Biggest Loser - The Workout

I'm writing this one the day after the workout. I did this for two reasons. The first was that I didn't really have time to write this last night since I was watching the Biggest Loser finale. The second reason was that I knew I was going to hurt today, and I wanted to be able to write about how much this DVD made me hurt!

The front of the DVD says that the DVD has six workouts on it, but that's a bit of a stretch. It has 1) 5 minute warm-up,  1) 25 minute workout, 3) 20 minute workouts and 1) 20 minute stretch. Once you turn the DVD on, you get the option of selecting one of the "6 workouts" or one of 4 preset workouts. They give you some suggestions on which ones you should do and how often over a 6 week period. I did the first preset workout which included a 5 minute warm up, a 25 minute workout and a cool down. I did not have time to stick around for the entire cool down so I don't know if it was the full 20 minutes or not.

The warm up was pretty blech for me. I was actually concerned that I would totally hate the workout since the warm up was that bad for me. Some of the Biggest Loser contestants are in this workout. Each one of them gets a solo performance in the warm up. You see a black and white shot of them, and then it changes to color while they do a warm up move. Bob Harper does a voiceover. It's just weird.

Once the warm up is over, it begins to look like a normal workout video. Bob Harper is front and center, and there are former Biggest Loser contestants behind him on each side. They are in a gym type setting. Since I did the workout yesterday, I can't remember the exact order everything went in, but you start doing side steps. These become your go to move when you're too tired to keep up and also during breaks between the different moves. I liked the side steps versus the standard march in place that you get with most workouts.

After you've done some side steps, you then move into doubles. This made me think of Walk Away the Pounds. Once your sidestepping is done, you move into jumping jacks. I hate jumping jacks. I think any female with a big chest hates them. I really hate them. My boobs are bouncing all over the place and my big fat belly is bouncing around with it. I normally stand in place while doing the arm part of jumping jacks and kick one leg out to the side. However, Bob Harper is a genius. He suggests doing squats and keeping up with the arm movements. This was a much better option than my method! After the jumping jacks, you do side steps followed by a couple jumping jacks. The squat technique was a bit difficult to incorporate into this maneuver.

This is where I get sketchy on the order, but I know you do some jabs. He also has you step forward with one foot and tap it. You then shift your weight onto that foot and tap your back foot. You go back and forth with that for a bit. You then include knee lifts. You work up to doing front kick and back kicks. Once you're done with that, you switch legs and do it all again. There's another section where you hold a squat position and just twist your torso. Then you do some jabs. Some of the jabs are in front of you and some of them are into the corners.

Once all the punching and kicking is done, you go into some squats and lunges. I hate squats and lunges. Lunges are the worst! I can handle some lunges, but this was like the never ending lunge. He mixed it up a bit with the squats. There were squats with your feet shoulder width apart and some with your feet in a narrower stance. Some of the squats were full squats and some were mini pulsing squats. The lunges were mainly your standard lunge with your leg going back. At one point, he really picked up the pace.

Once all of that is done, you move into a cool down. The set changes, and all of the people look like they are on a mountain. It was almost comical. I only did a couple of the stretches since I hadn't given myself enough time. I was only expecting to do one of the 20 minute workouts, but that was before I realized they had the preset workouts on there.

Now, to talk about the pain. That night, I knew I would hurt the next day, but I also thought the same thing after I did the hike to Soda Creek Falls. When I woke up the next morning, I hurt, and I hurt badly! I ended up not working out the next morning, but it wasn't because of the pain. I really wanted to work out, but I procrastinated a little bit too much and didn't leave enough time to get to work in the snow. I have a 35ish minute commute. In those 35 minutes, the pain increased exponentially. My quads, glutes and hamstrings were killing me! I'm not sure how I made it into the building! The pain just built up throughout the day. I found new pain too. Once I wasn't focused on my legs, I discovered that my biceps and my lats hurt. Well, I think they're my lats. I'm a little sketchy on the back muscles since there are just sooooo many of them floating around back there. It's like my shoulder blades and down a bit. I feel like I went to the gym and lifted weights. This was a good good workout.

I was a bit surprised that I had so little vigorous activity though. I've gotten more vigorous with Walk Away the Pounds, but I've never felt a burn like this from Walk Away the Pounds. This was killer! I love it! I want to do it again! I wonder when I have to return this one to the library!

Bob Harper is a great instructor. He walked around and pointed out things that the other people were doing. He had a good tone of voice and was motivational. I loved that the people in this video looked like real people. They did not have perma-smiles plastered on their faces. They weren't all stick thin perfect people. They were also falling all over the place! You could tell that they were feeling the burn in certain spots and they were just as unbalanced as me. Okay, maybe not as much as me, but they did get wobbly! I loved it!

I'll write about the other workouts soon. Below are my BodyMedia device screen shots. The big blue blob on the left is the workout.

You can also read about my Boot Camp workout from this DVD.