There are a few modified moves for true beginners, but even for them, Michaels doesn’t cut much slack everyone has to do real jumping jacks, and a lot of them. “This helps you burn more fat and more calories, and gets you toned that much faster,” Michaels exhorts as she zips through the exercises. But that pacing helps guarantee the results that Michaels touts. The transitions between strength, which can feature classic moves like pushups or reps with small weights, and cardio, and then between cardio and abs, are a mere second or two. Michaels allows no resting between each short burst of exercise, which is part of why the results happen so quickly. Even the beginner-level workout will have users’ heart rates up. The 30 Day Shred features three 20-minute workouts, each of which features, in rapid succession, short bursts of strength, cardio, and abs, and a cool-down. But anyone who’s ever seen Michaels work out with contestants on The Biggest Loser knows it’s not necessarily going to be easy. There’s a reason her 30 Day Shred workout has become a national hit: it works. But now having completed 10 days of Level 1, Level 2 feels like Level 1 did at the beginning–tough, but manageable and transforming.When Jillian Michaels says “you can lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days” by following her 20-minute-a-day workout, believe her. The first two times was when I was still in the middle of doing Level 1, and I was almost ready to agree with the comments on the video that said Level 2 was ten times worse than Level 1. Looking Forward:Īs of today I have done the Level 2 workout three times already. And if you want it even a little easier, there are two different ladies demonstrating the workout at all times: one for more advanced people and one for beginners. Puts stress on your body but it doesn’t make you wanna give up. Level 1 is a pretty great segue into getting fit, I think. A little background: although I was active throughout high school, middle school was my peak for athleticism and I’ve exercised probably less than 20 times throughout my entire first year of college.
It also may be that the workout has given me a lot more muscle–I can feel it especially in my calves and inner thighs, and my arms, which have always been the weakest part of my body, can finally do a full Chaturanga! Muscle weighs more than fat, so now that I’ve got all this fat-burning muscle, hopefully the pounds will melt away faster! I’ll be honest, I expected the weight loss to go a little bit faster, but hey, it’s only about 25 minutes a day. Since the beginning of June (10 days) I’ve lost 1.6 pounds, give or take 0.4 pounds because my scale only reads in increments of 0.2 pounds.
But if you’re doing all those reps with legwork, it’s tough, and you probably wanna opt for a lighter weight. I can do 5-pound dumbbell curls in my sleep. Although it’s super painful, I appreciate the strength training–working big muscles (legs) with small muscles (arms) is very effective because not only does it burn extra calories, it puts on your body the stress it needs to change.įor dumbbells, I purchased 3-pounders and I’m really glad I did because my only other ones are 5-pounders, and I would have died.
The variety is refreshing, because I get bored with workouts quickly. You can find Level 1 on Youtube here, and here’s the workout breakdown, totaling 28 minutes:ģ0 seconds – dumbbell rows with half squatģ0 seconds – dumbbell rows with half squatģ0 seconds – cross punches with half squatĦ0 seconds – side lunges with front raises Oh, I think there’s also a diet plan somewhere on Jillian Michaels’ website but I didn’t bother looking for it because I’d be too lazy to follow it anyway.
Each level has three circuits.įor the 30 Day Shred, all you need is a gym mat and dumbbells. I tried combining Levels 1 and 2 for two days on June 6 and 7, but I ended up hurting my left quad, so take it from me, not the best idea.Īnyway, the main purpose of the 30 day shred is to build muscle and burn fat, which is why it combines 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs in each circuit. Well, just started is a bit of a misstatement. Since it’s June 11 today, I just started Level 2. The way it works is you spend 10 days on Level 1, the next 10 days on Level 2, and you guessed it, 10 days on Level 3. Yes, the quality is terrible, but those before and after pictures really motivated me to start the 30 Day Shred.
You can see some of the success stores here. This summer I’ve decided to finally buckle down and get serious about losing weight and getting fit, so for the month of June I decided to start Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred!