Burpee burnout

Today I revisited the first ever workout I did when I started doing Zuzana's bodyrock workouts. :) It was approx. a year and a half ago and I remember working out in my room mate's room, because mine was too small. I chose this one as my first, because I thought that it doesn't look as demanding and long as others and it really was a great start to working out regularly. Ahhh, memories ...

Breakdown:
10 minure countdown of the following exercise:
Plank - 2 reptile knee tucks - dynamic push up - jump up = 1 rep
Completed 55 reps in 10 minutes. I am not entirely sure about my previous scores, but it was somewhere near 40 reps. At the time I did not own Gymboss interval timer, so I had to set my mobile phone as a stop atch and check the tome every now and then. That is why I'm not sure how I did - it may have been less than 40 reps, maybe more, the important thing is I got hooked and have been working out since. :)

Now, my own diet challenge is going well, I'm focusing on making good food choices. I will stick to it 'till the end of the week and in the next I will focus on portion controll. I think for me it will be the hardest challenge of all. I know I tend to eat too much at once and then nothing for 4, sometimes 6 or more hours. But for now I'll stick to choosing foods that complement my health and fitness. I must say I really, really like it. :)

P.S.: this picture was taken on this year's holiday in Dalmatia - we had a lovely time! :)

Bootylicious workout

Leg torture session, murder and cruel workout! My legs haven't been this targeted for a long time, so this was pure brutality. I can see myself being unable to get out of bed tomorrow morning, but I hope that won't be the case. I did this one for the first time and sometimes Zuzana still doesn't cease to amaze me. To put together a workout based on such basic movements and produce this intense and effective routine ... hands down. Anyway, enough of my babbling, here's Bootylicious workout breakdown:

1. dive bomber - 5 reps
2. pull up - 5 reps (close grip)
3. 6 rounds 20/20 intervals
   a. squats
   b. air chair (mini squats)
There are 3 rounds to this workout and it takes approx. 15-17 min, depending on how fast you manage dive bombers and pull ups. I used 4,5 kg weight for the third part and did all pull ups chair assisted. Unfortunately I don't have scores to share and my mind was just blank after the third interval in the first round. I didn't imagine it would be THAT hard!

As I rummaged through my photo archive on my computer, I came across this somewhat representative photo that was taken less than a year ago. My boyfriend took it, even though I was against him taking pictures of me (I don't like to be in pictures). What's behind these hazel eyes ...? ;)

ZWOW #31

Can I just say OMG! This one made me a bit nauseous at the end. Zuzana, you rock! To make something so challenging and physically demanding out of five elementary exercises ... ouch! And to think I was sure it won't be hard as much as some of her prevoius ones ... wrong! Even though I said I won't be jumping for a while due to my injured ankle, I felt good enough to give it a go. And I am not sorry one bit. :)

Here's the workout breakdown:

1. push ups - 10 reps
2. competition burpees - 20 reps
3. squat jumps - 30 reps
4. mountain climbers - 40 reps
5. sit ups - 50 reps
Completed 3 rounds in 20:35 min. Burpees after push ups were lethal combination for my shoulders as they still felt weak after MyWO #3.

As far as the diet challenge is concerned ... well, yesterday was OK, but day nr. 2 ... I think I need a weekly goal. So this week I am focusing on making sane, sensible and healthy food choices. And cutting down on nuts, cranberries and raisins mix (which I can gulp down tons!).

I'd also like to upload some pics, but I don't own a camera and can't load pictures from my phone on my computer. There IS a live person behind this blog, I just have to find something from my current picture archive and present it here. ;) That's how blogs work, right?

