What is 21 Day Fix Extreme?
21 Day Fix Extreme is a Beachbody program that uses weights and body resistance moves to sculpt your body. It also includes an easy to follow nutrition plan. There are 7 workouts with the program plus a bonus workout if you buy from a Beachbody Coach. You can also get an upgraded package that includes more workouts. The nutrition plan comes with color coded containers. After you calculate your calorie bracket, you find out how many containers of each color you get to eat in a day. You get a list of foods for each container and can eat until you run out of containers for the day.
The Workouts
The workouts come on two DVDs. If you buy from a coach, you'll get the bonus workout on it's own DVD. There is one workout for each day. There are no rest days during this program, but Yoga Fix Extreme is considered an active recovery day.
Plyo Fix Extreme
This is all about jumping! The moves are 30 seconds long and include things like squat jumps, jumping lunges, skaters, and burpees. There is a break of a few seconds between moves. This workout is intense. I hurt for about four days after doing this one for the first time. Once I got through the first week, I didn't really get all that sore though. You can see a list of all the exercises in my post from Day 1 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Upper Fix Extreme
This is all about the upper body as the name implies. This one hits your chest, your back, your shoulders, your triceps and your biceps. This includes push ups, military presses, hammer curls, tricep dips and more. I wasn't very sore from this workout. I did Body Beast which had a shoulder day, a back day, an arm day and a chest day. Each workout was about 30 minutes. So you just can't fry out all of those body parts in 30 minutes total on one day when you're used to doing Body Beast. it was a good workout, but it just wasn't enough to hit any specific body part very hard. The moves each lasted a minute, and there was a short rest between moves. The moves lasted a minute, but after 30 seconds we lowered the weights for a drop set. You can read about all of the moves in my post from Day 2 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Pilates Fix Extreme
This was done all on the floor. There one didn't follow the same format as the others. We only did each move once. The moves still lasted a minute and there was a brief rest between them though. There were three basic sections in this one. The first was mainly about the abs, then we moved on to he legs and then we did some back stuff laying face down. I have to admit that I wasn't very fond of the original Pilates Fix, but I kinda liked Pilates Fix Extreme. This one was done using a resistance band which actually made some of the moves easier. I really felt this one the next day too. It was more effective and easier to do with the bands. Win Win. You can read about my first experience with Pilates Fix Extreme in my post from Day 3 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Lower Fix Extreme
This was all about the legs. This included different variations of squats and lunges. We also did two moves with the resistance band. Each move lasted 60 seconds. The first 30 seconds involved weights and the last 30 seconds involved some sort of change to make it more challenging such as squats for 30 seconds with weights and then squat jumps for 30 seconds. I wasn't expecting so much plyo stuff n this workout since the program has a whole day devoted to plyo, but I got through it. It wasn't my favorite day of the workout, but it wasn't my least favorite either. You can read about all of the exercises in my post from Day 4 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Cardio Fix Extreme
This was all about cardio, but she had us use weights which was different than cardio day in the original 21 Day Fix. I was so looking forward to a straight up cardio day, so I was a bit bummed to find out that this still used weights. I'm not a huge fan of incorporating weights with cardio. I like my weight training to be like Body Beast. The format of this workout was a little different than the others. Each round had three exercises. Two of them were strength training type moves and they lasted a minute each. The third move of each round was a cardio interval and only lasted 30 seconds. For example, round 1 involved Low High Squats, High Plank Kicks and Running in Place. You can read about all of the exercise in my post from Day 5 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Dirty 30 Extreme
This one was pretty much shoulder day with some more leg stuff too. My shoulders were on fire when this was done! Oddly enough, they didn't really hurt the following day, but I did survive shoulder day with Body Beast so maybe that's it. Getting through this was hard, but it just didn't have lingering effects. Some of the moves were things like doing a curtsy lunge while doing a half moon move with them arms. I used two pound weights for this and still wanted to die! you can read about all of the exercises in my post from Day 6 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
Yoga Fix Extreme
This was the active recovery day. While doing it, it didn't really seem like a recovery day. Once I got through it though, I felt pretty amazing. I love yoga because it makes me feel all stretched out. While doing it though, I want to scream. The balance stuff was pretty hard! We did moves such as Royal Dancer, Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Warrior 3 and Humble Warrior. You can read more about this workout in my post from Day 7 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
10 Minute Hardcore
This was a 10 minute ab workout done all on the floor. It was short and sweet. This one didn't feel as intense as the original 21 Day Fix 10 Minute Ab Fix though. I remember being pretty sore the day after that one, but this one didn't have that same impact. I felt it the next day a bit when I was shoveling snow, but that was it. You can read about the exercises in my post from Day 23 of 21 Day Fix Extreme.
