Day 26 - Core SadoMasochistics

Like an old friend that hits you every time you see him, I greeted Core Synergistics this morning with some trepidation and 2 shots of NOXplode. I was literally vibrating by the time I started the DVD this morning on an empty stomach. It didn't take long at all to get soaked and my heart rate was up in the warm-up thanks to the jumping jacks. I know this post is long, but since no one reads it but me, I don't feel too bad. :) Hey, look! I'm talking to myself!

We started off with the Stack Foot/Stagger Hands Push-Ups, which were very awkward for me last time, but this time I rocked them out like a superstar. Maybe not that great, but I had no problems. I didn't do as many reps as Drea, but she's an acrobat, so I don't feel too bad. By the way, Drea looks awful in this video. I'm not the fashion police, but that fuscia top with her pale skin? Ugh. She usually looks damn good.

Banana rolls followed up to kill my core right off the bat. These things are extremely hard and you feel every second of it. I'm always glad when it's over, but I know that superman/banana is waiting in the shadows. This part annoys me a little bit because Tony keeps telling me to keep my core "taunt" and I don't know how to do that. WTF? Taunt? Seriously?

Leaning Crescent Lunges is a nice break - sort of. I got a little dizzy on these, but lunges do that to me no matter what kind I'm doing. I'm still not using any weight on these because I don't think I could finish the reps if I did. When I was bodybuilding, I was doing single-leg straight lunges with 80-90lb dumbbells in each hand, but, for some reason, these are harder with my hands empty.

Squat run is just weird. I don't have any dumbbells at the moment, so I just "run" as fast as I can like Pam "Blam". Heart rate goes way up here. I want a heart rate monitor. Maybe someday. After or before the dumbbells? Who knows?

Sphinx push-ups. These start out really easy and quickly tire out the forearms. I always think I'm going to match their reps and end up petering out at 12. Tough stuff, but I can feel myself getting stronger here.

Bow to boat is kind of fun, but it's hard to do the boat after those banana rolls have killed my abs. I know this will get easier. The bow is not that bad, but I keep doing this routine barefoot and it feels like I'm ripping the skin off of my ankles when I pull with my legs. I need to fix that.

Low lateral skaters - not much to say here except my limited flexibility keeps me from doing much of a leg raise here. I get it up more than a toe-tap, but not nearly as high as Tony is going.

Lunge and Reach - I have never gotten a burn in my obliques like this. These things tear me up by the time I get done with round two. I don't have dumbbells, so I use a C# textbook from my class. I don't know how heavy it is, but it does the job for sure. Ouch!

Prison Cell push-ups. I have a note in xtreme fit tracker on this line that says simply "Fuck You." These things are so easy for the first three, but then your strength gets sapped and it is incredible hard to get past number six. These things work well.

Side hip raise and Squat Xpress are kind of easy. I still get something out of them, but they aren't as hard to do as the rest of this video. Maybe when I add weights to the Squat Xpress it will get more challenging.

Plank to Chataranga. These are basically lumberjacks, but you are supposed to switch to low lumberjacks in the Chataranga position after ten seconds and repeat. I couldn't do the Chataranga running because of my flexibiliy issues, so I just stayed in plank.

Walking push-ups. My heart rate was already jacked and my shoulders were tired from holding plank on the last exercise, so this essentially makes me cry. The walking pushups would be hard if they were the first exercise you did fresh out of warmup. Following Plank to Chat. with these is just sadistic. I did the whole 60 seconds, dripping copious amounts of sweat onto my yoga mat the whole time.

Superman Banana. I think about these while I'm still warming up and not in a good way. They are never as bad as I remember, but they are still hard. The speed of the changes is the lifesaver here, but it gets harder and harder to roll without pushing off.

The worst exercise on the video, IMHO is the Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press. I am doing these with zero weights - once again because I have no dumbbells - and they still kick my ass like a lunchroom bully. I get dizzy (because they are lunges) and I have to pause a lot. They do twenty and I do about fourteen.

Towel hopping is a madman's game. This jacks up the heartrate. I nailed my towel at one point and sent it flying into the shadows, so I had to do 40 seconds with a virtual towel that only I could see.

I thank Tony for the Reach High & Under Push-ups here to get my heart rate back to human levels. These things are hard to do, but mainly from a balance perspective here. Muscle freak Adam on the video even falls on this one.

Steam engine gets my heart back up. It is amazing to watch Pam do these things. Her head doesn't come down at all and her knees still nearly touch her elbows.

Dreya roll - I had a really hard time with these the first time. I would roll down, extend my legs, roll back...and not be able to stand up. I kind of got the hang of it on the last one earlier this week. Today, I missed the first one, but made it on all of them after that. I have to keep my abs contracted while I roll down and let the weight of my extended legs throw me forward. It's odd, but I've got it down now, hopefully. I do not do an X or a twirl at the top. drea can keep that to herself. Carnie.

The bonus round is not too bad if you take out Plank to Chataranga, which I happily do. One day, I may attempt it. The halfback is something I enjoy, so I do that and then I do the Table Dip Leg Raise to the best of my ability. As my flexibility improves, this will probably look and feel better.