MyWO #3 and 30 day diet challenge

Today's routine was a mind game. Exhausting, I haven't been sweatting like this probably in my entire life and feeling this good for some time. :) Even though it was not as physically demanding, it was more of a psychological testing and endurance routine. Here's its breakdown:

Complete 5 rounds of the following exercises:
1. prisoner get ups - 10 reps
2. diamond push up - 5 reps
3. prisoner get ups - 10 reps
4. pull ups - 5 reps
5. prisoner get ups - 10 reps
6. one arm push ups - 3 reps on each arm
7. prisoner get ups - 10 reps
8. leg lift toe touch - 10 reps
I managed to complete all 5 rounds (though I wanted to quit after the 4th round - I paused my timer for approx. one minute and then pushed through the final round) in 28:58 min. I included exercises I haven't been doing for a long time now and I have to say that it was a huge challenge for me, especially pull ups, snice this is my FIRST EVER workout which includes them. :) I did them all chair-assisted, because I can't do a single pull up yet. :/ One arm push ups were really demanding and I did them off my knees. At first I planned on doing handstand push ups instead of diamond push ups, but when I tried them, I realised I will get more out of diamond push ups, since I couldn't go very far down in handstand. I might include them some other time.

Yesterday me and my boyfriend went to have a piece of cake each. I was SOOOO delicious and I realized that it's a pity to put anything other than REALLY good sweet stuff in your mouth and body. Chocolate, ice cream, cookies and salted crap ... these are all a waste of money, because they are not REALLY good. I suddenly understood what treating myself means and so decided that I will gladly stick to Primal Blueprint and all I believe in (but haven't been sticking to yet) for a month and by the end of it we (my partner and I) will treat ourselves with something REALLY good. :) I'll see, maybe I won't even feel like eating that piece of cake. The point here is allowing myself to aspire for something I konw and experience as GOOD. :) I consider it as a lesson and not a project. And I think I'll report every day to remind myself of my goal and if I made it official, it's more serious and at the reach of ma hand. :)

Oh, and if you decide to try the workout, let me know, how it went. :)

MyWO #2 - putting my own routines together

Hello, healthy and injury-free people out there! You're probably wondering, what the hell means "MyWO". It means My workout and it labels the workout I put together. The reason behind me putting a workout together (and the #2 mark indicaties the second one) is my injured foot. Fortunately I did not break anything (as I assumed a couple days ago), but I hurt my tendon that connects foot muscles and lower leg. The first day it hurt like crazy, tears were pouring down my face from pain and I had to jump around on one foot for several hours. Now the pain is nearly gone and I can walk normally, only not far and for longer periods of time.

I don't want to sit on my butt and wait for approx. 6 weeks (!) for my tendon to heal (yes, it normally takes that long), so I decided that I'm going to put my own routines together that don't involve skipping, jumping or extra pressure on injured leg. This means I'm going to get less cardio, but health is more important to me than acchieving certain numbers and goals in certain period of time. I hope some of you who have similar problems can help yourself maintaining your fitness level with these workouts, if not, well, I'll post them anyway. ;)

Here's the workout breakdown:
Do 4 rounds of the following exercises:
1. sumo mini squats (or sumo pulses) - 50 reps
2. side crunch - 20 reps each side
3. swimmer - 30 reps (lay on your belly, legs and arms fully extended, lift chest off the ground, bringing your elbows towards the sides of your body, squezing shoulder blades together - as if you were breaststroke swimming - kind of) :)
4. tricep dips - 20 reps (choose your own style, I did them off a chair with legs extended)
5. 1-2 reptile push up - 10 reps (do 2 side knee tucks - each side one - and a regular push up = 1 rep)
I completed the workout in 22:50 min.

Though there weren't cardio exercises inolved, I got really good burn and was sweatting like crazy. I felt it the most in my shoulders and arms, but also in my ab section. I was kind of surprised that it took me that long, but I did not want to push too much, I was concentrating on my form. And this is the way I'll be doing my exercises from now one. To avoid further injuries.