The Fix Challenge
This is the free workout you get if you buy from a coach. If you don't have a coach, you can buy it from me to make sure you get the free workout. It's a really good workout even though it's super hard! The format is different than the others. There are 13 moves. You do the first move for four reps and then the second move for four reps. Then you go back and do moves 1, 2 and 3. Each time you add a new move and then start from the beginning. This one involved Surrenders, push ups, squats and lunges to name a few. There are no breaks in this workout. I had to pause the DVD several times. I might be able to get through it if I wasn't trying to keep up with the DVD, but I might still have to pause even then. You can read about all of the moves in my post from Day 22 of 21 Day Fix.Overall Thoughts
This program was hard for me, but I'm 265 pounds. It's supposed to be hard for people of a more normal size, so you toss on an extra 100 pounds and it's no surprise that it was hard. I found it a bit repetitive though because there were so many squats and lunges. It was like leg day every day. Plyo Fix Extreme was all about legs, Upper Fix Extreme had us holding a squat for a minute twice and holding a lunge for a minute twice, Pilates Fix Extreme had a big leg section that was pretty hard to get through, Lower Fix Extreme was all about legs, Cardio Fix Extreme had more lunging and squats, Dirty 30 Extreme had more lunges and squats and even Yoga Fix Extreme had several moves that challenged the legs. I can only do so many squats and lunges in a week before I want to scream. I know legs are the biggest muscles in the body and burn the most calories so if you build up our leg muscles, you'll lose weight faster. It doesn't change the fact that I just don't like squats and lunges though. I'm not trashing on the workout. It's just not a program that I could do for more than one round at a time.
I lost five pounds during the three weeks, but I wasn't following the nutrition plan. I've been doing a low carb high fat plan because I just can't eat the amount of fruit and carbs that are included in the nutrition program for 21 Day Fix. Fruit and carbs make me hungry.
Should you get the original 21 Day Fix or 21 Day Fix Extreme?
I'm going to do a whole post comparing these two programs on a head to head basis, but I need to do another round or at least mini round of the original 21 Day Fix first. For now, I just wanted to put this out there. If you're new to working out, I think you should get the 21 Day Fix first, but once you've done a couple rounds of that, I think upgrading to 21 Day Fix Extreme will be beneficial to you. You can alternate them and do the original one round and then extreme the next round and go back to the original. I had to modify 21 Day Fix Extreme more than the modifier did. I did push ups on my knees. I did renegade rows on my knees. I even did the Dolphin/Plank thing on my knees. I still did the jumping, but you don't have to. If you can't jump because of your knees or if you're just not ready for jumping, you don't have to. During leg day, you could just keep doing squats instead of moving to squat jumps. On plyo day, just do lunges instead of jumping lunges. On Cardio Fix Extreme, alternate stepping your foot out to the side and keep up the arm movements for the jumping jacks.
If you like Autumn and you like the 21 Day Fix program, you should move up to Extreme after a few rounds of the original because you need to keep your body guessing. All the experts say that you should change your program every couple months. You'll hear about people who have lost 100 pounds doing only 21 Day Fix and sure that's possible, but I would think it would be crazy boring to do the same workout program for a year and the experts recommend mixing it up, so go for it. Upgrade and give yourself some variety.
If you've been working out and like intense programs, go for Extreme first. If you like the program and you like Autumn and want something new, you could always go back and get the original. You can make it more challenging by modifying some of the moves to including jumping. You could also take shorter breaks and do more work in between. The two programs have different exercises, so just because you're more advanced, doesn't mean you can't get anything out of the original. Maybe you'll want the original for days when you want to workout, but just don't have the energy for the Extreme program.
Want to learn more? Watch the video!
If you decide you want to try the program out, be sure to buy it from a coach so you get the free DVD that you can't get through other sources. If you don't have a coach, you can sign up with me. This is the free DVD that you only get if you buy the program from a coach. A lot of the free workouts are kinda of pointless, but this is an awesome one, so make sure you buy it from a coach, If you click the video.
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