The Missing Piece - 30 Day Yoga Sculpt Program

Last week I detailed my current training program, but did anybody happen to notice what was sorely missing from it? I have been keeping myself very busy cross training between weight lifting and cardio, but I have suspiciously been avoiding yoga. There's a reason for that. It's because yoga is truly the hardest on my body. I find it easier to do a 7 mile trail run on very challenging terrain than a power yoga session. Because of my chronic neck and shoulder problems I have just been afraid to add yoga back into my routine and that just plain makes me sad. My upper body strength is not coming back as quickly as my lower body strength is and it's time that I step it up a bit. When I discovered that Acacia will be releasing a new yoga DVD training program it was the perfect opportunity to jump back into yoga with both feet. On April 3rd, Acacia will release a 30-day workout plan from its best-selling fitness series with Exhale: Core Fusion 30 Day Sculpt. This DVD will feature 30 twenty-minute workouts from the top husband and wife team in fitness, Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp (who just happen to be among my favorites.)

The kind folks at Acacia sent me a review copy of the DVD and I so far I've done two day's worth of workouts. Already I'm in love with it. It's set up similar to my familiar Beach Body workouts in that every day is something different. When you pop the DVD in you are presented with "Work-out Options." These options are categorized by weeks: Week 1, Week 2, etc. for each week of the 30 day challenge. Once you pick the week, you're presented with more choices and you pick the day of the week. Out of the 7 days, one of these days is scheduled as a rest day (just like P90X and all the other Beach Body programs). There is no doubt that there is a formula for success in good training programs and this program is following that formula.

Yesterday I tried my first routine. I should mention that each workout is only 20 minutes long, which I love! And you're probably thinking, "How much of a workout can you get in 20 minutes?" And the answer to that is "a lot." Fred and Elisabeth waste no time with idle chit chat. They get right down to business and they don't fool around. It's not easy. The first routine started with a nice refreshing warm up, followed by 15 minutes of very challenging upper body intensive yoga moves. You'll be happy it's only 15 minutes. Be prepared for some pushups!

Today's session was much more focused on the lower body. I thought I would sail through it since I've been concentrating much more on my legs this season. After all, I'm doing 7 mile trail runs with ease. How hard can this be? Well, I nearly cried! I'm not sure I want to admit that I couldn't even really do all the moves, to the T, as they did. I thought my legs would explode. Wow. All I got to say is, "I'm impressed." And super excited to give this entire 30 days a go.

I will continue to post some reviews as I follow this program. Please remember that this DVD won't be available for sale until April 3rd, but after that you can find it on the Acacia website here: http://acacialifestyle.com/shop-all-fitness-dvds-/c/340/