Our daily PoleFreaks Body Blitz Workouts are designed to work all areas of your body for a short amount of time. One day you might be working your abs, the next your legs. It’s all well and good me telling you how great these workouts are for you, but unless I do them myself, who am I to talk?

That is what this blog is for. I’ve decided to do the workouts as they come out everyday and let you know how I get on with them. So, here we go…

Friday 25th Jan 2013 – Abs

So this is day one. To set the scene, I’ve just got back from my first ever skiing trip to Austria (very lucky me!) and am going straight into a 12hr work day (not so lucky). Not looking forward to it and it also means no time for the gym today. So I’ve woken up early to do this workout.

I enjoyed the section on my feet with the twisting as I know I don’t work my obliques nearly enough! Our first set of sit ups on the floor worried  me as I do a lot of sit ups and so couldn’t really feel much working. However as soon as I started the 50 sit ups I knew I’d be able to feel something. I’d put music on in the background and so the 15 mins seemed to go pretty quick. I can feel my abs are working today so that’s great! All in all a good start to my Body Blitz workout 🙂

Saturday 26th Jan 2013 – Arms

At first I search around for a couple of cans before remembering that I have many sets of weights! The closest was the 5kg so I just grabbed these to use. Now, I can lift my own body weight easy-peasy but when it comes to using little weights I find it such a struggle.

I found most of these moves quite difficult and I know that my technique was pretty bad. I don’t often use weights when working on my arms as I struggle with it… and today is no exception. I may have just grabbed much too heavy weights in the first place. That said I know I wouldn’t workout in this way by myself and am actually tempted to do this one again in a few days time!

Sunday 27th Jan 2013 – Thighs

On the first time through I had to pause the video between moves so I had enough time to get ready for the next move. By the second time through I managed to keep up. I was even a little worn out after the third time through!

I really liked the moves on the floor, I could feel all those moves working my muscles  It did take me a while to get my body in the right position for crossing one leg over and lifting the under leg up. I’m used to doing squats and lunges with weights so it’s nice to have some new moves to try.

Monday 28th Jan 2013 – Stretching and Flexibility

I really liked this one. I find stretching very relaxing. The only problem I had was with my ‘Dive Bomb’. I was not prepared for this one so early in the morning!

I actually could feel my legs working from yesterdays Body Blitz workout and today I cycled to the gym and went for a long run… it felt nice to stretch afterwards!

Tuesday 29th Jan 2013 – Lower Back

The room I was doing this in was quite small so I was a little destructive when having my leg and arm out to opposite sides!

All of the moves on my stomach took me back to my gymnastic days and hours and hours of holding these moves. It was nice to have a little glimpse of them again. I don’t often stretch or work on my back that often and I personally get quite a stiff back so it felt good to give it a little attention today.

Wednesday 30th Jan 2013 – Balance

I thought today’s workout was going to be really easy. And it was. The hard part was not falling over! I’m actually a little surprised at how I wobbled with certain moves. I can go from side to side well but the forwards and backwards movements almost had me tumbling!

Thursday 31st Jan 2013 – Cardio

Well now I’m sweating! I really enjoy cardio and do a lot of it throughout the week so although it made me work hard, I could cope with it well. That said, I hate burpees. Always have, always will. For some reason my body repels against them and I end up jumping quite a few times on the way up so I get even more worn out. Glad I did them though… I guess 🙂

Friday 1st February 2013 – Spine

This was quite a nice little workout. Very relaxing yet I could feel my core working. It was a nice change to yesterdays cardio! I went to the gym and pole studio yesterday as well and am suffering a little today so I’m in favour of this gentle workout right now.

Saturday 2nd February 2013 – Legs

Now I had to cheat on this one a little. I came home from work on Saturday with a very, very bad headache and couldn’t even open my eyes without extreme pain… So I had to give myself a break and do this on Sunday, not Saturday!

I loved this workout 🙂 I much prefer running in the gym and doing squats and lunges rather than moves like in this workout. So when it’s so easy to follow I actually really enjoy it. I put my music on in the background and off I went.

Sunday 3rd February 2013 – Wrist

I’ve not really worked on strengthening my wrists before. It was a bit of a strange feeling! I know I’ve got really weak wrists so for me this one was really important to do. I made sure I started off using really light weights so that I wouldn’t damage my wrists by doing too much too soon.

