Time for another review of a never-been-tried DVD (for me): Iso Abs, part of the One on One series by Tony Horton. I was heading for an upper body workout today, but didn't really feel like it. Motivation is a funny thing. If I only worked out when I'm motivated, I'd probably end up working out twice a month. The key is to work out even when you don't feel like it. As Tony points out in the DVD, if you're upper body is sore, work on the lower body. If your lower body is sore, work on the upper body. If both your upper body and lower body are sore, work on the middle. There's always something which can occupy your attention.
Well, my body wasn't particularly sore this morning, but my mind wasn't particularly willing. So, I put Iso Abs into the DVD player and hit 'play'. This is an interesting collection of moves, ten in all, twelve reps per move. The entire sequence of ten moves is done twice over the course of the workout, for a total of twenty, taking approximately 40 minutes of gut wrenching time.
Unlike Ab Ripper X (from P90X), which moves at a fast pace, each move in this workout is done rather slowly, occasionally holding isometric postures, which can be excruciating. At times, I had to rest my legs on the floor to take a break for a rep or two for recovery purposes, then jumped back into the fun. The good thing about the speed of the movements (or lack thereof) is that you have an opportunity to focus on your breath and your form. As Tony suggests, if you take the emotion out of your face and breathe deeply, you can concentrate on putting the energy and effort where it's required, namely, in your abs. It's easier said than done.
This was an excellent ab workout which moved much faster (in terms of elapsed time) than I thought it would. A 40-minute ab workout seemed daunting, but the time actually passed rather quickly. It's definitely a keeper.
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