Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Review of Beachbody 10 Minute Trainer Day 1: Cardio, Core Cardio and Upper Body


Day 1:

For anyone who has been following along, you already know that I had a failed attempt at Hammer & Chisel back in December. I got sick and needed to take some time off from working out. It was two and a half weeks before I got back into the workout room! That was brutal. In that time frame, I ate a lot of sugary foods. I was doing so well sticking with the low carb stuff, but once I was sick, all bets were off. I was absolutely miserable. After a certain point, I started to wonder if I was feeling like garbage because I was eating so much garbage. I'm sure my insulin levels were going all kinds of wonky! It was ugly. 

I had every intention of going back to Hammer and Chisel once I was feeling better. I even started researching Plyo boxes and how to make them at home. I did my math to figure out what to have the Home Depot people cut the plywood. The more I thought about restarting Hammer and Chisel, the more I dreaded doing it. I just wasn't in the mood to start back at a program that I had to modify so much just to get through. I wasn't a huge fan of total body workout every day concept. I've been wanting to do 10 Minute Trainer since it came out, so I decided to do that. The program is only a month long so it's not the daunting 60 day commitment. It's only 4 weeks! That's only one week longer than 21 Day Fix and it's 21 Day Fix Extreme. It's the same amount of time as Cize. I knew I could get through a month! 

10 Minute Trainer is available through the Member Library of Beachbody On Demand, which means............I get access to the regular workouts and the upgraded package workouts all for about $2.99 a week. I don't usually get all excited about renting workouts and that's what this really is, but in this particular case, I'm quite happy about it since it means I don't have to buy yet another program! 

The Concept

10 Minute trainer is pretty cool because you get 10 minute workouts that focus on different areas of the body and also some that focus on cardio. Since the workouts are only 10 minutes, you can fit them in when you have time. If you've got 10 minutes in the morning before the kids wake up, you can do one of the workouts. If you find another 10 minutes later in the day while the kids are having a nap, go ahead and do another workout! The calendar is set up so you can do just one workout a day or you can stack three into one day. I'm doing the three in one day plan, but I'm doing them all at one time. 

Equipment 

For today's workout, I used my red resistance band, the door attachment for the band and my belt from Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds DVDs. If you buy 10 Minute Trainer, it comes with a belt that you can hook to resistance bands which can then be hooked to the door attachment to create resistance with some of the moves. If you don't have a belt, you can improvise something or you could just do the workout without the belt. 

The Format

Tony Horton is the instructor for this program. I did three workouts today. The cardio workouts both had him and one other person. The other person did the moves with the belt. He did the moves without the belt. Each move lasts one minute and there are 10 moves in each workout so far. We didn't necessarily do the same move the same way for the entire 60 seconds. He mixed up the speed and stuff so we'd do something slow for four slow counts and then fast for 8 fast counts. If we held a lunge position to do something, we switched the leg that was lunging ever 15 to 30 seconds depending on what we were doing. The Upper Body workout had only Tony in it. He used resistance bands with the door attachment, but no belt. 

The Workouts

Cardio

The first of the three workouts today was Cardio! I did it with the belt because I wanted to see if this belt hing is all it's cracked up to be. The belt definitely made it more intense.

Combo Run

We stood away from the wall and ran in place. As time went on, we stepped further from the wall and changed the pace.

Warrior Lunges

We lunged forward into a Warrior 1 position and then stepped back and then lunged forward in Warrior 2 position. After 30 seconds, we switched the leg that went forward. 

Tires

Stepped forward from the wall while pretending to be putting our feet into tires. We stepped up four paces slowly and then ran back to the door. Then we stepped forward 8 fast steps and then ran back to the wall.

Off The line

We squatted down like we were on a football line. Then we stood up and did fast feet as we went forward. Then we turned to the side and side stepped back to the door. We alternated which side we turned back to.

Charlston Kick

We went back into a rear lunge. Touching the floor with our hand was optional. Then we stepped forward and then did a front kick with the leg that didn't go back into the lunge. After 30 seconds, we switched legs.

Circle Run

We ran around in circles. We started out close to the wall and then made circles going clockwise. After 30 seconds, we reversed the direction.

The Gretch 

These were pretty much just doing Skaters without the hop. We changed the pace every 20 seconds and got faster. By the end, we had added the hop so they really were just skaters.

Defensive Slide

We stood sideways to the wall. We had our hands up by our faces and then we did a few lateral steps away from the door and then a few back towards the door. After 30 seconds, we switched sides.

Side Lunge Side Kick

We stood sideways to the wall again. We did a lateral lunge on the leg away from the wall and then came up to do a side kick with the leg closest to the wall. After 30 seconds, we switched sides.

Hop Squat Run Home

We squatted down and then hopped back four times. Then we did "tires" on our way back to the wall. This one tired me out!

Core Cardio

Crescent Press

We lunged forward into Crescent Pose. It was hard for me to keep my arms up. I pretty much dropped them between lunges. We alternated our feet with this one. As we went on, he had us do a hop between them. It wasn't quite as extreme as doing Plyo lunges, but there was a definite hop.

Oblique Hop Squats

This was interesting. We were down in a sumo squat position. We had our arms up at 90 degrees on our sides. We hopped back and then side a standing side crunch basically to each side twice. Then we hopped again and did the arm thing again. We did four times and then turned around. We hopped towards the wall and away from the wall.

