Day 5: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X

Pullup bar at the ready, I dove into my first “real” go at Legs and Back. Unfortunately, having done Yoga X a mere 12 hours prior, I was already pretty exhausted. Regardless, this video has a couple of issues for me and other unfit people like me. First, I found myself getting so cardiovascularly winded that I wasn’t able to do some of the reps even though my muscles could have handled it, and second, many of the leg moves require you to squat using just one leg. If (like me), your legs are too weak to do a full-depth squat on just one leg, you may feel like you’re not getting as good a workout as you probably should be. I’m hoping that this will improve with time, but I feel that I might get more out of it if I modify and do more two leg squats with added weight until I’ve built up my strength sufficiently to do at least a few reps with proper form and depth on one leg.

That said, I know my legs got a decent workout. How do I know this? The pullups told me so! I can’t do pullups unassisted, so I used the lowest step on my footstool for assistance. By crouching low, I was able to fully extend my arms and “hang” on the bar, then when it was time to pull up, I pushed up out of the squat to assist. It’s hard to know how much of my weight was being borne by my legs, but going from what I was able to pullup the last time I used the pullup machine at the gym, I would guess I was using my legs for around 60% of my weight. At first it was no problem, but by the end my legs were threatening to give out with every pullup. Oh, and speaking of pullups – screw you, Tony Horton. It is unnatural to expect a woman of any reasonable size (i.e., not that skinny bitch Dreya) to be able to pull up her own body weight! I am 6’ tall and I weigh 190 lbs, which I am relatively certain is MORE than you, Tony. So suck it!!!!!!

My second go at Ab Ripper X was slightly more successful than the first (164 total reps), but no less painful. Really, there are no words for how ridiculous this video is.