Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 4

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 4

7/10 – Day 4: Completed 18:36.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 4.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells, medium resistance band.

Hello, it is us. We have just finished day 4 of Caroline’s Epic Heat. Honestly I am very tired, feel generally quite fatigued and, despite my bright smile, did not like this workout overall. I am amazed I got through it, but the transitions were rough.

Even though Caroline showed what was to come, the 40s->20s->40s sets were a bit too much for me. Especially when the transition was more difficult to do, like the chest press -> pushups -> chest press. I found that I barely had time to get into position for the pushups before it was time to grab my dumbbells again for the chest presses. If I had been using heavier dumbbells, I might have injured myself trying to pick them up too quickly.

Jacky definitely struggled with trying to figure out what the exercises were, and a lot of the time, by the time he figured out what the exercise was, Caroline had moved on. This was especially the case with the 20s exercises.

I think my leg/glute strength has increased since I was able to do the squats for longer and the medium band was perfect to push me hard enough so that I needed to stop a couple of times but not give up. The jumping squats were a big phat n-o for me haha. I tried a few each set and dang, back to the regular squats it was.

The 5lb dumbbells were easy for the hip thrusts despite having my medium bands on. So that was kind of exciting… finally time to level up, methinks! Increased leg strength makes sense (and is kind of vital) since I’ve been doing wushu that requires different types of kicks and deep squats, but it is encouraging to feel a noticeable difference during my workouts too.

My upper body, however, was still aching from day 5 lol. Those pushup burpees, man. Today I barely attempted a real pushup and stuck with either knee or incline pushups. My energy levels today were insanely low. Not as bad as yesterday, but still low.

I have also been extra lethargic lately because I’ve been fuelling my body with a solid diet of junk food and carbs for the past few days, so unsurprisingly all I wanted today was a big fat salad (which I thoroughly enjoyed for lunch).

Today’s workout was originally planned for yesterday, but I had absolutely no energy yesterday after eating way too much McDonald’s (I kid you not. They got me good with the $2 Big Mac offer. I had like 2.5 Big Macs and way too many chicken nuggets and fries), as well as some pizza and pastries. Talk about a massive cheat day… or 3. Lol.

That said, even if I were feeling in tip top condition, I still don’t think I would have liked today’s workout. The quick switches were just too much for me. Glad it’s over!

Tomorrow Chloe’s new challenge launches and I feel like it’d be better for my current fitness level, so I might switch over. I think I’ll take tomorrow as another rest day because… well, my body needs rest. Tuesday is my wushu day again, so let’s catch up again on Weds!

Muchos love,

Bobbie

Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 5

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 5

7/6 – Day 5: Completed 17:51.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 5.

“Hey Bobbie didn’t you just finish day 3? Where is day 4? Why are you on day 5 already?” – All great questions. I am… preparing for my hubs to join me in the next workout, and he hard refuses to do burpees. Lol, mood. Anyways, as such, I’m switching up the days so that Mr. Bob can join me for day 4 on Saturday.

He enjoys the dumbbell workouts. He’s for sure going to see this and say, “‘Enjoy’ is a very strong word.” I take back “enjoy”. He tolerates dumbbell workouts, better? :D

Either way, I ended up doing the burpee bonanza today. Um… yeah. It was… hm. Burpees :’) I am next level not a fan of burpees, but Caroline loves them so I can learn to at least tolerate them. I do appreciate the way that she made the workout more interesting by incorporating so many different exercises then doing the burpee version of those exercises.

30mins of burpees would otherwise absolutely bore me to tears, but this one kept me on my toes – literally. Not gonna lie, it was probably the toughest one so far for me because I am weak and have very low stamina, so I was rarely able to do the exercises for the full 45sec. But it’s still encouraging to look back on my workout footage and see my burpee form on point… for at least the first half of it lol.

Also very encouraging was watching myself do actual pushups!!! There is absolutely room for improvement, especially with how low I wasn’t really able to go, but I’m still thrilled that I have progressed to proper pushups. I did have to switch to knee pushups for some of the reps in the later exercises (because, hello? Exhausted) and I took a couple of longer breaks, but overall? Pretty darn proud.

The fact that I managed to get through it is a massive win in my book, especially since my lower body is still kind of aching from Monday and even more so from wushu class yesterday. I am not sure I’d want to do this video again, ever, but I’m glad I did it. I literally sweat so much I soaked through my towel by the end of it.

I realised at the end of the workout that my crotch sweat patch game was. next level. Honestly I didn’t even realise crotch sweat patches were a thing until literally yesterday when I watched Michelle Kare’s friends trying her home workout and one of them mentioned it. I am very, very glad this was a home workout lol.

On another note, Chloe’s new challenge (2022 Get Abs Challenge) drops on Monday and she released Ep 1 today. I wasn’t planning to do the challenge since I’m doing Caroline’s Epic Heat right now, but the trailer of it on Chloe’s Ep 1 HIIT video looks so unbelievably cute I’m very tempted to go ahead and try it.

