in the morning.
Then, I thought about the tapes... While I didn't feel like cardio salsa-ing around my bedroom, I knew that whatever the other tape I had gotten was, I remembered it being mild.
I drug myself out of the bed and went to investigate my exercise tape shelf.
Rachel Hunter's kick boxing made me laugh. That tape would kill me for sure... 12 minute abs? pah- useless tape. Tae-bo? nah... cardio salsa? I'd surely break something... same for belly dancing.... All The Firm tapes? Yeah, those would kick. my. ass... then, at the very end, still in shrink wrap, Cardio Pilates.
Why not?
So, I popped it into the player while stifling a yawn.
Most Crunch tapes start off slow and the first thirty minutes are the wussy half and then the second half is the kick-your-ass half.
I was expecting that.
And let's be honest, I was basically trying to wuss out. I was doing the first half of a pilates tape.
Or so I thought.
It was actually a good work out.
I did it for thirty minutes and skipped the mat stretching at the end and was sweaty and happy when it was done.
It wasn't too hard (like Rachel Hunter would have been) and it wasn't too easy (like Yoga would have been - Please don't send me yoga hate mail, I'm sure it is a very fulfilling work out when you do it).
I was looking forward to doing it again this morning. See my plan was to do pilates for the rest of the week and then move onto harder stuff. Because you can bet your ass, I am working out just about every week day between now and the beach.
Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning and my legs screamed at me.
Screamed I tell you.
I was very surprised. Mostly because I have strong legs and typically can go months with out working out and then do medium resistance on the elliptical for half an hour without feeling a thing the next day.
Apparently pilates uses different muscles than the elliptical.
Muscles I don't use normally... maybe ever.
I ignored the screaming and got up and put my tape on and did the whole hard core part and the first fifteen minutes of the stretching, hold still, rotate your leg in a circle with only your lower back touching the floor, c'mon fatty - you can do this part before giving up.
And holy crap, pilates is cool.
I am soooo sore.
I have to sit down carefully because the muscles in my legs are killing me.
It rocks :)
Labels: Being a Chic, exercise
