Wed - Ruah Warrior/rotation possibilities for April

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I did Ruah Warrior this morning - and it is another winner for me! Like the "Release" workout, this one has a standing section, a floor seciton, a stretch/relax session. This one differs from Release in the sense that there is less of a Barre/Pilates influence - this one is more yoga based but uses the same type of formula - you hold yoga poses, pulse into them. It is sort of a fusion of strength training and yoga. At least for the standing part. My HR got slightly elevated and I broke a light sweat during this section (which was about 30 minutes).

The floor work contained planks/variations on planks, push-ups, spider push-ups, etc. In addition there were a couple of Pilates matwork exercises like the can-can. I really like this method of training the core as more and more studies show that crunches are actually bad for you in terms of stress on the back and in terms of not building a well-rounded core that includes back and butt as well as abs. This one may be hard on someone who has wrist issues.

The final section was yoga-based stretching and a relaxation section - which is just music playing while you either sit in relaxation pose or go into corpse pose.

Again, Suzanne Bowen and Leah Sarago taught this one, via voiceover. Suzanne was pregnant in this one and showed modifications to the exercises for beginners or special situations. And, again, happily, I was able to do anything with no back issues!

It is funny, from this week's workouts I'm feeling just great. No complaints in my back, and i'm a little sore in different places. so I must be hitting something different with these.

Which brings me to my next topic, which only my friends at exercise videos could understand, the dilemma of a new rotation and what to do!

I have a couple of thoughts kicking around. As much as I want to do the Bikini Bootcamp rotation, I think doing that much FIRMing back to back for weeks on end is just going to aggravate my back. And, it won't allow me to get my beloved variety of workouts in. So, I'm thinking that if I do the Bikini rotation, my plan will be to do it as an "extended' rotation. The rotation is set up so you ahve 4 days on/1 day off/3 days on/1 day off - so, my plan would be:

Week 1 - do 4 FIRM days/3 days of something else (one day is stretchin, exclusively)

Week 2 - do 3 FIRM days/4 days of something else (one day is stretching, exclusively)

Week 3 - 4 FIRMS/3 Days something else

Week 4 - 3 FIRMS/4 days of something else, etc.

It will mean that the rotation will take me twice as long, but I think this will work better for me. I imagine on the 4 day weeks I will do 2 days of FIRM/Break/2 Days of FIRM/Break.

I'm also not sure if I will follow the plan in terms of the exact workouts or if I will make substitutions based on category. On the one hand, the rotation as written includes some really good workouts that i haven't done in a long time, On the other hand, I'd like to knock out some virgin worokuts - I have a ton of 'Pink" firms in my virgin pile. I may just mix it up and do a "pink" firm if I don't like or don't feel like the choice for the day.

Other ideas I have kicking around is a generic rotation like this:

2 Days of Strength (Either Straight up or Circuit Style)

2 Days of Short (30 Min) Barre/Fusion type workouts w/ 30 min of cardio

1 day of Long Cardio

1 "wildcard" day

1 day of stretching (plus stretching added on to other workouts during the week)

And, another idea I had was blending Ellen Barrett w/ Barre-ish workouts, like this:

Day 1 – 30 Min Barre/Cardio & Stretch

Day 2 – Ellen Cardio Workout & Matwork

Day 3 – 30 Min Barre/Cardio & Stretch

Day 4 – Light Cardio/Ellen Yoga Workout or Ruah

Day 5 – 30 Min Barre/Cardio & Stretch

Day 6 – Ellen Strength/stretch/core

Day 7 – Stretch

Anyway, that's my rambling for now. Hope everyone has a good day!Donna