The music is super cute, Chloe’s outfits are super cute, the concept looks adorable. I might just have to hit pause on Epic Heat to do Chloe’s challenge. It’s only 18 days so seems pretty doable… we’ll see. I’ll stick with Epic Heat for now, but if Epic Heat starts getting too intense, I might switch over to Get Abs.

I barely had energy to do one practice round of my wushu form before I just clonked out and needed rest after today’s workout. Those burpees took a lot out of me, to the surprise of absolutely no one. I’m going for my white belt test tomorrow! Need to retain some strength for it. Wish me luck!

Muchos love,

Bobbie

Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 3

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 3

7/4 – Day 3: Completed 17:13.
Videos Completed: 5min Warm Up, Epic Heat Day 3.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells.

Let’s not pretend today’s workout didn’t absolutely kick my butt. To be fair, I think I’m recovering something because I literally took a 2hr nap yesterday afternoon then promptly fell asleep again at 9pm, only to wake up at 10…am. Yep, I slept for about 15hrs and I’m still not feeling my best.

In fact, my right lower back was hurting a little and my right leg was stiff even before I started my workout, then within 3min of the Epic video, my head started hurting too. As the workout progressed, I realised my left knee was starting to hurt a little as well. It was not the best of circumstances so I’m just proud of getting through it. I’m also very proud of Mr. Bob who did the workout with me haha.

We both struggled pretty hard, and you can bet I dropped my equipment for plenty of the exercises and my lower body was still getting very much destroyed. Oh, and I 100% am not doing jumping lunges lol. Regular lunges are plenty enough for me for now. I actually laughed out loud when I saw Caroline’s final tip of “Go low!” for the finisher squat pulses. Caroline, girl, if I tried to go any lower than this (more or less) standing “squat” of mine, I’ll just drop straight to the floor.

I don’t think I got to failure for most of the exercises because I was trying to avoid exacerbating any injuries. I wanted to be careful not to use my back or knee to compensate for my weak legs. Don’t you worry, I still felt like a massive weakling today. Like, I felt like I went to failure, but my perceived rate of exertion was probably higher than my actual rate of exertion, just because I wasn’t feeling my best to begin with.

Mr. Bob managed to get through most of it but had to give up after the toe lunges. My legs were shaking during those but he said his legs were completely destroyed from them haha. He did super well though, I’m proud of him! I’m also proud of me for actually getting through the whole thing.

I mean, I survived an entire Caroline Epic Heat video and did all the exercises, despite being sick/injured. I’d consider that a win. I didn’t have energy to practice my wushu form after the workout to be honest. I wasn’t feeling well and my body was hella weak.

I already had a rest day yesterday and I’m very glad I did. We were originally planning to go to a relative’s house for a July 4th celebration dinner but decided against it when I couldn’t wake up from my afternoon nap. We’re glad we didn’t go in the end because I don’t think my body would have been able to handle it. I’m also very glad I have the day off from work today because I am still not feeling my best.

Hopefully I’ll be back to normal tomorrow!

Days 4 and 5 look absolutely insane. I’m scared but I’m still looking forward to them. I’ll be back in wushu class tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be doing day 4 on Weds, then day 5 on Friday. We will see! If I need an extra rest day, I’ll take it. I’ll need a lot of mental preparation

Muchos love,

Bobbie

Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 2

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 2

7/1 – Day 2: Completed 19:02.
Videos Completed: Epic Heat Day 2.
Equipment used: 5lb dumbbells.

Welp, as you can see from my completed videos list and my workout completion time, I absolutely was not about to have a good time with this workout haha. I’m actually amazed I managed to complete the workout at all because I was feeling absolutely exhausted all day.

I felt fatigued and groggy and ended up (unintentionally) taking a solid 2hr+ nap on the sofa after eating way too many rice cakes smothered in chocolate hazelnut spread. Lol, even after knowing how bad sugar is for my body I just craved it even more and overate. Ah well, it was one of those days.

It was also getting close to dinner time my hubs was hungry, I didn’t want to delay our dinner too much so I decided to skip my warm up. That very likely affected my performance at the start of the workout since I felt like I needed to stretch more first.

I was able to get into my stride shortly after though and still enjoyed the workout overall. My legs were already aching from the previous workout and, well, now my shoulders are aching too haha. I tried to keep my core engaged, but I also felt a lot of it in my forearms too. Ah, my weak lil noodle arms.

I liked that there were exercises that focused on one side first then the other, and for the movements where you used both arms at the same time on one dumbbell, I tried to let my left side take more of the weight. Oh man, those diagonal pushes were so hard. And I have never struggled to ‘drive a car’ as much as I did during this workout.

The 30sec rests between each superset was much appreciated and necessary haha. That’s something I really appreciate about the way Caroline structures her workouts. I can confirm I was definitely getting close to failure for a lot of the exercises during this workout. 5lb dumbbells were plenty heavy enough for me with the amount of time under tension per movement.

