So as you may know (if you follow me on social media), I spent the first two months of 2015 doing a low impact yoga/pilates program called PiYo. For 8 weeks I had to give up my love of weight lifting and HIIT cardio to reflect, wind down, and focus on the stretch and strength of my own body weight.
Why? To be honest I'm not really sure. I had the program sitting around for a while and I think a part of me was afraid of derailing my progress if I stopped lifting free-weight, so I put it off for a while. But I decided shortly after Christmas that I needed to start the year off on a good note. I needed to start it off with drive, an intense mind/body/spirit/connection, and of course balance.
You see, I'm not the best at balance. I LOVE to work. I LOVE to push myself. I usually find myself juggling fifty things at once and rocking the hell out of it until I eventually crack under the pressure and end up debilitated for days at a time. Despite me being
So even though I rocked the crap out of the latter half of 2014, I also found myself with five different jobs, an inactive social life and a face full of acne. NOT TO MENTION, this girl FULLY commits to the holiday season...EVERY...DAMN...TIME.
In four weeks (without looking at the scale) Between november and December I'm highly certain I gained like, ten pounds of bloat alone. Too many holiday comforts, but hey, totally worth it!
I thought focussing on strength and stretch would be the perfect remedy for all of this. And I was right!
...
So I'm just gonna give you the low-down here and will try to make it as concise as possible. I'm going to touch on the many many pros of the program, my own results, what to expect and some of the very few drawbacks.
MY PERSONAL RESULTS
(Because I know thats REALLY what you all wanna see, above everything else ;)
Doing this program was absolutely INCREDIBLE for my core strength. Was is slow-paced? Yes. Was it boring? I didn't think so. I've been doing HIIT and weight lifting for (holy crap) a little under a year now, and I never felt more core strength than I did when I was doing PiYo. I needed this, because core is one of those areas that I have the hardest time seeing PHYSICAL results in. And to be honest, I still do. Abs don't really peak through for me (yet). HOWEVER. I can tell you without a doubt that because of the emphasis on core and breath that this program had to offer, EVERYTHING ELSE became easier. I went back halfway through the program to do a high-intensity cardio day. I remember being SO nervous because I had been doing low impact for four weeks and thought I would be drenched in sweat and vomit within the first five minutes. What i found was quite the opposite. I SAILED through the cardio workout, having to take VERY few breaks, and felt little to no soreness after because of the flexibility I had been working on. The same was true when I started lifting weights again. The PiYo mission statement is simple. "You don't have to go low for me, but you do have to have great alignment." What does that mean? Chalene Johnson couldn't give a single care whether you can touch your toes and put your nose to your knee. All that matters is form. Not how flexible or strong you are. And because of the reiterated emphasis on form that she provided, weight lifting, running, plyo, EVERYTHING has become a LOT easier. THANK YOU PiYo!
Another thing that I noticed after doing PiYo was that I was just in a darn better mood. Partially because my body was being given a stretch daily that it needed, and partially because of the INSTRUCTOR.
Dudes.... like... oh wow. Deep breaths.I'M FACKING OBSESSED WITH CHALENE JOHNSON SHES MY LIFE!!!!!!!!
Okay so the instructor and creator of the program, Chalene Johnson, is legitimately amazing. I'm partially convinced we are soul mates. LOL! Is that weird?!?! Me and my friends joke about my Cha-ddiction all the time. TOTAL Chaddict. And it all started with PiYo! Within the first minute of the DVD the woman just has you smiling. She is encouraging, caring, and patient with you. She also is a mind reader. Anytime my form would slip, Chalene would say something on camera that I just NEEDED to hear. I think one of the reasons why I liked her as an instructor so much was because of her ability to kick your butt in the "gym" while maintaing SUCH a positive attitude. She smiles a lot! She reminds you to be grateful while you are working out. She points out positive things unrelated to working out that you wouldn't even notice. Like, while I'm in a pool of sweat on the floor she just slips in a "I'm so blessed to be able to work out with you today!" Or an, "I LOVE this song!" The woman just kept me smiling.
