The Booty Boot Camp - The beginning (days 1&2)

The Deadline Diet begins with an intensive first week - 7 days of working out in a row. The cardio starts at 20 minutes and builds up until day seven, when I'm supposed to do up to 45 minutes of moderate-maximum intensity cardio.

The first problem I've encountered is that I don't have a heart rate monitor. Yesterday's 20 minutes of moderate cardio (60-70% MHR*) seemed easy: Schleef and I headed out for a 14 mile run starting in Crissy field and had gotten past Fisherman's Wharf, and a ways down the Embarcadero (4+ miles or 44 minutes according to my Nike+) when my girlie woes hit a new low. I had a few cramps when I started running, but had always heard that exercise was supposed to lessen the pain, so I ran. When I was doubled over in pain after 44 minutes of running, nauseous and barely capable of walking, I decided that another 10 miles weren't going to help. We took a cab back to our car at the start. It's funny - I'd sometimes joked about taking a cab back to the start but never actually thought I would do it.

Regardless, my 44 minutes of running definitely seemed to cover the 20 minutes of moderate intensity cardio, so after I'd taken some ibuprofin and a 2 hour nap, I decided to tackle the rest of my requirements of the day: Core Workout #1.

First, the workouts are not available in the magazine, only online. I wasn't too crazy about that, but they were fairly easy to find and were available in slide show format (no audio or video downloads, but then again, Self didn't exactly do that part right either).

So what was Core Workout #1? Three core exercises:

#1 - Prone Plank: One of my favourites. They say to hold for 20-60 seconds each rep. No problem. How many reps? 2 sets of 10-12. Huh??? That's how many sets of push ups I'd expect to do, not of planks! I only held each for 30 seconds because I knew so many were coming, and I had a hard time completing the first set, let alone the second. But first thought is that this was a mistake, but then again, there were only three moves in this workout, so it is possible that it was intentional.

#2 - Locust: Holding each for 5-10 breaths. Again, 2 sets of 10-12 reps. Wah! Exhausting, but I did 2 sets of 10, holding each for 5 breaths. Almost.

#3 - Seated Ball Stabilizer. Sadly, I don't have a ball I could sit on, so I sat on the wobbliest of my bed and tried the move, but don't feel like I was getting anything from it. Also, it didn't say how many reps I should complete for this move, so I was assumed it was the standard 2 sets of 10-12.

Overall, the workout did not feel all that challenging.

Today, I had to do 25 minutes of moderate intensity cardio and Upper-Body Workout #1. For the cardio, I chose to do the Yourself! 30 minute cardio workout. It turned out to be only 22 minutes of cardio, so I paused the program and did an additional 3 minutes of jumping jacks to finish up. I don't know if it was actually moderate intensity or not but it was a higher intensity than the run yesterday.

I then finished the last few minutes of the Yourself! workout: some squats, pliés and the evil squat-lunges with bicep curls and flies. Then I moved onto the Upper-Body workout:

#1 - Bench Press with Dumbells: Straight forward enough - 2 sets of 15 reps with 8 lb weights, using foam roller as a bench (adds a bit of core work to the movement since you need to stabilize on the roller).

#2 - Standing V-Pull: This move required a machine, which I don't have, and since the workout doesn't specify an alternate or which muscles this move targets, I decided to do overhead presses - 2 sets of 15 reps with the 8lb weights.

#3 - Stability Ball Chest Press - Aside from the stability ball (which I still don't have), this move doesn't seem any different from the previous bench press, so I just did another two sets of 15 on the foam roller: it doesn't require as much core work, but 4 sets of intermediate core stabilizing is better than none.

#4 - Biceps Curls - 2 sets of 15 reps with 8lb weights. Nothing new here.

#5 - Rotating Triceps Kickbacks - Same as the usual kickbacks that I do, but with an arm twist at the end to turn the palms facing the ceiling. 2 sets of 15 reps with 8lb weights.

This workout felt more effective than yesterday's core workout.