REEBOK STEP WORKOUT THAT I LOVE!

I just had to share what exercise video I did on Monday. I haven't done this one in years, and just about killed myself trying to keep up!

It's called Reebok Step, by Gin Miller, and I had put a link here, but it didn't work. I tried a couple others and the 'add link' must not be working properly. So you'll have to go to youtube.com and type in Reebok Step workout 1992. There's a few different ones posted.



It was produced in 1992 and I used to workout to it faithfully in the mid to late 90's. I was younger (obviously) and in great shape, and could do the entire video without stopping. Well... I'm 190 pounds and 20 years older. I can't believe it's been that long since I worked out to this tape on a regular basis. I still have the VHS tape, so THAT should have been a clue! It was very, very difficult to keep up, but it was still fun and motivating. I just like the rhythm of the music in this one. It kept me in great shape, back in the day, so I'm going to stick with it, and build my strength and stamina back up with time. This will be a great barometer as to how I'm doing, especially if the scale won't move. This workout really, really shapes your legs and butt! It's about 45 minutes long with a warm up, a few floor exercises at the end, and cool down included. I had to stop and drink water, periodically spritz my face and chest with water (I was sweatin' like crazy!) and catch my breath by stepping in place on the floor, once in a while. I just kept moving, but waited until my heart rate was in a safer zone. I wear a 'watch' that monitors my heart rate, so I know where I'm at. I'm one of those people that get way too enthusiastic, and will over do it if I'm not careful. The video also has a couple of spots where they do a countdown pulse check too. At the end of the video Gin Miller goes through an 8 minute instruction for beginners.

I also have to say that back in March I TRIED TO step up and down on it gently like a regular stair, at the lowest 4" height, and I just couldn't handle the sharp pain under my knee caps. My range of motion wouldn't allow it. I've been having off and on pain in my knees for over a year. Sometimes when I'm going down a flight of stairs, I have to do that decent with one foot on the next step down, and place the trailing foot on that same step! And continue that way all the way down! Going up wasn't quite that bad, which was weird, but it hurt. That was one of the main reasons... of many... that pushed me back onto SparkPeople, and do something about my situation. I had to start doing something right away, or I was going to be laid up, and disabled. If I was this bad already at middle age, at this rate, I'd never make it to my senior years without a cane or wheelchair.

I started with changing the bulk of my diet first and made progress. I went from 204 to 190 since May 28th. It's been stable there for the last couple of weeks. That's sort of a lot of weight to lose in less than 4 weeks, but before my diet had a lot of milk, cheese, chocolate, cereal, breads, real butter, etc. It wasn't the volume I was eating, but WHAT I was eating. I changed it up with lots of veggies, protein smoothies, chicken and fish. Right away I started to lose fat. My jeans got loser too. That drastic of a change in diet made it easy to lose the first bit of weight.



So yesterday I was actually able to put it on the lowest height, 4" high, which is just the base, without the feet extensions attached. That felt fine and even too low. So I put on the extension feet at the 6" height... tested it out... and decided that was perfect for now. I'm not going to go to 8" until I can get through the workout without stopping. I was amazed that I could step up on it without any pain at all! Back in March I was hovering around 204-210 pounds and now I'm at 190. Just those 14-20 pounds off my knee joints made all the difference to do this workout again! I used to have it on the highest position years ago, and worked out to the entire tape no problem. Now I have to start at the 6 inch height. That's fine with me as long as I can do it AT ALL! You have no idea how excited about the improvement I was having already!













So this is just a workout tape I wanted to share in case anyone was interested. It's also something I wanted to document here to see where I started, and how long it's going to take me to get up to speed. I'm sure it's going to be a long road, but it's one I need to travel. If I want to be a normal, functioning, healthy person again, then this is what I have to do.

So if you like the look of something more 'hardcore'... not so 'fluffy' videos, with a woman's voice that isn't annoying like so many can be, and has drumming music, visually interesting (at least to me) you might like this.

I do have some other DVD's to workout to, and I'll probably give a little review of what I think of them at some point too. There are also so many good channels on youtube for workout videos. I'm just beginning to get back into them to see what looks good.

I'm on the 5% Summer Challenge now that started last Saturday. I goes for 8 weeks, so that means my goal is 8.5 pounds down in that period of time. To me that doesn't seem like much. So I'm going to try and get more off if I can. Maybe 16? That would average 2 pounds a week. I've done that before, but... I was in my 20's at the time, and that's all I needed to lose. So I'm not so sure what will happen this time around. I just need to stay focused and do this video as often as possible! I'm looking forward to this journey. I'm going to enjoy the process and savor any and all accomplishments I make along the way. I'll never take my health and fitness for granted again.

Whew... this is a long blog. If anyone has good videos they want to recommend, I'd LOVE to hear about it!

Have a great week!