I recently went away for a week sans kids and husband. It was soon after I finished doing the 30 Day Shred again and I wanted to keep my work out habit going and build on the momentum of my success with it.

I was originally inspired to do the 30 Day Shred after reading Nurse Love’s Farmer’s post about it and I remembered that she also did a post about doing Jillian Michael’s One Week Shred.

I didn’t have an event I needed to be “shredded” for coming up in a week, but I was curious to see what effect this program would have, especially since Jillian claims that you can lose up to seven pounds over the course of the seven days. However, this requires following her eating plan and not only do I refuse to diet, even if I wanted to I couldn’t because I was in a hotel with limited cooking ability. But I did try and stay mindful of my food choices because I do want to lose a couple more dress sizes from where I am. And since I was going to be away for seven days, wanted to keep working out, enjoyed the 30 Day Shred and would have the time to do it, I thought, why not?

Overview

The One Week Shred is supposed to be a “crash” workout program to get you into shape in just one week before a special event, like a wedding or vacation, where you want to look good. You have to do two 30 minute workouts a day – a strength workout in the morning and a cardio workout in the evening. According to Jillian, she separates the workouts to get “double the calorie after-burn”.

The strength workout is broken down into a warm up, fours rotations (each done twice) and a cool down. The cardio workout is broken down into three rotations (also done twice) and a cool down. The only equipment you need is a couple hand weights. Jillian uses 3lbs weights but I used 3kg (about 6.6lbs), which worked for me.

My thoughts

Honestly, I did not like this program. Its a major pain to have to do two separate workouts. Even though I had the time, I wasn’t on vacation so I still resented the extra time required getting changed into and out of workout gear twice, the two showers, two post-work out recoveries etc more than I anticipated.

I was tempted to just throw in the towel after Day 3 – in fact, I only did the strength workout on Day 4 because I had a bad night’s sleep and just did not have the energy to do it in the morning. I did it in the evening with the plan of doing the programs back-to-back, but I ended up choosing sleep over cardio in the end.

However, I kept going the next day. I did pay for it (I hate buying something and not using it) and I knew I wouldn’t get an opportunity to do it again because there is no way I’d find the time and energy to attempt this in my normal life. And Jillian does keep reminding you “its just for a week” and “you can do anything for a week”, so I stuck with it.

What was disappointing though is that I didn’t like a lot of the actual exercises. There were some repeats of the ones from the 30 Day Shred, but in this one Jillian tries to add awkward move combinations together in many of the exercises and I found that I would have to stop and watch the screen a lot, trying to figure out what the heck I need to do. It wrecked the flow of the work out and I can see people getting injured attempting some of these or just doing them wrong and not getting the intended benefit from them. Or maybe I’m just not that coordinated. Its a shame because I did like most of the exercises in the 30 Day Shred and was hoping this would be more of the same.

Another interesting thing I noticed is that I started to do more of the modified versions of the exercises as the week went on, whereas with the 30 Day Shred I started with the some modified and moved on to do all the advance moves. I think its because the exercises are so intense that they shouldn’t be done for seven days in a row – my body clearly needed a break but instead of taking one, I ended up “phoning it in” on some of the exercises that normally I wouldn’t have.

Results

On to the results.  When I got home, I was surprised to learn that I actually *gained* about 2lbs! I’m not sure if its because other than the workouts, I wasn’t as active as I am normally and the calories just got to me or if its added muscle (I suspect a combo of the two) or if its just normal weight fluctuations (I retain more water during certain times of my cycle) but when I look at the pictures, I think it goes to show that you can still get thinner without losing weight.

So on to the photographic analysis. The “Before” shots are on the left with the pink sports bra, that are actually the “After” photos after completing the 30 Day Shred again. The new “After” after photos are on the right with the black one.

Overall, I do feel like I *look* a teeny bit more toned in the “After” photos. That said, I’m not sure if its due to the lighting, as the photos were taken in different rooms at different times of day.

Final Recommendations

Even though you could argue that I do *look* a bit more toned in the “After” photos, I would still not recommend this program. I don’t think it will get you the results you are hoping for if you truly are looking for a one week solution to get ready for an important event, even if you stick to the eating plan. I know I personally will not be doing either of the workouts again and will definitely not be doing the week-long program.

Also, if you are a postpartum mom and were hoping to do this program to “jump start” your post-baby fitness or weight loss, I REALLY do not recommend it. Most of the exercises are bad if your pelvic floor isn’t properly healed after birth and I guarantee you will injure yourself. Please get checked out by a pelvic floor physiotherapist before doing this or any other type of intense exercise after giving birth – even if you’ve been given the green light to workout by your doctor or midwife.

Like I discuss in my second time doing the 30 Day Shred, I’d recommend doing a post-partum pelvic floor rehab program like the one you can find at Healthy Habits for Happy Moms. Its not cheap but honestly worth every penny.

Up next for me fitness wise? I’ve downloaded an App called “Sweat” which gives you three strength and three cardio programs to do during the week. I’m also doing the Walk This Way Challenge – going for a 30 minute walk every day for the month of May (this seems easy, but its actually much harder than you think to actually do it – I challenge you to try!) and hope the weather will finally cooperate so I can start running again.