It has only just come to my attention that Paul, when he doesn’t know where an item goes, just leaves it in the dishwasher. Now, I know we’ve all been THOROUGHLY SCHOOLED in how we are never, ever, EVER to criticize our spouse’s Alternate and Equally Legitimate Way of Doing Things. But surely this only applies when the spouse’s way is not WRONG. There are many ways to legitimately unload a dishwasher, but I submit that ALL those ways result in an UNLOADED DISHWASHER. Plus, it has been a long time since there was anything to tease Paul about.
I did The Shred for the second time. The nice thing about being a late adopter is that I’ve already read everyone’s stories of ouchie knees and not being able to walk up stairs and so forth, so although I might not avoid these problems myself, I can at least alternate The Shred with other kinds of exercise to reduce the injuries. Anyway, I have several comments:
1. THANK YOU to everyone who mentioned I can TURN JILLIAN’S VOICE OFF. I think it is very funny that they included that as a feature on the DVD. Like they knew we’d want that. I turned it off already, because after only one viewing I was already FULL UP of her telling me that if I wanted a workout that was only 20 minutes I wasn’t going to get any breaks. Well, DO excuse me, Jillian, if I continue to be the one to make the decisions about that.
2. Also, it doesn’t really matter how many times she says it’s only 20 minutes, it’s closer to 30.
3. And speaking of reading everyone else’s reports, I’ve read “You can do anything for 20 minutes!” a zillion quintillion times, and I think it is safe to say “Nonsense” in a firm, Mary Poppins sort of voice. I failed both the “hand in ice water” test and the “clothespin on finger” test in childbirth preparation class, and neither of those were anywhere near as long as 20 minutes. (And speaking of which, I don’t see how either of those prepared us for the sensation of being repeatedly stabbed with a knife in the pelvic region for 27 hours. Though I guess I can see why they would find it difficult to simulate that.) As it turns out, I CAN do the level-one Shred workout, but that’s not because I can do anything for 20 minutes, it’s because it’s a whole bunch of much shorter things. If it were 20 minutes of just push-ups, I wouldn’t be able to do it, because (and here we come back to my main point) I can’t in fact do anything for 20 minutes. /vent And also, it’s more like 30. /vent again
4. I got a yoga mat on Freecycle, and I’m surprised how much comfier that makes the sit-ups and push-ups. The mat is so THIN, I wouldn’t think it would help at all. A large part of it is that it keeps me from having to put my hands and knees on the floor crumbs.
5. Even being aware of the knee problems, and even modifying exercises that seem knee-dangerous, I STILL feel it in my knees. Has anyone verified that Jillian knows what she’s doing?
3 – hahaha! That is the same reason I like my yoga mat.
4 – she hurts my knees too, I had to stop the program several times because my knees hurt too much. I kind of hate her.
HILARIOUS. I saw a thing where she was being interviewed on tv and they did a surprise raid of her fridge and it had nothing but Ben and Jerrys ice cream. I laughed my face off.
It doesn’t hurt my knees, which worries me to the point that I think maybe it DOES and I am just too far gone to realize it? Like when your brakes stop making noise, it’s too late and there are no brakes left? Anyways. I try to keep all my weight in my heels and I have never had a problem with JM and her crazy-ass stretches. The one that I think is really weird, I don’t know if it’s Level 1 or not, is where you put your hands on your knees and sort of swing your ass around? I have to really concentrate to move my bottom and not my knees to avoid pain there.
I know about the ‘closer to 30 minutes’ thing! I tried to get up 20 minutes early to do it and I was off track all morning getting ready for work.
And the knees! I did the level 3 workout the first time and about died. I modified pretty much everything back to level 1/level 2.
I hate Jillian, but it makes the punching cardio all the more fun when it’s her face I’m punching at.
And my husband doesn’t put away anything plastic from the dishwasher. He ALWAYS says that there’s water in all the ridges/lids/flanges and stacks it all in the drying rack on the counter. OR YOU COULD JUST DRY THEM ON A TOWEL AND PUT THEM AWAY. It’s pretty much the same amount of work. He’s banking that I’ll get sick of it and put them away. And I caught on to that looong ago.
