30 Day Shred - Level 2

Okay, so if I was to sum up level two in a single caption, it would be this:

The workout goes a little something like this:

CIRCUIT 1

Strength
30 secs x walking push-ups
1 minute x stationary squat with a back row
Repeat

Cardio
30 secs x high knees
30 secs x plank thrusts

Abs 
1 minute crunches with a single leg raise

CIRCUIT 2

Strength
30 secs x stationary lunge with a back row
1 min x pendulum lunges with hammer curls
Repeat

Cardio
30 secs x oblique twists
30 secs x skaters
Repeat

Abs
30 secs x leg raises with a stationary weight lift
30 secs x crunches with a bum lift

CIRCUIT 3 

Strength
30 secs x military extensions and leg kick
1 minute x chair squat with a v raise
Repeat

Cardio 
30 secs x plank jacks
30 secs x double jump rope

Abs
1 minute x plank twists

As you can see, you spend a lot of this workout in the plank position. That is, holding up your bodyweight in a straight line like so:

Image via

Planks has been a pretty permanent fixture of my own workout for the past year or so, but I still found the exercises tough. The plank jacks and the plank thrusts in particular kicked my butt.

Whereas in level one I felt the cardio was a welcome break from the strength exercises, in level two Jillian starts to introduce resistance to these sections, so the circuit becomes pretty relentless.

In terms of the scale... well, there hasn't been any dramatic change on that front. In fact, the number has started to float up again. However, I've been really strict with my diet and have yet to check my measurements, so it could be a case of I'm losing inches, but gaining precious muscle mass.

I don't know, we'll see. I'll let you know my results when I complete level three next week!