Aerobox

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry to disappoint anyone ( especially) but I absolutely HATED this workout. I don't think I've ever had as strong a negative reaction to a workout as I did this one. It is not a bad workout at all and Kathy , though a bit silly at times, is not annoying. The music is good and the photograpy (switching from color to black and white a lot) is very interesting without being at all distracting. Olijade (hope I spelled that right) does a great job leading it too. It was just VERY, VERY bad for ME. The footwork on a lot of it was very confusing for me even though it looks simple when you're watching it (maybe the carpeting made it harder?) so that was super frustrating but the worst was the jump rope intervals. I did not use a rope (and can't imagine keeping up with it at all if I'd tried) but it was still horribly hard on my body.

I loved it as a kid but learned today I cannot do it for an extended time as an adult (extended as in the several minutes you're doing it each time in this workout). I figured out, and have seen this before with long intervals of jumping jacks too, I can do high impact aerobics for extended periods as long as I'm jumping on one foot at a time most of the time but when I do two footed jumps/landings over and over like jumping jacks or jumping rope, I feel like my insides are all going to come out through my pelvis. It hurts in a not good way but not in an injured way either so for a long time I wasn't sure what to do, stop jumping or not. I finally did in the 3rd jump rope interval. It was just too uncomfortable to keep going. I finished out the workout but did part of the last interval with a lift to my feet but not a real jump, if that makes sense. I was never in pain, just tremendously uncomfortable and the feeling of pressure in my pelvic region continued for at least an hour or two after I finished too but seems okay now so I'm sure no damage was done. I had pain starting in one knee too and my back, both of which I attribute to sloppy form probably. The jump rope work is extremely tiring too and I know my form got worse as I went on. (I noticed Kathy and her buddies left only the boxers to do the 3rd jump rope interval, after she said in a voice over that it was the hardest on, I did it as best I could, why didn't she?!) As I said, I've noticed this too with jumping jacks. I can only do so many before it just becomes way too uncomfortable to continue but thankfully most workouts don't keep going with jumping jacks for so long that I have to modifiy. Some FIRM workouts and sometimes Jillian comes close but not so bad.

There were so many times in this workout I was yelling at the TV, nearly in tears I was so frustrated and so uncomfortable. Had my husband heard me he would have made me stop but I knew I wasn't injured so I wanted to finish it, partly to see if I would get any more comfortable with it. I never did. I was exhausted and miserable at the end so I know this was a very bad match with my body. It is an incredible workout for anyone that can handle that much 2-footed jumping though so I definitely don't want to say it is a bad workout. It was not a pleasant experience for me but it was in important learning experience too. I know how far I can push it before it is too much (I pushed too far today), I know I don't want to get any jump rope workout videos (save some money), nor do I want to buy a weighted or other jump rope (save more money). I also found out that I love kickboxing but I really dislike just straight boxing. The footwork was confusing, the punches were very fast (I know Kathy says slow it down if you need to but I don't want to have to) and it was kind of boring. I missed the kicking too. So, not a great experience but still a worthwhile one.