Fitness Journal - Yourself!Fitness

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

18 Jul 2007 12:26 PM

Okay, this is a bit weird and a different step from usual - I pulled out my copy of Yourself!Fitness for the Xbox. I used this workout 'game' for many months, but stopped about six or seven months ago because - well frankly I was bored with it. I'd used it for more than a year and I think I'd run out of interesting permutations and the workouts all began to feel the same.

I plugged it into the Xbox and fired it up. I decided that rather than picking up from where I'd been before, I'd start over from scratch so I did the jumping jacks it asked me for (30) and then the sit ups (21) and the marching in place and taking my pedometer. At the end of the assessment, I found that it measured me a level or so above where I'd been when I shut the game off before.

I admit that made me feel good. After all, isn't it great when you receive an acknowledgement for the work you do? It's the difference between knowing you did well on a test and seeing the A on your graded paper - well, at least it is for me. So ready to get going, I chose a cardio workout from the selection screen. I let the program know I still had some free weights and a balance ball as well as my heart rate monitor and we were off to the races.

The thirty minute program kept me hopping. My heart rate fluctuated between 130 and 140 - I think it's climbing because of the medication that I'm on. I made sure to keep drinking plenty of water so I didn't dehydrate, but I was a dripping, sweating mess by the time I was finished and I wasn't just fatigued, my muscles felt like limp noodles.

The program is great, I may not go back to using it every day again, but it's definitely worth dusting off to change up the routine. How are you doing with your personal workouts?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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