If you haven’t read my review on Power 90 Master Series Core Cardio you should start there for an overview of Power 90 Master Series then come back for the Cardio Interval review.
As the title of the DVD suggests this workout uses interval training, bursts of high intensity work mixed with rest or lower intensity effort. During the high intensity periods your body works in an anaerobic state, using glycogen stores for short bursts of energy and producing lactic acid giving you that ‘burn’ that lets you know your really working. During the low intensity periods your back in an aerobic state, converting stored fat into energy, getting oxygen back to the muscles and breaking down the lactic acid. With both aerobic and anaerobic systems getting a workout it’s the best of both worlds.
Each of the calisthenic type exercise is done for one minute. The first 20 seconds are low effort and allows your heart rate to come down a little from the previous exercise. The next 20 seconds you ramp up the effort a little, either by bigger movements, faster execution, getting plyo, or a combination of these. For the last 20 seconds you can give it all you’ve got! Go ahead, push yourself and go for the burn, you’ll get to back it down after just 20 seconds.
Like most of the Master Series workouts you start with a low intensity warmup followed by a series of stretches. Then you start with the intervals. Are you wearing your wearing your heart monitor?
First up is your basic running in place, nice and easy for the first 20 seconds, then pick up the pace and lift you legs a little higher for the next 20 seconds, and finally get those knees up for all out running for the last 20 seconds.
Next up are the Mary Katherine Lunges (superstar…) and you progress from reverse stepping lunges to plyo reverse lunges over the course of a minute. This is when I learned to not stand under the ceiling fan while doing plyo exercises (duh).
The same progressing for Squat Kicks, easy at first, not going too low or kicking too high while you recover a little, then get lower and kick higher, then the last 20 seconds go low and kick high while the heart rate climbs, breathing gets heavier and legs start burning.
How about some nice easy Tires, lightly hopping from one to the next. Heart rate is down a few points so pick it up a little more for the next 20 seconds. Now get them knees up there for the last 20 seconds, it’s Tires On Fire!
Squat Run time, get in a fighters stance, not to low to start off with and do the upper body running motion (think of dancing the twist). If you have light weighs feel free to swing them as well to give you a more intense workout on this one. The insert weights from my PowerBlock Sport 9.0 set are 2.5lbs each and fit nicely in my hands for this. After 20 seconds, switch legs, get a little lower and pick up the pace. For the last 20 seconds switch legs again, get real low and really crank the arms.
Short water break! Finally….
Now do them all again!
Now for a different set. Start out with Tony Horton’s own Wacky Jacks. Start out slow and steady then for the second 20 seconds you do a larger, exaggerated motion but still at a slow pace. To ramp up the intensity you do the larger movements at a faster pace.
Plank walks sound easy enough, get in a plank position and bring each leg up to your chest in a walking motion. Next up is a faster run instead of a walk. If you can, for the intense part, get low in the bottom of a push up (Chaturanga) and do the run motion. I had to pass on that and just kept up with the run in plank for the last 20 seconds. Sure it’s cardio but after holding plank like this for a minute you might feel it in your abs as well.
With the Run Stance Squats you do just that, get in a run stance and squat down. First touch your ankle for the easy one, then your toe, then to get low touch the floor in front of your foot.
Eagan Brothers puts your on the ski slopes doing a slalom type movement, first with a step-touch and progressing up to hopping back and forth.
Horton Head Hammer is another of those great Tony moves. First from an easy wide legged squat you jump and pivot around to face the rear, then back again to the front. Keep repeating this for 20 seconds then add a reach to the ceiling, touch the floor then the pivot. For the last 20 seconds get plyo and jump for the reach, touch the floor and pivot.
Whew, another water break. Repeat them again if you can.
As always, Tony gives you ways to modify each move so you can adapt it to your level. He even suggests that for the first time through you might want to skip the second round of each series.
If your looking for more information on this or any other Beachbody program you can sign up for a free Team Beachbody account here and check out the forums for other peoples experiences and success stories.
As always if you sign up for the Team Beachbody Club you would save 10% of the cost of any Beachbody products.
