Video Fitness

Hard Work Conditioning 2

Patrick Goudeau

Set: Simple, bright set
Background exercisers: 2 women I haven't seen in his previous dvds. They are fit and smiling. They wear dark pink sleeveless tops and black shorts with red and white piping. Patrick is wearing a black sleeveless top and long-ish grey shorts.
Props: 2 sets of weights (Patrick uses 8's and 10's) and a step with 2 risers on each side.
Music: Good, disco-y sounding. Loud enough, but wish there was an option for music louder.
Patrick: He looks great! I wish his shorts were a little shorter and a different color, but it's nothing I can't live with. He is VERY encouraging in this without being silly. I really enjoyed his screen presence. Not as giggly as in previous workouts, but still smiling and pleasant.

The total running time of the DVD is 85 minutes. 30 minutes for lower body, 30 for upper(which includes more legs and cardio), 10 for abs and 5 minutes for a stretch.

Warm Up:
Starts with a simple march to what Patrick calls a jog, but it's kind of like a hip swish (bounce from foot to foot with your legs in a "v")
Step reach side to side with a squat reach in the middle
Jumps back and forth over the step with a step to a plank with one hand on the step after each jump. After several reps, 5 push ups on one side
Rest briefly with arm swings and then repeat.
Straddle step and jump up and down, do some pulse squats for 4, then jump up and down for 4, speed up to jumping up and down on step.

Round 1

Light weights at shoulder, step up and over your step, progress to up and over to shoulder press, progress to up and over with shoulder press, bicep curl and back lunge.

Slow back lunge to front lunge to front lunge with no weights and a balance in the middle

Pick up weights and squat up and down, picking up and placing down weights. Progress to squat down, pick up weights and lift to bicep curl, squat back down and put down weights, stand and repeat.

What Patrick called "Warior Lunge." You're in the warrior position and you windmill your arms with light weights while you do a deep lunge on the leg with the foot facing forward. Opposite leg stays straight.

After doing this on one side, you move to cardio. Warning: this looks incredible tough, in a good way.

Cardio: step facing the screen

Straddle step up and down star slow, then double time it. Move to jacks up and down on the step and then move to a step side leg extension keeping your leg on the step bent in a low squat. Repeat. I think this is about 4 minutes long.

Repeat legs on opposite side and repeat cardio

Round 2: Patrick uses heavier weights, just one

Legs: You're straddling the step and move to a curtsy lunge and bring your knee up before replacing your foot back beside the step.

Jump squats up and down with a tricep extension

Speed skaters with your heavy weight with a curtsy lunge added on each side. You toss your weight to the outside hand each time you switch sides.

Pick up your light weights.

Squat to an upper body extension. Think of the jump reach move from IMax -I where your top arm is extended above your head, but at an angle.

Tap, walk 3 steps, side to side behind the step holding weights.

Cardio:

Shuffles at back of step, jump up and off your step to a jumping jack and then do some line taps.

Repeat legs, repeat cardio

Round 3:

Holding your weights (light, I think), back lunge to front lunge on the step moving your arms like you're running.

Balance on one bent leg on top of step, but keep your arms like they're running.

A superman-type move, but with your arms extended to the floor, raise up and extend your leg to the front and do an overhead press

Static lunge with back leg lift

Cardio:

Plank jacks, regular jacks, weightless side lunge to bunny hop over the step. Progress to lunge to bunny hop.

Repeat legs, repeat cardio.

The upper body section is just as tough as the lower body section. Think Strength in Movement meets Drill Max. Your whole body is moving nearly all the time. There are also a ton of great balance moves incorporated. I like that Patrick is constantly progressing from one simple move to more difficult variations. It gives the option for modifiers. One point: The cardio sections a very high impact. If you are used to modifying, it's doable with your own low impact options. There is no on-screen modifyer.

Here is the first section:

You start off with your step parallel to the screen and do 8 reps of a standard chest press with a wrist rotation at the top.

This progresses into this move where you press the weights up, roll up to a low squat over your step while keeping your arms straight out and parallel to the floor, then roll back down and do another 2 chest presses. This is repeated 8 times.

The very next move with no rest time - stand to your low squat and start doing tricep kickbacks. After several reps, begin a 3 count squat with a shoulder press when you stand.

Then go right into what Patrick calls a cannon push up. This is a variation of what Anthony Diluglio calls corkscrew pushups. You stay on your toes in plank position and move your hips back to your heels, then shoot forward and go down into a pushup.

>From there you do 8 total reps of 2 and 3 point planks, which at this point in the workout are super tough. My triceps were quivering.

Then Patrick moves to cardio with a leg toning factor. Standing at the side of your step, you step up, tap, then step down and touch the step. This progresses to touching the floor. Then finally, he has you stay in a low tap position and do a static tap and reach.

Again, this is just the first section. It's repeated on the other side of the step, as is the cardio. There are a total of 3 very tough, full body (including abs with all the plank work and other interesting moves that incorporate core) sections plus the cardio bursts in this section.

The upper body section follows the same format at the lower body: Do the exercise on one side, follow with cardio and repeat. I like this pattern because then you can really get some serious reps in without having your heartrate go down.

The ab section at the end is also very tough, but doable and fun. I like that Patrick is super encouraging without being hyper our shouting. He does have a few repeat phrases, "You guys" and "I love this" but they aren't annoying - at least to me. What's so cute is that in the credits section there is a big "OH MY GOSH, thanks to my fans." I find Patrick very sincere and motivating.

The stretch was also good and incorporated long holds and balance moves. The workout runs 85 minutes and I have to say the time flew. Again, it is super tough. I consider myself advanced and there were a few times where I just looked at the screen and said, "You want me to do WHAT?" Inevitably, the exercises were do-able, but they do come one right after the other and previewing is a must.

Grade: A++

Instructor comments: Encouraging without being overbearing. A pleasure to work out with.

Lindal

October, 2008



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