She's very modest! I never thought that would be a reason for enjoying a workout program but it was for me!
Like, you know when you go to the gym, and you're SUPER motivated. And then you get there and you see a TON of girls looking flyyyy as funkkkk in their brightly coloured spandex, and they somehow make sweat look good - not a single hair out of place?
And then you see a bunch of dudes benching more than your body weight, shredded as hell, not even breaking a sweat?
And then you're just like. "Okay... wheres the cheesecake bar at!?" And would rather go home and wallow in self-pity instead of DOING the work you CAME to do?! (Haha no joke, that happened to me once! Me and my friend left the gym and had cheesecake and cried. #rockbottom)
Ahaha Chalene Johnson does NOT make you feel that way! Which is so refreshing in the fitness industry. I mean, obviously if you are comparing yourself to people that have been in the gym for years it has less to do with them and more to do with your sense of security (WORKIN ON IT!). But the fact that Chalene is so modest in the way she dresses and acts (congratulating and encouraging her workout buddies) was very very comforting for me. I'm a bit convinced that my love for PiYo is 10% to do with the workouts and my results and 90% to do with Chalene Johnson. But as I said, I'm a chaddict. BACK ON TRACK.
I decided to do the program with a friend of mine, Sarah, who SPANKED PiYo. Both of us ate clean for 8 weeks (I had a couple weeks where I fell off track, I won't lie). Drank our Shakeology, and worked out roughly 6 times a week. After not working out in years, and in fact, THINKING that she wasn't making any strides in her physical fitness while DOING PiYo... THESE were Sarah's 8 week results.
THESE RESULTS ARE UN.REAL. So it goes to show, for those of you who are worried about doing PiYo because you are afraid low impact will hinder your progress, you couldn't be more wrong.
As for me, I was able to shed all the excess weight that I gained over Christmas. (Almost) Clear up my acne, and left PiYo with a super positive attitude. My actual WEIGHT LOSS number is unknown, because I'm a bad girl who forgot to take my stats. Number one things I noticed in my self were a tighter core and a lifted BUM. (The hamstring to bum swerve is getting real! Thank GAAD. Trying to grow this thanngg ;))
BEFORE PIYO
MY PERSONAL RESULTS
(Because I know thats REALLY what you all wanna see, above everything else ;)
Doing this program was absolutely INCREDIBLE for my core strength. Was is slow-paced? Yes. Was it boring? I didn't think so. I've been doing HIIT and weight lifting for (holy crap) a little under a year now, and I never felt more core strength than I did when I was doing PiYo. I needed this, because core is one of those areas that I have the hardest time seeing PHYSICAL results in. And to be honest, I still do. Abs don't really peak through for me (yet). HOWEVER. I can tell you without a doubt that because of the emphasis on core and breath that this program had to offer, EVERYTHING ELSE became easier. I went back halfway through the program to do a high-intensity cardio day. I remember being SO nervous because I had been doing low impact for four weeks and thought I would be drenched in sweat and vomit within the first five minutes. What i found was quite the opposite. I SAILED through the cardio workout, having to take VERY few breaks, and felt little to no soreness after because of the flexibility I had been working on. The same was true when I started lifting weights again. The PiYo mission statement is simple. "You don't have to go low for me, but you do have to have great alignment." What does that mean? Chalene Johnson couldn't give a single care whether you can touch your toes and put your nose to your knee. All that matters is form. Not how flexible or strong you are. And because of the reiterated emphasis on form that she provided, weight lifting, running, plyo, EVERYTHING has become a LOT easier. THANK YOU PiYo!
Another thing that I noticed after doing PiYo was that I was just in a darn better mood. Partially because my body was being given a stretch daily that it needed, and partially because of the INSTRUCTOR.
Dudes.... like... oh wow. Deep breaths.
