Has anyone noticed that daytime soap operas are making a comeback in a big way? This month's issue of Shape Magazine is living proof with the Days of Our Lives star, Alison Sweeney as the cover girl. Although I have seen Alison Sweeney's hilarious Ellen reaction, I did not know much about her before reading the article. After reading her interview, I was inspired and seriously excited to try her workout. Anyone who can be as busy as she is and manage to go from a size 12 to a 4 (and keep it off) most likely has a pretty good fitness plan.
Alison works out between three and six times a week. This workout is super quick and should only take about ten minutes, but promises to work both the upper and lower body. The only downside of the workout that I can see so far is that almost every exercise calls for weights. Weights are an important part of training and toning, and even though I know this, I still hate reviewing workouts that use them. The average person does not have weights in there home or a membership to a gym. This makes exercises with weights difficult for them to do, and therefore, difficult for me to review. But, this workout looks too fun and too easy to skip over for any reason.
If you do not have weights but want to do this workout, sub them out for some 32 ounce water bottles, a small bag of books, your cat/small dog, candles, or anything else you can find that is about five pounds and is easy to hold.
The Workout
Alison's trainer recommends doing this ten minute circuit three times for a total of thirty minutes. There are five sets in a circuit and each set has ten reps. One circuit burned about 70 calories and took almost exactly ten minutes. Each circuit is intense and three together would be a workout of workouts.
Doing or not doing this workout would hinge on whether or not you have weights. If you do have them available to you, I would highly recommend this. If not, you may want to do another one of the May workout plans. I completed this workout after my 2.5 mile run and was exhausted by the end. This workout will work your legs, core, and arms like few other things, and keeps exercises switched up enough that you will not get bored!
One of the most surprising things to me was the lack of soreness the next day. I could not walk without pain after doing the Jillian Michaels May workout last week and was expecting that same soreness to return. There was no soreness the next day, but I do think this would truly increase my arm strength if done for a long period of time.