Now that I know some good exercises for wrist strengthening, I feel more inclined to do them at the gym. Although if I were at the gym I’d much rather be in the pole studio 🙂

Monday 4th February 2013 – Bum

I found this one very fast paced and never really sure what I was to be put through next. It really worked all the areas it was meant to and greatly challenged my balancing skills when I had to lean over with the weights.

I had to put on music as usual and just got carried away with the moves. I can already tell that I’m going to feel this one tomorrow – but I love that feeling!

Tuesday 5th February 2013 – Abs

Love, love, love, love, love this workout! I always enjoy working on my abs. My technique was pretty poor for any and all of the pilates leg moves but I gave it my best shot. I’m going to do this workout more often I think.

I loved the pilates side hip raises as I rarely work this area. And it hurt too… in a good way.

Wednesday 6th February 2013 – Whole Body Workout

 Brilliant. I didn’t think I was going to do well on this one as I had recently eaten most of a large pizza… whoops.

I actually found most of the exercises okay to do – this is the kind of workout I usually do in the gym but I add on weights where I can. The worst bit for me was most definitely the mountain climbers! Ouch. I may have given up a little on the first round but was determined to power through. I know they’re good for me but they hurt.

Thursday 7th February 2013 – Stretching

I love a good stretch but don’t vary my stretching as often as I should. Back in my gymnastic days I used to do box splits stretches and bridges daily but now I tend to forget about them. Videos like this are great for me for a reminder of how good it feels to stretch.

Although I did this workout close to bed time I actually feel the most physically awake than I have done for a long time. I’m thinking that I’m going to need to some how work bridges into my daily office work 🙂

Friday 8th February 2013 – Legs and Arms

I always wonder how I can easily lift my own body weight and yet give me some actually weights and I’m lost! These weights weren’t even heavy though! I had to give my arms a break at one point but other than that I powered through – and I think that’s the main thing!

I was quite happy that my balance has improved recently though. Yay for me!

Saturday 9th February 2013 – Cardio

I actually liked this one. I hated the burpees… still can’t quite get those right! This workout really got my heart rate up and got me sweating a lot. I appreciated the 20 seconds marching out although I decided to dance through it 🙂 I really liked the pendulum swing, it was a fun little move.

My main problem was my hair. I just had a fringe cut and it kept getting in my eyes. I’m such a girl!

Sunday 10th February 2013 – Yoga Stretches

I quite liked this workout. I had already been to the pole studio and gym earlier in the day and was a little worn out so it was good that today’s workout was a nice one.

I have to sit down in a office more than I’d like and so it was good to stretch out the whole body. I did yawn quite a bit though – not sure if it’s because I was tired or relaxed. Felt good either way.

Monday 11th February 2013 – Plank Challenge

I really like the idea of the plank challenge, and what a challenge it is! I do quite a lot of planks so some of them weren’t too tricky. The thing I found the hardest was lifting up my lower leg and holding it there. Too many things for me to focus on!

I managed to get all the way through but did have to cheat a little bit – I couldn’t quite lift up my under leg and so had to ‘break form’. No cheating next time, promise!

Tuesday 12th February 2013 – Push-Ups

Massive fail! I’m not even going to pretend I was good at this, I was rubbish. I’m not a fan of push-ups anyway and only do them when I’m made to in a class. I got most of the way through the first exercise and 3 sets but had to move my arms out one at a time rather than jumping them out.

I found even this first little bit tricky and very straining and had to give up. Sad but true. I watched all the way through but didn’t have enough strength to try again. At least I’ve got something to work on.

Wednesday 13th February 2013 – Yoga Legs

I liked this one compared to yesterday! I think I need slightly more patience when it comes to yoga – I get a move and want to move on to the next before holding it long enough to feel the benefit.

I made myself work to the timing on the video and didn’t rush it so I’m proud of that!

Thursday 14th February 2013 – Cardio

Fast feet made me very happy… I do it all the time but never knew it was technically an exercise, I just thought it was fun.

This was quite a nice selection of moves. It didn’t take too long at all but it got my heart rate up. I shall be doing fast feet everyday!

Friday 15th February 2013 – Stretches

I can never get enough of stretching, it always makes me feel sooo good afterwards. I know that the more I stretch, the more flexible I’ll be too so it’s a win, win for me.

I’ve also decided that I would like a cheer leading outfit.  It may be the costume for my next pole performance!

Saturday 16th February 2013 – Abs

I found this a lot more do-able than the plank challenge, although it was still very difficult! I sweated a lot and was shaking by the end of it. I usually do quite a lot of sit-ups and so I was used to these exercises – although not all at once.