I made it through one week of the Shred before I gave up. My knees couldn’t handle it – even the modified exercises. “You can do anything for 20 minutes,” is crap. I started Couch to 5K last night and the longest you ever run, during the first week, is for 60 seconds at a time, and towards the end even that seemed impossible.
If it hurts your knees, you need to stop or modify. There is a difference between muscle pain and joint/ligament pain. I don’t mean to sound anti-shred but if people are unable to walk because of knee pain, then there might be something wrong with that particular workout. There are a lot of workout quacks out there *ducks to avoid getting things thrown at me by shred-people*
The dishwasher made me laugh. I hate unloading the dishwasher. If my husband unloaded it, he would be getting lucky a LOT more, believe me. That would be like foreplay.
I think that last question is hilarious. I mean, in a terrible way, but how awesome would it be if it turned out that the number one most popular exercise DVD was produced by a quack who didn’t check for the safety of her exercises?
Oh, man, I loved the crumbs comment!
Also, I’ve found that the knees problem is short for me… it’s like my knees just need to build up some strength and then they don’t hurt anymore. My upper thighs though? UGGGGG. I actually like the 30DS, when I actually DO it, which isn’t all that often.
Can I just commiserate on the dishwasher story? I travel fairly frequently for work. When I come home after having been gone for 3 days, the dishwasher will be running at about 1/2 capacity filled with dishes, while the remaining 2 days worth of dishes are tumbled into the sink. It took me a little while but I figured out that the hubs was: (a) not fully emptying the clean dishes from the dishwasher, and instead (b) just taking out enough to put some more in, so that (c) he could turn the dishwasher on in order to “get credit” for the fact that the dishwasher was running and thus that there was cleaning being done. Of course this does nothing for the crumby, sticky table and floors, but from his point of view, he GETS CREDIT for CLEANING! This is quite an insight into the way his mind works, let me tell you. I love him anyway, but on those nights, I COULD KILL WITH MY BARE HANDS.
But Paul LIVES THERE. How can you not AT LEAST make a solid effort to guess on the correct location when you LIVE THERE?
my knees are one of the few body parts that i DON’T have trouble with these days, so i can manage the shred OK on that front. i find it much harder on my shoulders, which is odd because with all the pole i do i actually have quite strong shoulders now. but then again i’ve spent my entire life doing sports and going to gyms where they stress proper knee position so you don’t hurt/strain those, and very little time having anyone tell me how not to stress/hurt my shoulders when working them out a lot. so maybe that’s it?
i think we can all agree that emptying the dishwasher should, in fact, result in an EMPTY DISHWASHER.
Well that means the thirty day shred is permanently out for me, since I have crap knees to begin with and am supposed to avoid doing anything that puts too much pressure on them. OH WELL!
Also, I never actually did childbirth prep class since I was already on bedrest when we were signed up to take it, but… hand in ice water? Clothespin on finger? Those aren’t really anything like getting through a contraction. That just seems weird to me. Maybe having someone give you an indian burn for ninety seconds? Or squeeze an arm or thigh muscle really, uncomfortably hard?
Geez, so many good ideas here. I should totally teach a rogue class on my own out of my living room.
The shred is killer, but I like the workouts. I found the 2nd workout more to my taste, but I’ve never even watched the third. What am I talking about…I haven’t even done the workout in almost 6 months.
Jillian is so mean! I feel like she’s yelling at you for buying her 20-minute workout instead of doing an Iron Man like a REAL (WO)MAN. Even 600 pound men can do the jumping jacks YOU SLACKER. And yet I have never turned off her voice. Glutton for punishment much?
And I firmly agree with your conclusion that you can’t ACTUALLY do ANYTHING for 20 minutes – I can’t even get through the pushups. And that’s like, what, two minutes?
Also, I am not a mom so have never dealt with the whole childbirth thing… But they really had you put a clothespin on your finger to “prepare”? Wow.
