Looking at this list of exercises and knowing I had to do them all (besides the 100 jumping jacks) was a little daunting at first. When I resolved to try it and give it my best effort, I turned on a work out playlist, drank a bottle of water, and pulled my hair up into a ponytail.
Running in place and toe touches were a good warm up and helped ease me into the craziness. I was going along rather well until I got to the 45 second plank. Here is where I first stumbled. Who knew how long 45 seconds was! I had to stop every 5 seconds it seemed. I kept trying to think about different inspirations, reasons why I was working out, and even other pins like:
Then I would collapse, and try again...
And I would squeeze and gasp...
And I would collapse again
and again
And finally my phone alerted me that it had not actually been 15 minutes but only 45 seconds. I knew I would have to do it again on the way back down the pyramid and the pin that ended up sticking with me was this one:
I continued on after the plank relatively well until I got to the tricep extension. I was not sure exactly what it was, so I did what I thought it was and figured I would look it up later. Now, after having looked it up, I am happy to say that I did the right exercise!
Right after the tricep extension, I saw that I needed to do sit ups, but I ended up doing crunches thinking it would be fine until I got further on and realized there was a separate line specifically for crunches. The second time around, I did do sit ups and was flabbergasted at how hard it was to do! The last time I did sit ups, I had another elementary school kid holding down my feet. I remember once using the edge of a couch to hold down my feet and that is so what I did not do this time. I will have to look into suggestions for how to keep form for a sit up. I had heard it can be straining on your kneck to do sit ups so I might do crunches then instead of sit ups.
On I went, going through each exertion until I hit the next doozy: chest flyes. Initially, I misread the number of reps and only did 50 when I should have done 55 so the second time around I wanted to make up for it and did 60. By the time I hit 30 on the second go, I was pulling my arms in to rest every few flys. By the time I hit the last one, I was about ready to cry, but by george I did them!
The pieze de resistance was the 100 jumping jacks. Even though you only had to do them once, once was enough. Before I started them, I changed the song to something that was gonna help amp me up and stared out the window finding my spot and jumped! Honey, I jumped and kept jumping. Hit 30 and thought, I'm only 20 away from being halfway done. I hit fifty and briefly thought about stopping and doing the rest later. In that moment, I knew I needed to finish them now and get them over with. Then I was at 60. I had to really focus at that point because it was all mind over body. Every breath was a count and I knew if I slowed down even once I would stop and never move again. I got to 80 and excitedly zeroed in on the last 20 jumping jacks. My body really wanted to stop, I mean there was such negotiating going on internally I think I owe my body a professional massage. I got to 90 and could barely believe it, only ten left but could I even get one more out? Doggedly, I just kept jumping. I earned each and every one but especially those last 5. I did collapse and briefly paused in the workout at that point. Not only had I just done 100 jumping jacks, but it was after having worked out almost 30 minutes.
I think this is a great workout for once a week. I'm currently trying different workouts and active options and this, though an hour long, is definitely worth doing regularly. I do think the biggest thing I took away from this workout was my need to work on holding the plank and how much I can do if I just keep going.