The only thing I couldn’t do was the Spider Man press-ups so I left out the press-up part and just did a Spider Man plank. It was good! I managed to do most of the advanced versions too so I’m pretty happy with that.

Sunday 17th February 2013 – Kickboxing

I quite liked this one – got the heart rate up and got me sweating a little. I was surprised that my coordination seemed to be all over the place! I had to rewind and go over bits again. That made for a longer workout though which was good.

Throughout the jumping jacks there was a clicking noise coming from somewhere which I can only hope was from something in my living room than a part of my body!!

Monday 18th February 2013 – Back Flexibility

It is such a short workout but I don’t think that I could have done it for much longer!! The first stretches were fine as I used to have to do them back in my gymnastic days but the last one was a killer. I’m not nearly flexible enough for that but I knew that already.

I guess it’s one to keep working on and improving.

Tuesday 19th February 2013 – Lower Body

I’m used to doing squats and lunges but not for this long! I actually enjoyed this workout – I could do all the moves and felt myself working hard. I was sweating by the end of it.

I hadn’t come across some of the moves before so that was interesting for me. I found the U Leg Lifts the most tricky but made it through it all.

Wednesday 20th February 2013 – Shoulders

I couldn’t really feel anything after the first time through but after speeding it up and going through it again, I could definitely feel it by the second and third times through.

I always find shoulder workouts tough and usually give up… but I didn’t this time! Yay me!

Thursday 21st February 2013 – Arms and Abs

I actually found this tough! I managed to do it all but I could certainly feel my abs working. It was great. I like being able to feel the abs.

As usual I found the push-ups tricky – I managed to do them all but only a half push-up. I feel that’s progress though.

Friday 22nd February 2013 – Glutes

I liked this workout. It wasn’t as difficult as I initially thought it would be but I could feel my muscles working, which is great.

I found the rotations very strange as I have not done these before. I felt that my feet were not in the correct position as my knees felt uncomfortable but I found that rotating less worked better for me. I hope I’ll feel this one in the morning!

Sat 23rd February 2013 – Obliques

Loved the oblique exercises but not so much the cardio element. For some reason it didn’t agree with me. I had to cheat a little as I got a phone call half way through that I had to take, so I got a few minutes break.

It felt good to focus on my obliques as they are quite often forgot about – I try to do a few appropriate sit-ups but never this many!

Sunday 24th February 2013 – Legs

Ouch! This was quite a tough one to get though – especially when he said we were only half way thorough, I didn’t quite believe him.

I’m in the process of moving house and my weights are now packed so I used tins of soup which are quite light but now I’m glad I didn’t use anything heavier. I found it all very fast but I know I would have slowed down or stopped if he had given me a short break. I got through and even have a quote of the day: ‘If it was easy, everyone would do it!’

Monday 25th February 2013 – Ballet Body Conditioning

I enjoyed the stretching element to this workout – it felt good seeing as I can still feel the effect of the last few days workouts! I love ballet and used to do this a lot when I was younger. It’s great to get back into feeling more graceful which is important for pole dancing.

I enjoyed the boy and his comedy effect! This video has made me feel like I constantly need to stretch, which can only be a good thing!

My Review…

One month on and I’m feeling pretty good!

When I first started doing these Body Blitz workouts I wasn’t sure whether I’d have enough time to carry on doing them. I’ve found that some days I was unable to do the workouts but made sure I made up for it the next day. While I know the body needs a rest, I think it’s important to use workouts of different lengths to help the body recover.

I’ve also found that the more I’ve been doing these workouts, the less I’ve been going to the gym. I find that the workouts that I do usually get me sweating and aching (in a good way) the next day, where as my routine in the gym doesn’t often vary. I think I’ve certainly benefited from these workouts and will carry on doing them too.

I like that they highlight areas that I need to work on and give me a well rounded workout as well. I’ve designed them so that day after day they focus on a different area of the body.

I think this must have benefitted my pole dancing! I certainly feel a lot stronger in most parts of my body, which is brilliant. I’m working on the strength in my arms which is getting more and more every day.

All in all I found the Body Blitz workouts well worth doing and certainly took up a lot less time than getting to the gym and then working out. I’m excited that I’m motivated to carry on doing these workouts, even though I’ll no longer be documenting my efforts. Bring on tomorrows Body Blitz 🙂