I can’t remember if I said this in my previous comment, but I think Jillian only mentions once that when bending at the knee, the knee bend should not extend past the toes. When tired, it’s easy for me to get sloppy and not pay attention to this little detail, but it does make a difference. Having said that, my knees still hurt some days and I simply do fewer reps of the dangerous moves while maintaining the upper body action with the hand weights.
Not to be all annoying (which you know I’m about to be with a preface like that), but if you’re doing pushups your hands shouldn’t be on the mat. They should be wide enough that they’re right under your elbows at the bottom of the movement, so your arms make upside-down goalposts. I only mention this because you have joint issues and because I’ve been a group fitness (BodyPump) instructor for 8 years, and am always telling people to put their hands wider than their mats.
Ugh the dishwasher. My husband seems to believe that emptying the dishwasher means moving the dishes from the dishwasher to the counter drying area – and leaving them there forever. WTF? That just moves the mess around. Is it really so hard to open the cabinet and put them in there? Is it?? UGH!
LOL! I’ll let you in on a well known Husband-Dishes FACT. Husbands hate to do dishes, and they have a mental block that cannot be removed, manipulated or talked through.
For instance, I have been married almost 25 years. We have lived in our house for 19 years, and we haven’t remodeled, and I haven’t rearranged any of the kitchen drawers or cabinets since we moved in. Husband asks me every. single. day. ‘Honey, which cabinet do the plactic bowls go in?’ or ‘Where do the knives go?’.
*sigh*
there is one part when jillian says “can we do the bicep curls and the squats separately?” and she answers her own question with a very enthusiastic “NO WE CANNOT.” my husband and i often say “NO WE CANNOT” to each other in a jillian voice for great comedic effect. she also says that taking the stairs instead of working out is a “false message of lethargy.” that’s another favorite jillian-ism around here.
I’ve been through physical therapy several times for my knees so I was wary of the 30 minute shred. However, I did find that if I iced my knees for 20 minutes after the workout then I didn’t have any pain the next day. If I forgot then I would.
I also move a the full length mirror (that conveniently has yet to be hung up after 4 years) to the area next to where I’m doing the shred so I can check whether I’m doing bends correctly. Because sometimes it looks like I am but I’m really not.
You know, I might have to turn the Jillianisms back on. They ARE kind of funny.
The hand in ice water SUCKS. We had to do it in nursing school and I wanted to cry.
I am right there with you on the lie of the “20 minutes.” Where does she get off saying it’s 20 minutes? It is clearly 30 minutes. This makes me insane. My favorite Jillianism comes in (I think) level 2, where she says, “you should be GARGLING your HEART right now.” Oh Jillian, you sweet talker.
I think I might be the only person in the world who likes Jillian. I haven’t seen the shred, but I have watched the Biggest Loser and Losing it with Jillian and I like she she yells at people. It seems to work and it’s entertaining to me. I can see though why people wouldn’t like her.
I have been doing the Shred for almost a week now. I haven’t had the knee pain, and am not particularly annoyed by her yet.
What I have noticed is that her two back-up shredders seem to be more ripped than she is.
That might be explained by someone’s earlier comment that the only thing in her fridge was Ben and Jerry’s. Which sounds like my dream fridge actually….
It IS more like 26 or 27 minutes. That 20-minute thing is a ripoff.
I have never had bad knees, but the Shred hurts me.
Jillian is sick.
Also watch Natalie. She cheats. Some in Level 1, more in Level 2. I cannot tell you about Level 3 because I have yet to enjoy it.
i did the shred for about 3 weeks… i stopped because damn it is boring. you can do anything for 20 minutes (if you could ff thru the bs i think it might be 20 minutes) but bore me… i would rather ride my bike and watch my taped shows… and i have never been able to do one push up though after 3 weeks i think i could almost do one…and it isn’t because i weigh so much (135)…i just have no upper body strength and never have. i have not figured out how you can build up your push ups if you can’t even do one… i tried level 2 for a bit and never even looked at level 3…
I haven’t read here for a long time, but I was doing some catching up tonight and I just love you. Your comment about the yoga mat and the crumbs made me laugh so out loud.