Workout DVDs #10 & #11 Mark Verstegen

Day 18

#10 Turbo Jam 20 minute workout
#11 Mark Verstegen & GoFit’s Core Essentials Level 3 hand weights, exercise ball, mat

Today I wanted to do some strength training but I didn’t feel like pumping iron – sorry Jari! To begin my workout I wanted to be nice and warmed up, and get a little cardio in, so I picked another Turbo Jam workout – the 20 minute TJ. It’s a great little workout that gets you going - the music is very upbeat and funky. I enjoyed every minute of it and even got my heart rate up to about 90% of my max during the turbo section.

After I finished I popped in a strength workout that I haven’t done for about a year – Mark Verstegen’s Core Essentials Level 3. For those of you not used to Mark Verstegen and his work at Core Performance I have to let you know that he is my ‘muscle god’. Not because he is ripped or anything, I just know that his workouts are very special and I love ‘em. They work intensely yet they are not what you’d think of in a strength workout: it’s all about functional movement and training your body in muliple planes – meaning not just front and back, but with rotations and a slew of reaching and pulling with lateral stuff in there too.

Going back to past workouts over the years I can tell you that I saw the greatest results when doing Mark’s workouts – and the quickest. It’s like all the muscles work in concert together to tighten up and get into their proper position! The workouts, combined with Turbo Jam for cardio made for a killer combination for me about 2 years ago. But I digress, right now I am trying to get back into working out by adding as much variety into my exercise routine as possible so I don’t get bored any time soon. I need all the motivation out there that I can get!

But check out Mark Verstegen’s DVDs which you can pick up in Target or Wal-Mart, as well as online. For $10 you can’t go wrong. But there is no music and it is highly instructional; his book ‘Core Performance Essentials‘ makes the perfect accompaniment to get the most background knowledge for how and why to work out his way.

I also jumped on my HealthRider for about 5 minutes and really worked my glutes by focusing on what were essentially one legged squats by putting emphasis on one leg. alternating that movement and then using the upper pedals to rest my feet on while I pulled my body up, thus getting a small upper body workout in. I have had my trusted HR for 11 years now! I can’t believe we’ve been together that long. I can’t say that I have used it even half of those 11 years but it has been a great piece of equipment – and I never use it as a clothes hanger – EVER! I even dust it regularly. The only thing that stops me from using it that much is that I have no workout DVD to go with it. But anyway…

Here’s how my workout looked:

2/24/08

50:00 [workout time]
35:26 [in aerobic zone 60% -80% Target Heart Rate]
133 bpm [average heart rate]
169 bpm [highest heart rate]
338 [cals burned]