For the best deal you could sign up to be a Team Beachbody Coach and save 25% on all Beachbody purchases and 50% on all shipping, all while potentially earning money just for getting fit!
If you have any questions I can answer about any Beachbody programs like Power 90 Master Series, Tony Horton One on One, Ten Minute Trainer, Slim in 6, Hip Hop Abs, Rockin’ Body, any of the supplements or their Club or Coaching programs please email me with the form on the ‘Contact‘ page on the top menu bar.
I’m getting this question a lot so to save people time so they don’t have to read the full Insanity review the short answer is no, sorry.
Insanity isn’t really meant to be a beginners weight loss program. It’s an advanced cardio workout where you spend a lot of time in the 85% and over heart rate range. While it might be possible to modify all the moves you would probably get much better results with one of the other Beachbody programs designed to be a beginner program for less fit people like I did.
I chose Power 90 (reviewed here) with Tony Horton (of P90X fame) to start with but there are other good choices as well depending on the type of workout you enjoy. There is Slim in 6 with Debbie Siebers which combines cardio with light resistance moves to burn fat and reshape your body. If you like a kickboxing type of body sculpting workout to burn more calories than a lot of other exercises look into Turbo Jam with Chalene Johnson. Shaun T (the trainer who created Insanity) has Rockin’ Body which will have you partying off the pounds as you dance and sweat to some hot music. And of course there is Yoga Booty Ballet with Gillian Marloth and Teigh McDonough which combines yoga, dance and body sculpting. There are many other great Beachbody programs but these are some of the more popular beginner ones.
You should also be using this time to change your diet (not “go on a diet”) and get in the habit of eating to fuel you body, not just for the sake of eating.
Use the free Team Beachbody website or join the Club to connect with other people working on the same issues as you, losing weight and getting fit to take on the more advanced programs like Insanity or P90X. Take advantage of the meal plans and advice of the fitness advisers and coaches (like myself) on the forums. Contact your coach (me if you sign up with the links on this page) after you sign up through the Team Beachbody message center or email and let them know what your goals are. Let them walk you through using the web site and taking advantage of all the help available to you (don’t forget the Million Dollar Body contest with a daily giveaway of up to $1000 just for working out).
Contact me anytime with the “contact” page above with your questions and I’ll do my best to get you the answers you need to get started on the path to a fitter lifestyle.
RevAbs is a 90-day program with trainer Brett Hoebel that incorporates cardio and strength training with unique ab/core work to burn the fat off your midsection and your body while you work your abs, revealing lean, defined abs and a tight, toned body. It’s the ONLY ab-training system designed to burn off the fat and give you a six-pack in just 90 days.
Don’t give up. Rev it up.
It’s not your fault if sit-ups and crunches haven’t produced results. You need more. You need RevAbs™, the only ab system that burns fat to give you a six-pack in 90 days. It’s the most comprehensive and effective ab workout program ever put on DVD.
RevAbs will work your abdominal muscles from six different angles, not just one or two. Plus, you’ll burn fat and calories with cardio intervals and boost your metabolism with total-body training.
Every second of every RevAbs exercise works your abs and burns fat. You’ll make every move count and get a RevAbs result: the fast, focused way to get the abs you’ve always wanted.
Are you not ready for P90X? Do you think you’re not ready for any workout program because your too overweight for these exercise programs? Chances are you’re wrong. While you should always check with your doctor before starting any new workout program you can watch a free workout from the One on One with Tony Horton series of DVD workouts right here. It features Brian Day working out with Tony. Brian hasn’t done an exercise program in 10 years and currently weighs a little over 400lbs. If he can start to turn his life around so can you!
If you need a copy of this workout on disk I can download it and burn a copy for you. Just sign up for a free Team Beachbody accout here and send me a message (I’ll show up on your buddy list and be listed as your coach).
When I started Power 90 I set a goal of losing 20lbs of fat by the end of summer. I started doing the workouts and eating better and started losing about 2lbs per week. I checked with my doctor to make sure that I wasn’t losing too much, too fast, but he said I was doing great! At least this year he can’t scold me for being overweight and not exercising.
