Cardio Ball Blast. Cardio-Ab Fusion with Jessica Smith.

Time: 30:27
Equipment needed: Lightweight ball (optional)

I absolutely loved this workout.  I was breathing hard and sweating good throughout the whole thing.  The workout focuses on lots of standing ab work alongside the cardio.  I always like to kill two birds with one stone, so I love fusion workouts.

I have my little blue Beachbody fitness ball that came with my Yoga Booty Ballet DVD set, so I used that in the workout.  You can use a small kickball, beachball, lightweight medicine ball, pillow, or nothing at all.  I needs to be small enough to put under your knee in a lunge or under your leg in a knee raise (if you go to 18:17 and 21:02 in the video, you'll see what I mean).

I fully admit that I haven't exercised much in the last two months.  I was having a hard time accepting my physical limitations because of my chronic injuries.  The pain from those injuries is quite different than the pain from sore muscles.  The chronic pain never really goes away and when it flairs up it can take weeks for it to settle down.  So, I was in quite a funk over it for awhile.

Now that I'm feeling better about the whole thing, and ready to move on even with the pain involved, I've jumped back into working out with Jessica Smith's Fall Fitness Challenge.

I have a few of Jessica's workouts already here on the blog and I've enjoyed every one of them.  So when I saw that Jessica's fall challenge had recently started I thought it was a great way to get back into the swing of things.  What better motivation than a chance to win stuff, right?  :)

If you want to join in, watch the small video just above, then head to her blog to post your goals... then jump on into the workout schedule.