Okay so the instructor and creator of the program, Chalene Johnson, is legitimately amazing. I'm partially convinced we are soul mates. LOL! Is that weird?!?! Me and my friends joke about my Cha-ddiction all the time. TOTAL Chaddict. And it all started with PiYo! Within the first minute of the DVD the woman just has you smiling. She is encouraging, caring, and patient with you. She also is a mind reader. Anytime my form would slip, Chalene would say something on camera that I just NEEDED to hear. I think one of the reasons why I liked her as an instructor so much was because of her ability to kick your butt in the "gym" while maintaing SUCH a positive attitude. She smiles a lot! She reminds you to be grateful while you are working out. She points out positive things unrelated to working out that you wouldn't even notice. Like, while I'm in a pool of sweat on the floor she just slips in a "I'm so blessed to be able to work out with you today!" Or an, "I LOVE this song!" The woman just kept me smiling.
She's very modest! I never thought that would be a reason for enjoying a workout program but it was for me!
Like, you know when you go to the gym, and you're SUPER motivated. And then you get there and you see a TON of girls looking flyyyy as funkkkk in their brightly coloured spandex, and they somehow make sweat look good - not a single hair out of place?
And then you see a bunch of dudes benching more than your body weight, shredded as hell, not even breaking a sweat?
And then you're just like. "Okay... wheres the cheesecake bar at!?" And would rather go home and wallow in self-pity instead of DOING the work you CAME to do?! (Haha no joke, that happened to me once! Me and my friend left the gym and had cheesecake and cried. #rockbottom)
Ahaha Chalene Johnson does NOT make you feel that way! Which is so refreshing in the fitness industry. I mean, obviously if you are comparing yourself to people that have been in the gym for years it has less to do with them and more to do with your sense of security (WORKIN ON IT!). But the fact that Chalene is so modest in the way she dresses and acts (congratulating and encouraging her workout buddies) was very very comforting for me. I'm a bit convinced that my love for PiYo is 10% to do with the workouts and my results and 90% to do with Chalene Johnson. But as I said, I'm a chaddict. BACK ON TRACK.
I decided to do the program with a friend of mine, Sarah, who SPANKED PiYo. Both of us ate clean for 8 weeks (I had a couple weeks where I fell off track, I won't lie). Drank our Shakeology, and worked out roughly 6 times a week. After not working out in years, and in fact, THINKING that she wasn't making any strides in her physical fitness while DOING PiYo... THESE were Sarah's 8 week results.
 |
| PiYo Results: Down 12lbs, 25cm |
As for me, I was able to shed all the excess weight that I gained over Christmas. (Almost) Clear up my acne, and left PiYo with a super positive attitude. My actual WEIGHT LOSS number is unknown, because I'm a bad girl who forgot to take my stats. Number one things I noticed in my self were a tighter core and a lifted BUM. (The hamstring to bum swerve is getting real! Thank GAAD. Trying to grow this thanngg ;))
BEFORE PIYO
AFTER PIYO
WHAT TO EXPECT:
So, if you've decided that you WANT to give this program a shot. I'm all for it! Expect 20-45 minute workouts, 6 Days a week. There are no weights, and more than half the time, NO shoes!!! (BONUS!)
A couple of things to keep in mind - your nutrition is the most important. Remember that! Alignment is key. Chalene will work on that with you.
Pro's to this program? It helped my mental and physical well being. Weight loss - check.
Instructor - CHECK CHECK CHECK.
Length of workouts - Good. I don't like working out for too long, to be honest. I'm busy doing the life thang! But this is an important part of your day, so GET IT IN!
Downside of this program? Hard to find one. It's hard getting used to low impact if you're used to high impact. I urge you to stick with this program and give it a chance. The only drawback? It's difficult to go back man!!! I started weight lifting again a couple of weeks ago and its HARD. My body feels tight. So if you're gonna to PiYo, you will probably end up incorporating into your workout routine for the rest of your liiiaaffee. You NEEDDDD to stretch it out.
The other thing to be aware of is that, there are only so many effective workouts you can do that are low impact without weight. So, a lot of the moves will be repeated. Which MIGHT be a little boring, but I didn't find so at all. I think Chalene and the fact that you're getting yourself into cool poses sort of makes up for it!
If you have any more questions, before purchasing this program PLEASE reach out to me! I can provide you with advice and accountability :) After all, thats what I'm here for!
Ciao now brown cow, we OUT.
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