Today's workout

10 minutes on the Arc Machine, resistance of 25, then down to 10, for two minutes...

Then after we warmed up on that machine, she took us over to the treadmill and had us do seven minutes on an incline of 15, which a bit higher than this next picture shows...

She then had us reduce the incline to what you see here and hold a weighted medicine bowl in our hands while we walked.  Then, she had us hold the medicine ball over our heads for 30 seconds.  Talk about hard...  but I did it.

After the treadmill routine, she took us into the studio room with the mirrors and had us balance on a bosu ball and lift 8 pound weights to our shoulders, then up while attempting to balance on this funny looking half ball.

It is very difficult to even stay on the ball, this image from the web shows someone without shoes, but we were wearing our shoes. I was able to do a few lifts, step off the ball for a second and then reposition myself and do a couple more.  I changed out the 8 pounders for 5 pound weights for the next set which was doing squats with only one foot on the ball, while bring our arms out straight from our sides while holding the weights. Intense to be sure.

Then we put on our boxing gloves and did three sets, one minute each on the stand up punching bag.

These bad boys are weighted enough to keep from moving much, but if you punch hard enough they will move around the room.  That's always fun.

After the punching bag, we did crunches touching opposite arm to opposite leg.  That was a good ab workout and when we were done here, she said now turn over on your mat (I thought she was going to have us do a nice relaxing ab stretch)... and do planks.

The gentleman in this image from the web makes it look easy, but believe me, at this stage of the game it's not yet simple.  I can do it for about 5-6 seconds at a time.  It's a killer exercise and I'm sure at the end of 15 weeks we will have mastered it.

We then do our stretches and cool down while sitting on the mat.  I guess she knows we are so tired we can hardly get up.

My recovery time is increasing by leaps and bounds, as is my strength and endurance.  I'm really glad we decided to do this.

Oh, by the way, I did lose one pound at today's weigh in. Hubby stayed the same, I think Pete gained  and Gail lost.

Hubs and I are being especially diligent about our food diary, measuring and weighing all our food.  It's all part of the experience.

Well, hope that some of these routines are ones that you can incorporate into your workouts.  Thanks for keeping up with me in my journey toward strength and health.

Be back soon with more fun stuff.  See ya then!