Tag: 21 Day Fix

21 Day Fix, Uncategorized

21 Day Fix – Lower Fix Review

sophiemunday

Phew, this is a tiring one. Partly because it’s leg day, which always tends to combine shaking muscles and pounding heartrates. Partly because it comes hot on the heels of two previous days of fairly intense workouts, so there’s a good chance your muscles are already a bit sore. And partly because Autumn’s just pretty relentless. I really got the feeling here that she genuinely wants to get you in shape fast.

There’s nothing too complex here. At it’s heart, this is a good solid weights-based leg and bum workout. Lots of lunges, squats, and variations thereof, plus some floorwork at the end. I’m happy with a straightforward approach to lower body workouts. Too complex or compound and I sometimes find I can’t go heavy enough to get the burn I need. I stuck with 10ilb weights throughout, which I thought might be a bit light, but was about right considering the number of reps you have to do. It really hit my legs heart, and I also worked up a fairly serious sweat. If you’re a beginner, you might want to go a bit lighter.

For several moves, you were meant to hold the weights above your shoulders, not resting on them, for some added shoulder and arm work. I did this on some of the moves I was more comfortable with, but I have to admit, I kept them down by my side on some others, on the basis my upper body is nowhere near as strong as my lower body, and I’d have had to reduce my weight otherwise.

The pattern is the usual warm-up, then 4 rounds, each of which involve 60 seconds of one move, a 20 second break, 60 seconds of another move, then repeat. Though this was the same as day one’s Total Body Cardio, it felt more relentless somehow. The first three rounds are really quite physical and intense, focusing on working big muscles with big moves and working up a sweat. The ten second holds at the end of some moves are particularly mean. There are some calf raises in round 2, however, which while still murder on the calf muscles, allowed me to catch my breath a little. For round 4, there’s a change of pace, with some floorwork. And like most floorwork, it’s much less sweaty, but the little, focused movements are particularly painful on the leg muscles. Oh, and then there’s a bonus round, involving fire hydrants, that made me want to cry…

All in all, a good, intense leg workout.

MOVES

Round 1

  • side lunge to back lunge
  • squat with knee lift

Round 2

  • curtsy lunges
  • calf raises

Round 3

  • split squats (ie. static lunges basically)
  • sumo squats

Round 4

  • Leg lift with turned out foot
  • Leg lift/moving leg to the side

Bonus Round

  • fire hydrants
21 Day Fix, Uncategorized

21 Day Fix – Total Body Cardio Review

sophiemunday

I like to mix and match my workouts. Try something new. But when I randomly decide to go on holiday in two weeks; time, there’s really only one answer: 21 Day Fix. Well, technically, it’s going to need to be 14 Day Fix this time around, that’s how disorganised I am!

I’ve done it a good few times in the past, and there’s something comforting about returning to a familiar old favourite. Some programmes might be a bit better on strength, others a bit better on cardio, but if you want a solid all-rounder, you don’t have hours a day to work out, and you want results fast, it’s pretty hard to beat. Apart from with 21 Day Fix Extreme of course, if you’re a bit fitter/more experienced with your home workouts. I might upgrade to that one next week…

The format is pretty straightforward. There are seven workouts (traditionally, anyway – Beachbody on Demand now has some substitutions), each of which lasts 30 minutes and which has a different theme. You do one a day every day for three weeks.

Anyway, today, Day One, was Total Body Cardio. I used to not be a big fan of this one, because, as regular readers of this blog might know, I’ve sometimes tended to struggle with the cardio side of things. But after plenty of cardio in 80 Day Obsession then a solid blast of  the really intense variety on T25, while I don’t think it’ll ever by my absolute favourite type of exercise, I’m both better at it and more positive about it than I used to be. And as a result, today, I loved this.

The thing to remember with this workout is that the “Total Body” bit is as relevant as the “Cardio” bit. It’s not just the sort of jumping around you might expect from cardio – weights are heavily involved. As a result, I really felt like I was shaping my body while burning calories, which is always nice, particularly when you only have 30 minutes to play with.

After a brief warm-up, there are 4 round. Each involves one move, a twenty second break, a second move, another twenty second break, then repeat. The first three rounds were quite similar: a mixture of strength exercises that get the heartrate up, and more traditional cardio moves, like butt kicks or cross country skiers, but with weights that you have to thrust up over your head or out from your chest while you move. The fourth round has the same pattern, but focuses on core moves on the mat – which I’m torn between regarding as a relief or a bit of a cop out. Though the first time I did this workout, a few years ago, it was definitely relief – I didn’t think I could make it through another energetic round! Today, though I was out of breath by the end of the rather challenging round 3, I’d quite have liked to push through for another five minutes.

It should do a good job of getting most people’s heartrates up. Even if you’re fairly comfortable with cardio, the weights add an interesting extra dimension and make fairly standard exercises have a little bit more oomph. That said, the regular 20 second breaks make it a bit more doable than some videos – but you could always up the weights if you find it too easy. I used 5ilbs throughout, which was about right, thought I could have gone a little higher if I was really pushing myself.

Highly recommend this one both as a great opener to a great programme and as one to throw into the mix on a semi-regular basis.

MOVE LIST

Round 1:

  • Surrenders (weights on shoulders, kneel down then stand up. again and again. harder than it sounds if you’ve never tried it before)
  • Side to side shuffle with squat

Round 2:

  • weighted wood chop (holding one weight, squat down and lower weight towards foots, twist sideways and raise weight up in the air at a diagonal angle – the good news is you only do one side per set)
  • weighted skiers (jump legs forward and back, passing each other, while simultaneously raising a weight up and down. ouch!)

Round 3:

  • weighted butt kicks (kick legs up behind you while thrusting the weights in and out at chest level)
  • weighted knee pulls (lunge back with weight over your head, lift knee, pull weight down to meet it)

Round 4:

  • frog crunches (crunches with legs in the air at a turned out angle – knees come in as you go up)
  • oblique crunches