Review of Beachbody Les Mills Pump: Pump and Shred

Pump and Shred 

This is my third working from Beachbody Les Mills Pump. I'm not following the 90 day program. I'm just doing the workouts on Sundays. This program has been discontinued by Beachbody, but I'm writing about it anyway. You can still get it on eBay and I like to write about my workouts so I'm writing about it! I had this program for months before I actually did any of the workouts. I'm kinda bummed that I didn't start it sooner, but I honestly don't know if I would have made it through the program had I tried to do the entire 90 day program. I survived Body Beast, but this program is killer! My whole body is shaking by the time this thing is over! Body Beast focused on a specific area of the body with each workout except for Total Body, but this is a Total Body workout in every workout. Body Beast also had a lost of rest between sets, but this is constant reps for like 5 minutes on a specific area. They mix up the speed of the reps too so it really makes it intense. Sometimes we do a 4/4 count, so it's four counts down and four up. Sometimes it's a 3/1 so it's 3 counts down and one up. Other times it's a 2/2 count so it's two down and two up. Then there are singles so it's just down and up (or up and down if you're doing chest and shoulder stuff). There are also bottom halves where you go down and then halfway up and back down. There are also times where we go down and hold it for a couple counts before we go up again. They mix it up pretty well.

The Workout

This one was about 45 minutes which is longer than Pump Challenge and Pump and Burn. It follows the same basic flow as the others though. There are _________ different segments. Each one focuses on a specific area. The segments last about 4 to 6 minutes each. There's a bit of a rest between segments where you can change you weights and you can do a little stretching. Oh and don't forget the water! 

Ttrack 1 (Warm Up)

This one had a warm up. I don't think Pump Challenge had one, but Pump and Burn did. Rach did the warm up. She's one of the trainers from Les Mills Combat. The warm up was about 4 minutes and 20 seconds. We started out with Deadlifts. I'm not going to say the different counts this time. It takes too long to write the post if I do that. After the Deadlifts we did dead rows. I really like deadlifts and dead rows! I used 5 pound weights for this one since it was the warm up. Then we did a split stance and did upright rows. I'm not really sure why we do the split stance for these. It's a bit awkward for me. We don't really go into a lunge. We just have most of our weight on one foot and the other foot is back. Then we did shoulder presses. I I hate shoulder presses! My shoulders are so wimpy. Then the bar went up over our shoulders and we did squats. Then we did lunges! I really hate lunges. So this was called the warm up, but this was work. Warm ups are usually about getting your body warm by running in place and stuff, but this was work work! Then we did the other leg and then brought the bar back to the wrong. We switched to an underhand grip and did some dead lifts and dead rows. They really do feel differently with the underhand grip. Then we did some bicep curls. We didn't spend much time on the bicep curls and we didn't do anything else for the biceps for the rest of the workout. I'm not sure why we don't do much with the biceps in this.

Track 2 (Legs)

I went with 10 pound weights on each side for the legs. I've got strong legs so why not! We had the bar up over our shoulders again. We started out with squats with a normal foot position. This section was like 5-1/2 minutes. We did three rounds, but we didn't take breaks between the rounds so I'm not really sure what the rounds refer to. This round wasn't that bad, but the bottom halves were killer. With 2 minutes to go, we took a short break and did a wider stance. Then we squatted for another couple minutes. 

Track 3 (Chest)

I went back down to the 5 pound weights on each side for this one. I did it on my bench too which makes it harder since you get a bigger range of motion. This section was just under 5 minutes. We did a bunch of chest presses. We mixed up the temp, but spent a lot of time just doing chest presses. This section started out easy, but ended up pretty challenging by the time it was over! With 45 minutes left, we took a short break and moved to Push Ups! We were supposed to do 16, but I wasn't as fast as them, so I didn't get them all done. 

Track 4 (Back)

Dan from Les Mills Combat did this track. We got a little break while he taught us the clean and press. I put the 10 pound weights back on the bar. I kinda regretted that later! We started out with the dead lift. Then we went into the clean and press with a dead row. We did triple dead rows. Then back to the deadlifts, then clean and press with dead rows and then the triple dead rows. With a minute to go, we took a little break. We stretched out the back a little bit and then did more clean and press with the dead row! 

Track 5 (Legs)

I went back to the 5 pound weights for this round. My legs were already shaking and I hate lunges! We had the weight up on our shoulders again. We started out with lunges. We did different counts for a bit. Then we did a section of squats and then did lunges on the other side and then more squats. I had to take a lot of breaks during the lunges. My mind wasn't in it and my legs were killing me! They were shaking so badly too! 

Track 6 (Shoulders)

This track was about 4-1/2 minutes. We started off with push ups. We different temps with it. I did them on my knees because my shoulders were already killing me. Then we got down on one knee and did rear delt raises with the plates. This were torture. I used my five pound weights. I had to skip a rep or two. Then we got up and did lateral raises. I started with the five pound plates, but then I grabbed my two pound weights. These are killer! Then we did the Mac Raise. We did this in a different workout. It's hard to explain, but one arm goes straight up in front of you and the other is bent and goes up kind of to the side. Then you switch sides. I had to take breaks on this one too even with my two pound weights. Then we did shoulder presses with the plates. I did my 2 pound dumbbells though because my shoulders were on fire! I still had to take breaks even with the two pound weights! 

Track 7 (Abs)

This was the last working track. It was also without weights! YAY! Although, it was abs and I hate abs! We started out with "The Hover" or as everyone else on the planet calls it "The Plank." While we did it, we did circles with our arms. This was kinda torturous. I did these on my knees. I thought about trying them on my toes, but I said screw it! Then we held the hover. Then we got onto our backs and did crunches! We did a couple different tempos with it. Then our feet came up off the floor and we did oblique stuff. One elbow came up to the opposite knee and the other foot tapped down to the floor. Then we straightened the leg instead of touching it down. Then we reached our hand across to the opposite knee and kept the leg action going, That section was HARD!

Track 8 (Cool down)

This lasted just under 4 minutes. It was a pretty long cool down section for a Beachbody workout. I liked that part! We did a variety of stretches while on our backs. We also did some up on one knee and then some standing up. I'm not going to list them all. It was pretty much the same stretching segment as Pump and Burn. 

Polar M400 Screen Shot

My heart rate monitor needed a new battery! I was a bit surprised. I guess I should have been surprised that it lasted as long as it did. I think I got the device last June or July and it lasted until April of this year. That's a pretty good battery life I would think. The sucker is a royal pain to get out though. I had to Google how to change it. It says to use the clip on the strap to turn the battery cover, but I ended up using a quarter. Then you have to pry the battery out of the cover using something like a toothpick according to them. I used a super tiny screw driver that we have. We're not toothpick people. I'm rambling, but I thought it was important to put the info in here in case anyone found this page while searching for the web for instructions on removing the stupid battery. 

I was surprised by my calorie burn for this workout. I was also surprised by how high my heart rate got for this one. It didn't feel like it was that high. I'm not really sure what's up with some of those weird dips, but whatever. I don't really like the new layout. The color red is an angry color. It shouldn't be on here. Oh well. I can't do anything about that.

Want to learn more? Watch the video!

You can't buy this from Beachbody anymore, but you can still buy it from ebay so if you want to learn more about it, just check out the video that still exists even though you can't buy it.