Have a great week and injury-free workots! :)

ZWOW #7 revisit

Today I revisited one of Zuzana's ZWOWs. I already posted the workout breakdown and my scores here. This is why I won't be posting workout breakdown in this post, only my new scores. Here they are:

I managed three rounds in 14:33 min using the same amount of weight as before. This means that I beat my personal best and am satisfied with it. :)

There is only ine thing I'm not satisfied with at all. I think I somehow broke one of the bones in my feet while jump rope jumping. Maybe not broke, but cracked it a bit. I thought something was not allright since the Ab-tastic challenge I did approximately 3 weeks ago. It hurts a lot, but I can still move my fingers. I'll see what the future brings, hopefully it will mend by itself ... :/

ZWOW #29

This ZWOW was quite fun to do, I tried hard, but am not satisfied with my result - when compared to others' results. First to the workout breakdown and then to other stuff:

10 min AMRAP
1. pistol squats - 5 reps on each leg
2. side hops - 50 reps
3. plank row knee tucks - 10 reps
4. 180 burpee - 10 reps
I completed 3 full rounds an 3 burpees, finished 4th round in 10:42 min. I supported myself with the other leg when doing pistol squats.

I feel like I'm falling behind even though I try my best. I don't know ... will see what the future brings ... hmmmm

ZWOW #30 = ZWOD #1

This revisit was quite something! I totally forgot how hard and brutal this one is! Zuzana kicked her own butt for this one (she worked out like a machine!) and I kicked mine as well.

Here's the workout breakdown:

1. dive bombers - 10 reps
2. burpees - 5 reps
3. squat leg lift - 40 reps alt. sides
4. burpees - 5 reps
5. side plank lift - 10 reps each side
6. burpees - 5 reps
7. pistol squat - 10 reps each leg
8. burpees - 5 reps

I completed 3 rounds in 22:36 min, using chair for support at pistol squats. Compared to my old personal best, which was 28:30 min, 15 dive bombers modified and chair for pistol squats (5 at a time), this was quite impressive, though fellow warriorZ posted some great under 20 min times. This is my goal for next time - bring my PB for this one under 20 min mark without supporting myself at pistols.

Anyway, great burn and great fitness personality to push and guide us to achieve goals and improve constantly. :)

I want your sweat

Call me ostalgic, but old Zuzana's workouts still kik butt! :) As a proof, today's workout left me lying on the floor, feeling like a jelly ran over by a truck. Wobbly and destroyed, but now feeling good. I'm still sweating after an hour - got my machine working, eh? ;)

Here's the workout breakdown:
1. sandbag clean & side to side half squat - 20 reps
2. breakdance push up - 20 reps
3. diagonal knee raises - 20 reps
4. twist jump squat - 20 reps

Completed 3 rounds in 25:06 min using 7 kg in my bag. Instead of dip station I used my pull up bar for knee raises. I also felt slight pain in my back while doing sandbag clean and side squats. I still feel it. Maybe there was too much weight in my bag. Will consider decreasing it.
Anyway, I have a great workout behind me and am ready to kick start my day, yippeeee! ;)

Hot attack

Today's 12 minute torture was Zuzana's first L.A. workout. In the video she said she almost puked at the end and it really is as hard as that. It didn't make me puke, however, it was quite a burnout. Here's the workout breakdown:

#1 - 4 rounds 10/50 intervals
1. crab toe touch - 39, 37
2. dive bomber - 12, 10

#2 and #4 - 6 rounds 10/10 intervals
jump lunges / mountain climbers back to back

#3 - 4 rounds 10/50 intervals
1. one leg hot attack - 6, 6
2. thigh shrinker - 10, 9

It was one of the workouts I already did in the past and I beat almost all my scores, but most important, I did one leg squats unassisted!!!! :)))))) As a bonus I left a pond of sweat on the floor. ;)

Amazing abs

Zuzana's new website, me doing her older workouts. :) I find them very appealing and feel good after the last beep. Exhausted and at the same time energised. Here's the workout breakdown (luckily, you can still see the video, it's one of the very few that show Zuzana's workouts left, since they started removing them from Youtube! Lame! Pisses me off!!!!):