Well, I am happy to say I met my 20lb goal well before summer is over, even with a few weeks with skipped and/or half hearted workouts. I evaluated where I wanted to go with my future fitness goals and decided to do a round of Power 90 Master Series with a goal of losing another 10lbs or so before doing P90X where I would be working on changing my body composition by dropping my body fat percentage and building more muscle. I ran this by my Team Beachbody coach and he agreed this was a good plan. Your coach is a great resource, contact them and put their experience with Beachbody programs to good use.
Power 90 Master Series was developed after both Power 90 and P90X and is meant to make for a smooth transition between the 2 programs. It uses the ‘Muscle Confusion’ technique from P90X along with the 3 weeks of intense workouts followed by one recovery week schedule.
There are 2 suggested Master Series schedules, Standard and Lean much like P90X has 3 workout schedules you can follow, depending on your desired results. This week starts my Power 90 Master Series Lean program. With the lean program you actually use the disks from Power 90 (during the recovery weeks) along with the 6 new Master Series disks. There is more variety of workouts than you had with Power 90.
Monday’s workout was Core Cardio. Just like the title suggests it mixes cardio with core (abs) exercises and incorporates some of the P90X moves or a modified version of them. The workout starts with a warm up routine to follow along with in contrast to the Power 90 workouts that just had a text message before the workout that you should perform a warm up before exercising.
You start out with Prison Cell Push-ups, as many as you can do in 1 minute, then go on to Side Kicks, alternating 5 on each side. The next move, the Abranome, is the fist time since starting Power 90 that I could have used more room to work out in as, while on your back, you swing your legs from straight up in the air to all the way to the left side then the right side. I could not go all the way to the floor due to space limitations. You end the set with Crescent Quick Switch reverse lunges.
After a short water break you move right into Cockeyed Sphinx Push-ups (ouch, need to work on these). Run Jacks are up next, think of mixing running in place while your arms do jumping jacks then switching with your legs doing the jacks and your arms running. It’s the cardio version of rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. Then it time for more ab work with Kayak Bike (double ouch), ’cause the normal bicycle wasn’t hard enough for me….. We end out this set with 30 reps of Lateral Lunge Touch, a side lunge where you reach overhead and touch your hand to the floor on the opposite side. I fell short of the 30 reps on this one too. Since these are so much fun you get to repeat them again!
The last set has you starting out with the Dreya Roll Push-up. You roll backwards on the floor and extend your legs straight up, then roll forward move into plank and do a push-up, stand up and do it again. Ok, I’m having a really hard time with the roll thing. I need to work on coordination and flexibility I guess to be able to do this smoothly and not land hard on my butt when I start the roll. At least the next move is easy, the Defensive Back Scoot, sort of a side shuffle moving forward and backward. After that is on your back again for Feet to Fingers Crouch and it’s just like it sounds, bring your legs and arms straight up and touch your toes. Time to get your heart rate back up with the Boxer Switch, quickly switching from a right to left to right fighting stance for 30 reps. But wait, there’s more! You get to repeat this set again as well.
After a nice cool down you go into a stretching session that adds different stretches than you were using in Power 90. I still need to work on my hamstrings the most, very tight…
The day after doing this workout my inner thighs are very sore. I guess the lateral moves are hitting muscles that weren’t getting a lot of work in the Power 90 series. It’s a good feeling, at least I know I’m moving forward and working more of my body and adapting the new workout. The muscle confusion at work!
If your looking for more information on this or any other Beachbody program you can sign up for a free Team Beachbody account here and check out the forums for other peoples experiences and success stories.
Core Cardio can be purchased as a single workout DVD here for $19.95
As always if you sign up for the Team Beachbody Club you would save 10% of the cost of any Beachbody products.
For the best deal you could sign up to be a Team Beachbody Coach and save 25% on all Beachbody purchases and 50% on all shipping, all while potentially earning money just for getting fit!
If you have any questions I can answer about any Beachbody programs like Power 90 Master Series, Tony Horton One on One, Ten Minute Trainer, Slim in 6, Hip Hop Abs, Rockin’ Body, any of the supplements or their Club or Coaching programs please email me with the form on the ‘Contact‘ page on the top menu bar.