Unfortunately there was no time for me to do any wushu practice after the workout because we needed to head out for dinner, but I don’t think I would have been able to lift my arms anyway and my legs definitely needed a break haha. There wasn’t that much for me to practice anyway though, so it worked out fine.

Wushu-wise, I’ve finished learning my first form today! We did the Lian Huan Fist since I have no belt yet, and my Shifu said I could take the test to get my first belt, woohoo! White belt, here I come :D I’m particularly pleased since I only started learning it last week.

I’m very much still enjoying Epic Heat so far and am looking forward to day 3, which I’ll be doing on Monday since tomorrow will be a rest day. I’m a bit apprehensive since it looks like it’ll be an intense lower body workout and I… kinda need my lower body for my wushu class the day after lol.

I also don’t have a yoga block, so, um… yeah I guess we’ll see how it goes lol. I hope the DOMS don’t destroy me.

Muchos love,

Bobbie

Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 1

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 1

Long intro because I haven’t posted in a while! To skip directly to my thoughts on the challenge, please click here.

Wooo! It’s been a while since I uploaded a post and I have to admit, I’ve had one stuck in my drafts that I’ve simply never completed. I have had trouble concentrating and get distracted way too easily, and – ehhem – I don’t typically prioritise writing blog posts. Much has happened lately but I haven’t really written about it.

Looks like this blog is really mostly a faith, food and fitness blog haha. Food has been business as usual lately (we go through phases of eating healthy then eating junk. Gotta keep it balanced, but I have a few restaurant review posts I want to get up) though faith may need an update!

This post is going to be a fitness one though.

Fitness posts tend to be the ones I’m most consistent with, but since finishing Chloe’s last challenge, I haven’t really started a new one, so haven’t really posted anything. I have, however, started attending wushu classes! I’ve only just started and I’m pretty weaksauce, so there isn’t really much to blog about in that regard.

It feels like ages ago since I finished Chloe’s challenge but it was only 6/13, a couple of weeks ago. I feel like I’ve rested way too much and have become lazy, but in reality I tried out a wushu class on 6/16, only a few days after completing Chloe’s challenge, then wanted to try a different place on 6/18 but ended up not being able to make it.

Last week I went to wushu class on Tuesday and Thursday and did a Caroline Girvan workout on Wednesday as well as some wushu practice. I wanted to go on Saturday as well but ended up not being able to make it either. So, actually, I still worked out 2-3x/week over the past couple of weeks!

Not as much as I’d like, but perhaps I’m being a little too hard on myself for feeling lazy. There were days when I felt like I wanted to do some wushu practice, but I just struggled to find the mental energy to start, and then I just gave up and didn’t bother. I haven’t really been out for walks either (mostly because it’s been sweltering these days. Highs of 35-37°C all last week, ugh.)

I am, however, thoroughly pleased to announce that I was able to do 5 proper pushups a couple of days ago.

I watched a video about the power of the mind and how most of the time our minds give up before our bodies do, so I figured why not just try. Try actual push ups. So I did. And I did one. Then two… then three… four… five. Then I stopped. I probably could have done a couple more. But I was already thrilled.

This is the first time I’ve been able to do proper pushups. I’m actually amazed. Two years ago I set my goal as being able to do 10 proper form pushups. I’m finally getting there. I mean, let’s be honest, my form wasn’t like amazing. I could have bent my elbows a lot deeper. But I also wasn’t on my knees, and that’s a huge win for me.

Yesterday I went to wushu class again and I plan to go again tomorrow. Today? I tried out day 1 of Caroline’s Epic Heat. I don’t think wushu 2x/week is enough exercise for me (I know, I don’t even recognise myself sometimes!) so I’d like to supplement my week with other workouts in between, where I can do a quick workout and also get in some wushu practice.

The hardest thing for me is starting my workout, but I’ve realised that if I’m doing something more structured (like a CT/CG Challenge), then my body just naturally prepares for warming up and working out. Good to know I’ve actually developed some degree of discipline with all the workout challenges I’ve been doing!

I realised I struggle to start wushu practice on my own because it’s just mentally taxing to try to remember what I’ve learned and then also have to practice it without someone guiding me. I’m such a beginner, and I don’t have the mental capacity to “teach” myself and push myself at the same time. It’s daunting, so my brain just gives up before starting.

I don’t want to warm up and get it done, especially since I don’t know how long I’d actually exercise for and I hate getting sweaty for only a 10min workout. But if I’m already sweating and warmed up from a workout, then I’ve already conquered the first hurdle. It’s far easier to tack on 5-10mins of wushu practice to the end of a workout when I’m already in the zone.

So that’s where Caroline comes in! Chloe’s new challenge doesn’t launch until 11th July, and I’m not sure what it is yet, plus I’ll need something I can take at my own pace between wushu classes starting now, so Caroline it is.

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