Sunday, May 1, 2016

Review of Beachbody Les Mills Pump: Pump Extreme



Pump Extreme

This is the final Pump workout in the program. I still have two ab workouts to do, but this was the sixth and final workout with the bar and all the weights. I'm not sure what the ab workouts are like though. Maybe we use the bar in them. I'm not sure. Just as a reminder, this program has been discontinued by Beachbody, but you can still get it on eBay. I got my program either last year or the year before. I can't remember. I just never got around to doing it because I was scared of using the barbell for the lunges and squats. I have to say that I wish I hadn't been afraid because this really is an awesome program and they have modifiers so you don't have to use the bar with the squats and lunges if you don't want ti. If only someone had told me sooner! 

I told myself that I wasn't going to do this workout today because my biceps were still sore from loading windows at work the other day, but I did it because I'm a sucker for punishment. I managed to get through the bicep track better than the chest track though which surprised me!

The Workout

The workout was just under an hour. It's listed as 55 minutes in the book, but it was closer to 60 minutes. That's just the actual workout too. Leave yourself extra time since there's the commercial before the workout plus you have to listen to the instructor introductions. That will add a couple minutes. 

Track 1

This is the warm up track. I used 5 pound weights. The track lasts just over 5 minutes. We started out with deadlifts with a couple different tempos. Then we did deadrows with different tempos. Then we moved on to the Upright Row at different tempos. Then we moved on to squats with different tempos. Then my favorite! Lunges! (I hate lunges) Then we did some Overhead Presses. Then we did some deadrows with an underhand grip. Then we moved to bicep curls. 

Track 2

The first track was all about the squats. I used 10 pounds for this one. This track just over 5 minutes. We did squats for the whole time. We did different tempos and bottom halves. This was a very long track! It's a lot of squats! We took a couple short breaks when we changed our feet to go wider. 

Track 3

This was the chest track. I did this with 5 pounds and on my bench. The track was just over 5 minutes. We did chest presses at different tempos. My triceps were toast after a minute or two into this track. I took several breaks during this one. The entire track was chest presses with different tempos. It would have been nice to mix it up just a bit. With about a minute to go, we did take a short break.


Track 4

This was all about the back and legs. I used 10 pounds for this section. This section started out with an instructional lesson on the clean and press. The track was just under 5 minutes. We started off with Deadlifts. Then we did the Clean and Press with a Deadrow. Then we did a wider grip for Triple Rows. After that, we putt he bar down and stretched out our backs. We went through that sequence a few times. I really like this track. It's the same track that they put in all of the other workouts, but I don't get bored with this one. I like that there are a few different moves so we're not doing the same exact move for the entire track. I really like the track too so even though it's a bit repetitive with the other workouts, I like it so I'm okay with it. The last round started with the clean and press and ended with a super slow deadlift.

Track 5

This was all about the triceps. Mine were already killing me so I wasn't really looking forward to this one! The track was about 4-1/2 minutes. We started standing up and using a plate to do overhead tricep extensions at different tempos. I started out with the 5 pound plate, but switched to a two pound dumbbell at some point. My triceps are soooooooooo wimpy! Then we got down on our hands and knees. We had a plate (or dumbbell for me) in one hand and did tricep kickbacks. I had a hard time supporting my weight on my hand that was on the floor. My triceps were that fried! Then we did tricep pushups before doing the tricep extensions on the other side. Then more tricep pushups. The pushups were crazy hard! I didn't even try to do them on my toes. I couldn't barely do them on my knees!

Track 6 

This track was all about the biceps. I used 5 pound weights. I thought about skipping the bar since I knew this would be a challenging track for my because my biceps were already sore. The track was about 4-1/2 minutes. It was another Pink song! Raise Your Glass! It's weird to hear it with someone else singing it. We spent the bulk of the track just doing biceep curls at different tempos. We did some bottom halves too. This was a really long track! I do better when we have a mix of moves. The bicep and chest tracks were a bit repetitive for me. We did do some underhand grip deadrows in this to mix it up, but we didn't od many of them. I had to skip a few reps in this track and I'm pretty sure my biceps are going to be killing me tomorrow!

Track 7

This track was all about the legs. I stayed with 5 pounds on this since I knew it was going to be a bunch of lunges. I hate lunges! They kill me so I didn't want too much weight. The track lasted just over 5 minutes. We started with squats. Then did lunges on one side, back to squats, back to lunges on the other side. Rinse repeat. We mixed up the tempos and added some bottom halves in there. I hate bottom halves on lunges. I hate lunges. I hate bottom halves. LOL. This is not my favorite track, but this was probably my favorite Legs track that we've done in the program. It was nice having the squats to break things up. 

Track 8

This was the shoulder track. We didn't use the bar for this track. We started out with two plates. Well, I started out with my 2 pound dumbbells. We started out on the floor and then go up. The track lasted just over five minutes. We did some rear delt raises and mixed up the tempos. It didn't take long for my shoulders to fry out. I probably shouldn't even do this track since my left shoulder has issues, but I haven't had it checked yet. I probably should. Then we got up and did side raises with the plates. I kept my 2 pound dumbbells since my shoulders are just so wimpy. Then we did the Mac Raise at different tempos. One arm goes up in front and the other comes up but it's bent and comes up on the side. Then we did upright rows. I would have done the 5 pound weights on the barbell, but I didn't have the barbell set up so I used the 2 pound dumbbells. I like these. Then we did overhead presses. I used the 2 pounds weights still. I would have used the bar if it had been set up. Then we did more pushups. Why oh why must we do so many pushups. I didn't bother trying to do any on my toes. It was nice to have the different moves since it helps break things up. 

Track 9

This was all about the abs! We didn't use any weights on this one. This track was just under 5 minutes. We did it all on our backs on the floor. We bent our knees at 90 degrees with our feet up off the floor. We touched our feet down to the floor and picked them back up at different tempos. Then we did crunches with a two count up and a two count down. We alternated between the two moves a couple times. Then we added an oblique twist after the crunches. Then we did the whole series again a couple times.

Track 10

This was the cool down track. It wasn't as long as some of the other cool down tracks have been. I feel like we didn't really get a good enough stretch. I should have done some extra stretching, but I just didn't want to do anything other than sit down and let my legs stop shaking. The track lasted just over four minutes.

Overall Thoughts

I liked that this workout had a bicep section. I was seriously thinking we were neglecting our biceps in the beginning. Although, maybe all of the deadlift and deadrow stuff would have been enough for my biceps if I was just starting out. I'm glad that I didn't set out to do this entire program by the calendar. I like the workouts. I really do, but I find them a bit repetitive. Most of the workouts have the same moves. The tempos might change and there are some minor differences like the tricep tracks are different, but the program could get a bit boring if I were to do it for 90 days three times a week. I really like these workouts for my Sunday strength training to go along with my Wild Movement plan from The Wild Diet

I've got two more workouts to do from this program and then I think I'm going back to Hammer and Chisel. I'll do the ab workouts during the week before work I think. I might try to get in some of the On Demand Cize workouts too. 

Polar M400 Screen Shots

Looks like I didn't lose the connection with the heart rate monitor this time. Maybe all of my issues were because the battery was starting to go dead. I'm not really sure. I don't know that I really care either. As long as it's working now! Check out that calorie burn! I really got my heart rate up there doing this one. 



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. 


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