Product Review: 30 Day Shred

I work at home and from home with my children in constant tow, which is exactly how we planned this whole thing to work.  I love it that I don’t get up and go somewhere to work. I love it that my kids expect me to stay with them and the thought of going somewhere during the day includes all of us.  It’s not necessarily the most financially advantageous decision, but nothing of value comes without a price.  Unfortunately, after I had Piper, that price was showing up in bat wings, love handles and tummy flab.

After Gideon was born, nursing was a magic diet pill of which I sang great praise.  For whatever reason (I was older. Piper doesn’t eat like Gideon. I loved brownies even more in 2009) I had to work to get back into my pre-pregnancy pants.  And it took me a year to figure that out.  When I finally committed myself to working out four days per week, I knew I needed something that would keep my interest and keep me at home.  I already had a gym membership, which I would use when Jud was home and bedtime wasn’t imminent.  The sleep deprivation of motherhood had completely removed my will to get out of bed to the sound of anything but a child needing me.

We weren’t interested in purchasing gym equipment for the house, primarily because we are safety nuts.  The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that each year about 8,700 children under 5 years of age are injured with exercise equipment.There are an additional 16,500 injuries per year to children ages 5 to 14. We just weren’t interested in opening our home up to that kind of risk.

So I turned to videos.

I already had The Biggest Loser Volume 2.

It was good, but it wasn’t great.   I don’t really care for Kim Lyons.  She’s a little whiny and too much cheerleader for me.

So I bought Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred.

It has three levels with self-contained 25 minute work outs.  She leads you with two other women demonstrating the exercises (one modified for injury or laziness).   Each workout begins with a warm up that changes slightly for each level and a cool down that is exactly the same each time.  Each workout is 3 sets of 3 minutes of strength training with 2 minutes of cardio and then 1 minute of abdominal work. You should have some light weights (2-8 lbs).

Level One – It is pretty easy, really. If I do level one now, I do all of the cardio moves with weights, but I didn’t start there.

Level Two – The second set of cardio makes me feel like I could puke. For real. Power through it and you’ll be okay. Probably.

Level Three – It seems like it’s not as hard as Level Two until the next day when you realize that all of those odd movements you copied were moving muscles you haven’t used since they were given to you. I once threw up while doing the jumping lunges on this level.  I didn’t feel ill or anything.  I am pretty sure that squeezing my core to stabilize myself and jumping at the same time with a little kick of lactic acid made the vomit cocktail a reality.  I would give yourself plenty of time to digest before you workout.

BUT DOES IT WORK?  IS IT ANY GOOD? I DON’T JUST WANT TO PUKE!  I WANT RESULTS!!

It does.  You’ll get results.  BUT, and this is a very big but, you’ll still need to modify your diet if you want to see real results. I worked out with this, added running (between 3 and 7 miles up to 4 times a week) and Bob Harper’s Bootcamp dvd (which has a great arm section – level 3) for about a year. I kind of have muscle definition.  I kind of still eat too many carbohydrates.  I kind of love cheese.

I can guarantee that you will feel it.  You’ll have pain.  You’ll want it to end.  You’ll want those Aleve you took to kick in.  IF you apply yourself and don’t cheat the movements, which you, of course, would then your body will change.

Verdict: If you will actually do the dvd, you will both love and hate it. You will get a real work out.  It will only eat 25 minutes of your day (you can even grab a shower and write a blog post while your child[ren] take their naps!). It will change your body if you keep at it, but you’ll probably need more than 30 days to see it. If you are already running or cycling or something and want some added boost to your workout, this would be a great one.

Anybody else want to weigh in?  Do you own it?  Do you love it?  Do you hate it?  Am I right? Am I wrong?  Did I forget something important?  Tell me!  And tell us all!