Pike Push Ups!

Because I have been so short on time to work out lately, I have been relying on Jillian Michael's workout DVDs.  For the past month or so, I have been doing Ripped in 30.  I loved Level 1, it isn't super hard but I worked up a good sweat, my heart was pumping, and I saw results.  I did not love Level 2.  It was a lot of alternating standing moves and floor work.  For some reason, I get very bad, long lasting headaches after workouts like that.  I did Level 2 ~5-6 times and then decided to move on.

Yesterday, I moved up to Level 3.  This level kicked my butt!  Now, when I say that this kicked my butt, I mean that I sweated through an entire shirt (even the sleeves) and was dripping sweat off of my face, arms, and legs.  Yes, gross.  Also awesome!  The warmup was NOT a warm up but a way to fit in some hard core exercises veiled as a warm up.  To my surprise, I could do most everything in this workout even though a lot of the stuff involved was new to me. 

At one point, Jillian said, "Get into your best downward dog and do push ups!"  I kind of scoffed (upper body strength is not a strength of mine, no pun intended) and then shrugged my shoulders and figured that I might as well try it.  Guess what?  I could do them!  For the entire time required!  Woot!  These are technically called Pike Push ups. 

I found a blog that gives a pretty good photo of what this should look like.  Check it out here.  I'm sure that I did not look like that!  I had my feet in closer to my hands, which makes this harder and probably looks more spastic.

I could do the majority of this level without much problem (just a lot of effort!).  It's funny what you can do when you put your mind to it and just give it a shot.  It was also funny to be working my butt off and sweating like crazy and then to look through your legs while doing pike push ups and see this going on right behind you:

This is Bella, my 5-year old cat.  She was loungin' out, watching me, and sleeping.  I'm only a little jealous of her life.  In her defense, she has an upper respiratory infection right now so she wasn't feeling the greatest and that's why her eyes look a little sore.

I'm planning on going through Level 3 again today and am excited to move on to Level 4.  Although I have worked out quite a bit in the past, I have been consistently working out (4-7 days a week) for 7 months now.  The only break I took during that time is when I had a sinus infection and bronchitis.  It is amazing how much endurance and muscle strength you can build in that amount of time!