#1 - 9 rounds 10/10 intervals
kick ups / mountain climber peaks back to back (no break in between exercises)

#2 - 9 rounds 10/30 intervals
1. side plank knee tuck (L) - 11, 10, 10 (left side plank, right knee tuck)
2. side plank knee tuck (R) - 11, 10, 10 (right side plank, left knee tuck)
3. prisoner get up - 8, 8, 8

#3 - 9 rounds 10/10 intervals
plank jump / knee hug back to back

I managed to beat my previous scores by a lot! :) Oh, happy day ...

Zuzana is BACK!!!! :)

ZUZKA HAS NEW WEB SITE!!!! FINALLY!!! :)))) Oh, gosh, I am so happy! There are her ZWOWs, pep talks and random life videos and shop with a T-shirt and few tank tops with ZWOW logo on them. It's easy to understand it since it's very basic and that's what I love about it. Soon, there will be some before and after photos and success stories of her WarriorZ. :)

This was probably the most expected event for the past few months for a lot of people that follow Zuzana. It's great to see her progress and this is what we all can look forward to - more progress and development. Her workouts are getting harder every week, she's being creative with putting together ZWOWs and her body is changing beautifully.

As she wrote below the following picture: "It's a new day and a new start for me ..." Yes, I hope so, too ... :)

ZWOW #28

I had a lot of fun doing this one. Even though it was only 10 min long routine, I got a lot out of it.

Breakdown:
10 min AMRAP
1. dragon kicks - 10 reps each leg
2. jump lunges - 20 reps
3. pike jumps (mule kicks) - 15 reps
4. 1-2 reptile push ups - 10 reps
Completed 2 full rounds and 15 mule kicks, finished 3rd round in 10:39 min. I had trouble balancing with dragon kicks and I feel I could push a bit more, but that's the best I could do for now.

On a side note, I am getting really unimpressed with Zuzana's push ups and plank positions. In my opinion she sticks her butt up too much. Then again, there could be a reason for it, so we'll see what the future brings. :)

Bikini beach

Today's was another one from Bodyrock archives. This is the one that Zuzana put together while on vacation on Seychelles with Frederick. Here's its breakdown:

#1, #5 - 6 rounds 10/30 intervals
1. backward lunge knee up (L) - 18, 16; 18, 12
2. backward lunge knee up (R) - 18, 15; 18, 14
3. plak jumps - 5, 6; 5, 5

#2, #4, #6 - 2 min countdown
2 wakling push ups + 4 low step touches
10; 10; 10

#3, #7 - 6 rounds 10/30 intervals
1. jump forward/backward & jump tuck - 7, 5; 7, 5
2. side plank jump & push up (L) - 6, 6; 6, 6
3. side plank jump & push up (R) - 6, 6; 6, 6

This was actually revisit to this routine for me and managed to beat all my previous scores. SO glad! :)

Ab-tastic exercise challenge

For the past few days (and workouts :)) I've been revisiting some of Bodyrock's older workout routines - the ones that Zuzana put together. The reason I haven't been posting about those is, that I was guessing no one is interested in them anymore. But now I changed my mind. There's nothing wrong with creating a bit of nostalgic environment and promoting Zuzana's excellent work. So, here it goes.

I chose this one due to my shoulder and leg soreness from an hour of functional training two days before (sweet burn!) and I did not want to put extra pressure on those areas. So I worked on my abdominal muscles and cardio. :)

Workout breakdown:
1. knee raises - 20 reps
2. high knees - 8 runds 10/20 intervals
Repeat 5 times.
Originally I was supposed to do knee raises on a dip station, but since I don't own one and don't have appropriate chairs to hang off them (;)), I used my pull up bar, which I am FINALLY able to place above door. :) It took me altogether approximately 25 min.

I can tell you that I was dripping all over the floor and now I feel great!