Towel Hop Squat 

We had a towel on the floor. We squatted down and then hopped over the towel. We hopped our feet one at a time instead of together so it made it easier to hop over the towel. We also moved further away from the wall and then back towards the wall. The jump was bigger and more exaggerated as we got further into it.

The Bella Twist 

I actually had to modify this one because it hurt my knee. We did The Twist as we hopped towards the wall and then away from he wall. The twisting action wasn't going well with my knees with the hop. I still did a twisting action, but I stepped instead of hopping. 

Twisting Sprinter

This was very similar to when we did the Tires in Cardio, but we were supposed to twist our upper body and bring our elbow to the opposite knee.

Speed Skater

We did this facing sideways to the wall. It made them a little awkward. We switched sides after 30 seconds.

Loading Dock

We were sideways to the wall again. We reached up high on one side and then squatted down and reached down low on the other side. We were supposed to look like we were picking up a box and moving it from the floor to a high shelf. After 30 seconds, we switched sides.

Traveling Body Blows

So we squatted down into kind of a lunge and then we did a few body blow punches. I felt like a dork doing these. We stepped out four steps and then turned around and stepped back towards the wall. The switching sides was a bit awkward for me. It didn't look like it was awkward for her though!

Arc Twist

We squatted down into a sumo squat. Our hands were up at 90 degrees to our sides again. We stepped to the side and then did some upper body twisting. We stepped to the side again and did the twisting. The steps were supposed to form a half circle. We stepped five times to each side.

Reaching Skater

We took the belt off and stretched it up over our heads. We then did skaters with our feet while our hands were up over our heads. Talk about fun! Not! This was weird for me, but it was doable.

Upper Body 

3x5 Chest Press

We did five at half range of motion. Then we did five with half range of motion, but just the upper part and then five of them full range of motion. We did it with the bands in the door attachment and we held a lunge position with our legs. We switched the forward leg after we did each set.

Lunging Lawnmowers

We were facing the wall in a lunge position. We held one handle at our hip and then the other we pulled across our body like we were pulling a lawnmower starter cord. Every 15 seconds or so, we switched sides. 

3 level Shoulder Flys 

We were sideways to the wall. We held one handle by a hip and then we did shoulder flys with the other hand. We did one down low like at our waist and then chest level and then shoulder level. I really felt these! He stepped further from the wall to make it harder at times.

Crazy Eights

I don't know why this was called crazy 8s, but we faced the wall and held one hand at the top of a bicep curl while we did bicep curls with the other hand. After 8 reps we switched sides. So one side was holding tension while the other side was doing curls. I need to work on my positioning for this because the tension arm didn't really feel all that tense.

Kickback / Throw Combo

We faced he wall in a lunge position and did tricep kickbacks. After 8 reps we flipped around and put our hands up over our heads and did what he called a throw, but it was like a tricep extension up over our heads. We alternated kick backs and throws ever 8 reps or so. 

Incline / Decline Chest Press

This was interesting. We faced away from the wall and did a chest press move with our hands up high going up. Then we flipped our hands over and did a forward motion with our hands down by our hips. We alternated high and low every 10 reps or so.

High Low Lat Row

We faced the wall again. We pulled the bands up towards our chest and then lowered our hands to our hips and let them go towards the wall again. After 15 seconds, we pulled the bands towards our hips and then raised our hands to our shoulders and then let them go back towards the wall again. I really liked this one!

Shoulder Fly / Press Combo

We were in a lunge position and did shoulder press motion and then after a few reps, we changed the arms so they were arcing in like a fly. We went back and forth between those and we alternated which leg was lunging forward. This one was a bit awkward to hold the lunge deep enough to get the right range of motion. 

Police Curls

We faced the wall again and got down into what he called a half lunge. We then alternated curling our hands up to the opposite shoulder. Every 20 seconds or so we switched which foot was forward. I kind liked these, but I need to find the right place to stand. That's the hard part about the bands. You can't really tell what weight you're moving. 

One Arm Tricep Extensions

This was an awkward move for me. We had one hand wrapped around us kind of in half of a hug while holding the band. The other hand went up over our head and then lowered down behind our heads and then lifted back up into a tricep extension. When we switched sides, I got my bands all twisted. We were supposed to follow his lead so we didn't twist it up, but I still got all twisty.

This workout has the cooldown at the end. It lasts for just under two minutes. It's mainly stretching type stuff. I wasn't sure if the workout itself had the cooldown with it on the On Demand thing or if On Demand somehow knew that I had done all three so it was time for the cooldown. I learned the following day that it just has it attached to it. I did three workouts the following day, but no cool down. He did mention that I should do a cool down, but there wasn't one that automatically came up. 

Overall Thoughts

I really enjoyed this workout. I thought I would get annoyed that I had to scroll through the list and find each workout, but I actually enjoyed the break. There are no breaks during the 10 minute workouts. You get a couple seconds to set up the next move, but you don't get actual breaks. It was nice to catch my breath between the workouts.

Polar M400

I don't have screen shots from the workout today. I did sessions for each of the 10 minute workouts, but that didn't go so well. All three of the icons are stacked on each other so I can't pull them up individually on the app. The heart rate monitor might need a new battery too. The workout that I did see was all over the place. My heart rate was high and low and didn't register in some places so there's  not much point in posting it. I'll try again. I'll just do one session for all three workouts for the future to make it easier.

Want to learn more? Watch the video!


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