Cardio Balanced Workout ... again and again

Sunday, 6/5 - Rest Day

• Yoga - 25 minutes (Rodney Yee's AM Yoga for Your Week - Twists)

Yesterday was my first mandated rest day and I felt like I was being lazy because I didn't exercise. I understand the importance of taking a day off from training. Your body is being pushed to a physical limit and needs time to recover. Muscles need to regenerate the tissues that have been broken down during the physical activity. As much as I tried to limit my exercise to zero, I didn't succeed. Last night before I went to bed, I popped in one of my yoga DVDs and did a short workout. All day, my muscles felt really tight and I didn't want to cause any injuries when I continued my training this week so I chose a short yoga workout to to help stretch and lengthen my muscles. I must say that I really think it worked because I am not tight at all today.

Monday, 6/6 - Strength Training

• Kettlenetics - 47 minutes (Cardio Balanced Video)

I have not been feeling completely right today. Maybe yesterday's yoga workout didn't do what I hoped that it would do. My energy level has been low, much lower than usual for me. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what could have caused it. According to my nutrition journal, my calorie intake is about where it should be and for the most part I am not consuming all of the calories that I am burning. (These are the keys to proper weight loss, which I have been trying to stick to as part of my lifestyle change.) The only other source of my fatigued feeling is what I am choosing to intake. I will have to continue to experiment with the food that I am eating to prevent this happening again. Even though my energy level was low, I still went ahead with my Kettlenetics workout. I chose the Cardio Balanced Video because I thought it would be a good way to start my training this week. This workout gets my heart rate up and tones my muscles, without targeting specific muscle groups. Each movement in this workout really engages the entire body. By not targeting specif muscle groups, my whole body reaps the benefits and isn't ridiculously sore for the next three days. Don't get me wrong, I will be sore tomorrow but it won't linger. I must say that this workout is starting to get a little easier, which means I will probably be moving up from the 4 lb. KBell in a few weeks.