Couch to Proud: Pilates by Izzy 25 Day Challenge Season 2: My review and thoughts (Days 16-20)

The Pilates by Izzy 2026 challenge has officially reached its final week, bringing more challenging workouts with each upload. Staying consistent has been tough, but now it's the time to give my best in these last few sessions. You can find the challenge's playlist in this link, with 22 workouts out of 25 already uploaded as of writing this post.

You can read my review of the previous days in these links:

Photo by Jessica Streser from Unsplash

Day 16: 15 Minutes Upper Body Strength Workout

Equipment required: Light dumbbells. Izzy uses 2kg (around 5 pounds) weights, I use 1 kg (around 3 pounds) weights.

I woke up pretty fatigued on this day, so I decided to workout in the evening. The warm up was slightly different than usual, incorporating some wrist circles to prep for the workout. My upper body felt sore, this warm up somewhat helped to stretch my back muscles. As usual in Izzy's upper body videos, a kneeling sequence with the dumbbells came first. Bending and extending the the hips while kneeling during the sequence required core activation, I tried to to focus on keeping a straight spine and the shoulders open.

The dumbbell rows in the kneeling sequence felt a little bit rushed, with me struggling to keep up with Izzy's pace while trying to fully engage the muscles. Programming a good workout with in just fifteen minutes is difficult, so I guess Izzy tried to cram as much variety in the dumbbell exercises as possible in this video. Nevertheless, my upper muscles were quite active at the end of the flow, therefore the workout seem to effective enough.

A push up/renegade row set was the final for this video, a simple yet challenging combination to target the back muscles and finish off the upper body.

Day 17: 30 Minutes Full Body Strength Workout

Equipment required: Light dumbbells and optional ankle weights. Izzy uses 2 kg (around 5 pounds) weights, I use 1 kg (around 3 pounds) weights. I didn't use ankle weights.

As usual in the full body workouts, a core focused sequence using the dumbbells is the first flow. Starting with crunches with elevated heels, later transitioning into tabletop toe taps and double leg extensions, my core felt pretty active this time without feeling strained. An unilateral bird dog flow came next, using only one weight to add more resistance to the upper body. Pushups and more layers came next, putting more focus on full body movements to make the flow feel more dynamic.

This workout requires the stabilizing wrist to be active for a few minutes, so I would recommend adding an additional wrist-specific warm up in case you struggle with holding a plank position for long. A short standing flow came between both unilateral sequences, including squats, calf raises and lunges, a much needed rest for the wrists and a nice combination for the lower body.

Day 18: 25 Minutes Lower Body

Equipment required: Pilates ball and optional ankle weights. I didn't use ankle weights for this workout.

Seeing a lower body requiring no dumbbells felt strange, but I didn't think about too much. Starting with an unilateral bridge sequence, the layers feel doable enough until you reach the single leg bridges with the ball underneath the stabilizing leg. Having these bridges combined with a leg extension with the elevated leg was quite challenging, especially due to my core not feeling active enough yet at that point of the workout. Instead of transitioning to other exercise as usual, the unilateral bridges with the opposite leg came directly after, my left leg was already tired.

The standing portion of this workout is divided in two unilateral lunge sequences and a short squat transition in between. Both of my legs were tired from the consecutive bridges, making me drop my foot a few times during the knee drive between lunges. I tried my best to keep stable, but my legs weren't cooperating at all this time. Having to hold and constantly move the ball during this sequence felt a little bit awkward, I just focused on the movement of the lower body. The short squat sequence was far simpler, a nice way to even out the legs between flows.

To be frank, I was not a fan of this particular workout. Maybe I was having a bad day, but I think having no transition exercise between long sets of a single unilateral exercise can be too straining. My right knee hurt a little bit afterwards, so I recommend being careful with your form during this workout.

Day 19: 25 Minutes Full Body

Equipment required: One light dumbbell. Izzy uses a 2 kg (5 pounds) weight, I used a 1 kg (3 pounds) weight.

My right knee hurt a lot after Day 18, I decided to rest for a day and resume the challenge with Day 20 instead of this workout. Day 20 is a core workout spent mostly on tabletop position, allowing my knee to technically rest for other day to then attempt this workout.

Starting with a simple core series focused on the obliques, the dumbbell is used to add resistance to the twist movement of the upper body, quickly awakening the upper core muscles. The next few layers focus on engaging the lower core by keeping the legs off the ground and in constant motion. At the beginning of this workout, Izzy suggested using dumbbells from 2 kg to 3 kg (from 5 pounds to 7 pounds), but I decided to keep with my 1 kg (3 pounds) weight. I feel like I could've sized up for this core sequence, though it was still still challenging with the lighter weight.

A side lying sequence with a hip raise came next, I tried my best to maintain my chest and shoulders straight and prevent the shoulders from sinking. Finalizing with pulses, this sequence is a great way to train the side muscles without the wrist strain from regular side planks.

The standing portion of this workout was also unilateral, combining squats with side toe taps to workout the lower body. As I was mindful of my knee, I performed the squats slower than usual to keep my form in check. For the standing work, I grabbed more both of my dumbbells to add more resistance and match Izzy's weight. I had no discomfort on my knee, so now I'll keep following the challenge in release order as usual.

Day 20: 18 Minutes Core

Equipment required: Pilates ball and optional ankle weights. I use a small plushie to substitute the ball, I didn't use ankle weights.

I mentioned having some discomfort on my right knee during Day 18, the pain got worse and worse through the day so I decided to take a break from the challenge. After resting for an entire day, I choose to do Day 20 instead of Day 19 to avoid laying on my knees.

This workout was basically a just one long flow, very similar in programming to Day 2. Transitioning from single leg toetaps to a tabletop/leg drop combo, the ball is used mostly to ensure keeping the chest as lifted as possible. And just as in Day 2, a bicycle sequence while moving the ball over the thighs was used as a finisher. Rolling the plushie was just awkward, so I dropped it and did everything bodyweight. Compared to my performance in Day 2, I didn't struggle as much with maintaining my legs at tabletop.

Thoughts so far:

This batch of workouts felt slightly easier than last for a reason: all are labelled as intermediate instead of intermediate-advanced. I noticed far less soreness this week too, perhaps more due to my body getting accustomed to Izzy's sequences. As for improvement, I definitely did better with the core work than in previous workouts.

Though I felt my weights were a little light this week, I've decided to stick with the same weight for the rest of the challenge. Keeping good form in every exercise is my main goal overall, and I feel abruptly sizing up my dumbbells might force to overcompensate with the wrong muscles groups.

As for Day 18 and my right knee: I bruised my knee around Day 10 in an activity unrelated to the challenge, only had some mild pain so kept following the challenge and doing other workouts everyday. On Day 18, I started the workout with some pain on my knee and strained it further trying to follow the lower body exercises. Even if you try to push over pain or discomfort, working out over an injury without rest will only results in poor form and even more pain. I've learned my lesson and I'll rest for a day or more if needed, even if it means not being up to date with the challenge.

For the last few workouts, I hope to see a longer forty-minute session as the finale to test my endurance. The last few videos have been on the short side, so I'd like to challenge myself to a longer workout as a final test.

Should you try this challenge?

Yes, if you have previous experience with Pilates or a solid fitness base. If you're a beginner to Pilates, I recommend checking out the following list of beginner friendly certified Pilates instructors to start your journey.

And if you want to try Izzy's workouts, always remember to listen to the cues and take rests as needed.

Pilates by Izzy 25 Day Challenge Season 2: My review and thoughts (Days 16-20)