80 Day Obsession Diary – Day 27 – Start of Phase 2 (including Phase 2 Booty Review)

After yesterday’s introspection, it’s time to get back to business. Today marked the start of Phase 2, and even though one of the good things about this programme is that way it’s kept the workouts feeling fresh, today everything felt strikingly new.

It first struck me when I got home from work all ready to do my now-traditional Monday evening round of Total Body Core. Only to discover that Monday’s are apparently now Booty Day.

I next hit me when I prepared to launch into the jumping jacks that have started every workout so far, only to find myself confronted with butt kicks and a whole new warm-up.

And then, readying myself for the classic Booty experience of moves that are intense on the muscles but gentle on the heart-rate, I was a little surprised to find myself being told to pick up some weights…

This feels like a very different workout to Phase 1 Booty. Probably harder, on balance, but also just much more of a total body workout (albeit still focused on the butt, obviously), more of a cardio experience, and much more weight-based. Please don’t cry when I say it reminded me a lot of Phase 1 Legs, only with bands used in addition to weights. I’m not sure I’d have physically made myself do it if I’d seen that description before hand, but it actually turned out to be quite enjoyable, and while I occasionally spent Phase 1 Booty wondering whether I was going enough, that never crossed my mind here.

Most of the moves were familiar from one or other of the phase one strength-based workouts, but were made harder in some way.

Sometimes, by adding a band to what had previously just been a weighted exercise – like with the diagonal backwards lunge from legs.

Sometimes by turning it into a compound move, like with squats to hips hinges or back lunges to knee pulls. And perhaps most traumatically, with, wait for it: Bear Fire Hydrants, which are just what they sound like and hurt about as much as you’d imagine, across shoulders, core, and legs, as well as the obvious glutes.

There were also some classic mat-work type moves, just involving bands and one movement at a time, they were just harder than last weeks. The hamstring curl was particularly tricky. And there was the return of one of the moves I remember most from A Little Obsessed, where you put a weight on the back of your knee and lift up your leg.

Today involved 15 reps of everything, straight through, then repeating the whole thing from the top, like in most of Phase One, Week One’s workouts. I imagine that will change to three lots of ten reps straight through next week.  Booty was always a bit of an anomaly in Phase 1, so it’ll be interesting to see whether the other workouts ramp up in quite the same way.

MOVE LIST (note that the idea of “series” was irrelevant today, but they’ll presumably be broken down into them in subsequent weeks)

• Series 1 – Standing
  • Squat to hinge
  • Curtsy lunge lift
  • Rotating back side lunge (with bands on thighs!)
• Series 2 – Quad Ped
  • Heel Press up on angle
  • single leg hamstring curl (on all fours, using a band. Ouch!)
  • Bear Fire Hydrant (just don’t think about it too hard)
• Series 3 – Weighted
  • Kettle bell swings (despite the name, the whole cast do them with a dumbbell, though I grabbed my chronically underused KB and gave it its moment in the sun)
  • Sumo hinge
  • Reverse lunge with a leg lift
• Series 4 – Floor Weighted
  • single leg bridge
  • Press Up and Over (this is the weird ALO one with the weights on the back of your knees)
  • Camel (sit back on your heels, holding a large weight, then sit up straight)#

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If you don’t currently have access to BOD, you can get a year’s subscription, a month’s supply of Shakeology, and all the accessories you need for 80 Day Obsession for just £180  here

If you’re already a Beachbody on Demand customer, you can get everything you need for 80 Day Obsession (workout calendar, resistance bands, strength sliders, portion fix containers) with Shakeology here, with performance supplements here, or with both here. 

There are a variety of different combinations of BOD access, 80 Day Obsession accessories, Shakeology and performance supplements available. Do drop me a line if you’re not sure which is right for you or if you’d like more information about this programme or anything else.