Part of the original Brazil Butt Lift series, this is Leandro's full body workout. It's very light on equipment - only a mat and dumbbells are needed - with a mix of upper body work, lower body work (compound moves done while holding light dumbbells) and abs/stabilization, including a tough sequence of plank/side plank/hip dip plus good exercises for the obliques. I'm an intermediate exerciser and use mostly 5# dumbbells, with 8#s for single-leg deadlifts and 10#s for chest. You have to know the workout well or being willing to hit 'pause' a lot if you want to switch up weights for every exercise.

Leandro instructs a class of mostly women with two men in the back row. It's an indoor well-lit typical studio set. He does many of the standing moves but almost none of the floor work, preferring to instruct/correct that segment.

After a basic warmup and a set of pushups, the workout goes through standing work for upper and lower body, then moves to the floor for upper body and abs/core work. I'm always surprised at how sweaty I am by the time I hit my mat for the floor work, as the standing work is fun, well paced and doesn't feel grueling, but you feel well worked-out at the end of it.

One of Leandro's 'signature' moves, mermaid pushups, feels very awkward and shoulder-straining to me, so I substitute forearm plank with hip dips, or full plank with left hip dip - right hip dip - pushup while Leandro and crew are cranking out the mermaids. That's the only move that feels dicey to me, and Leandro offers clear instruction and form pointers throughout the workout on all the moves.

On this and the other Brazil Butt Lift workouts, Beachbody missed a real opportunity to get some good Brazilian/Latin music and coordinate it with the workout. The music in this workout is background-y and often not on the beat/pace with the exercisers. Some of that is Leandro's counting, but really the music is there to add noise but not necessarily enhance the workout. There is a music-lower option.

Instructor Comments:
Leandro brings enthusiasm and fun to this workout. It's a fine line to walk as a male instructor with female backgrounders, to talk about shaping your butt and body and not to sound either patronizing or creepy/slimy. Leandro is totally professional about this and I never picked up a negative vibe from him. I have no trouble with his accent in this workout and some of his pronunciations make me smile - 'curtsy' lunge comes out as "cort-zee", and it's cute when he says "niiiiiiice". He counts evenly on each side but not necessarily with a steady rhythm/cadence, so I tend to listen to his first couple rep counts and ignore him after that in favor of the music. He's not a great cue-er, as he tends to cue the first rep of a move instead of setting it up for you beforehand, but that matters much less in this weights workout than in some of the BBL cardio.

athompson10