Saturday, February 14, 2015

The Biggest Loser The Workout Cardio Max Weight-Loss Review


Cardio Max Weight-Loss

This DVD has three workouts plus a warm up and a cool down. You can customize it to play whichever segments you want or you can follow their Maximum Results Program. It appears that with the program they recommend that you do the first workout 3-5 times a week for the first two weeks and then the middle two weeks you do Level 1 and 2 4-5 times a week and then the last two weeks you do the whole DVD 4-5 times a week. They have a maintenance listing as well which suggests that you workout for 45 minutes a day 4-5 times a week. I just did the whole DVD at one time. This was a decision that I ended up regretting because this DVD was crazy hard! If I had broken it up, it probably wouldn't have been that rough. You can play this DVD with just the music or with the instructor comments as well.

The Warm Up

The warm up was led by Sione. He's been in other workouts that I've done. He's an okay instructor, but he can be dorky at times. We started out with some squats and then did some jogging. That transitioned into high knees and then butt kicks. Then we Alternated lifting our knees and then we went to alternating lunges while twisting to the opposite side. Then we kicked one leg up and reached out with the opposite arm. Then we did a couple side bends. Then we hugged ourselves and stretched our arms back. we alternated those for a few moments. Then we did some lateral lunges.

Level 1

This was led by Bob. We used a light weight. Former contestants were in the workout. We started out in a split squat, but it was a weird position. One leg was in front and the back leg was angled a little bit. We started out with a weight in one hand. We did squats just holding the weight. Then we held a squat position and did single arm rows. Then we squatted down and held the squat and did a row then stood up. It was one squat, one row, stand. We did that for a bit. Then we built on that. We squatted, did a row, stood and did a shoulder press. Then we held a normal squat stance but it was a little wide. Almost sumo squat stance. We held the squat did did Hammer Curls. Then we added motion. We did a squat and held the squat while we did a hammer curl and then stood. Then we held the squat and did half range of motion hammer curls. We did the top half range. After that, we did the lower half range of motion. We were supposed to do them fast. Then we did a cardio burst of jumping jacks! Then we repeated it all on the other side. More jumping jacks! I love jumping jacks. NOT!

Then we grabbed the weights again. We held a squat position and did Tricep Kickbacks. I'm not a fan of these, but I got through them. Then we did squats with them. Then we got down on the floor and did push ups and flies. We did a push up and then grabbed the dumbbell to do a one arm fly. Then the weight went back down. We did each side. The cardio burst on this was holding a push up position and jumping out feet in and out sort of like jumping jacks with our legs, but we were in push up position. Our hands didn't move. Then we held the plank and then went to Down Dog. Then we walked our hands back and stood up.

We stood up and did a Crescent Kick that turned into a squat as we landed. Then we did a side kick on the same leg. Then we did some jumping rope and repeated the crescent kicks and side kicks on the opposite side. Then we did some punching and we were done! 

Level 2

This was led by Sione and Tara. We did squats and came up on our toes. We held the squat position, but came up on the toes. It was a bit weird. Then we "bounced it out." This time we did the same thing, but instead of holding the squat position, we came up to a full extension and still came up on our toes. More bouncing it out. Then we squatted down and jumped up. We used our arms to help propel us up. I hate jumping, but I did it because I need to get over my jumping issues. More bouncing. 

We grabbed a set of dumbbells and did standing abs. We held the weights at our shoulders and alternated lifting our knees up as far as we could. More bouncing. Then we went back to the weights at our shoulders and raising alternate knees, but this time we pulled our shoulders down to meet the knee. More bouncing. Then we did alternating knees again, but the knee was supposed to come across to meet the opposite knee. More bouncing.

Then we did alternating rear lunges while doing hammer curls. More bouncing. Then we did alternating curtsy lunges with the hammer curls. More bouncing. Then we did a bit of a skater jump with the cursty lunge. More bouncing.

Then we did a side step and punched up up and across. So the right arm punched over the left shoulder. More bouncing. Then we punched down to the opposite side. More bouncing. Then we were supposed to jump from one foot to the other. So it was a bit of a skater jump.

Then the weights went down and so did we. We did mountain climbers. Then we got up and bounced around. Then back down and did mountain climbers, but the knee came up to the opposite hand. My abs were still sore and so were my shoulders so this was rough. We came up again and then went back down and just held a plank. We were supposed to hold it for 200 seconds. They actually started to count it down. They only got through about 10 seconds and then it switched to the next round.

Level 3

Bob was back. I was happy. We used dumbbells in this section to. We started with a diagonal press. We pressed the weights up over one shoulder and then came down across the body and down by the knee. It's kind of like a wood chopper, but it wasn't very fast. Then the weights went down and we did jumping jacks. He called them military jumping jacks though. We were in a bit of a squat position while doing jumping jacks. That wasn't working for me so I just did jumping jacks without the squat position. Then we did the diagonal press on the opposite side. Then we did the military jacks, but only the leg part. We held the weights in our hands and kept them close to the body. I didn't do the squat type position with these either. Then we held the squat position and twisted our upper body quickly. I like this move. We used to do it in Tae Bo. 

We got down on the floor and went from Push Up position to Down Dog. This was rough for me. My shoulders were pretty beat by this point. Then we held push up position and brought a knee to our forehead. My knee never quite made it to my forehead. I'm just not very limber. Then we did a couple push ups. Then we moved to Down Dog again. Then we did push ups in Down Dog position. I'm so not good at these. This was sooooo hard! Then we held Down Dog. Then we did split down dog. We've already established that I do not like split down dog! We switched legs without any rest in the middle, but we didn't hold the second leg up for very long. Then we got on our knees and rolled our wrists. Then we went back to push up position. We did one push up and then went to down dog and did a push up from there. We alternated there for a bit. This section was just torture! We were supposed to listen carefully because he would have us hold a position and then tell us how many push ups to do. Then we did some more split down dog but did the push ups with them! OMG! More push ups! Then we did fast mountain climbers. I can't do mountain climbers fast! Then we did some deep breathing and side bends and we were done! I was pretty thankful to be done!

Cool Down

Tara led the cool down. We did some lateral lunge stretches and then raised an arm to twist the torso. Then we did a runner's stretch, but it wasn't very deep. We leaned back and hit the hamstrings for a bit. Then we switched sides. We did some tricep and shoulder stretches. Then some arm circles and we were done!

Overall, I liked this workout. I kind of wish I had done it sooner. I got it from the library a few times, but never managed to do it. In the beginning, I could only handle one Biggest Loser workout in a week because it took me several days to recover. I didn't think I was going to be able to move after doing this workout, but I think all of the down dog in the last section helped stretch me out. Yoga seems to help with muscle soreness. YAY!

Bodymedia Screen Shot

I thought I would have gotten more activity minutes on this, but the floor stuff really doesn't give you much chance for activity. I was moving, I was sweating and I was breathing heavy, but not enough to get more than 32 minutes of activity. Oh well. 

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