20 Minute Body - Trilogy 1

Brett Hoebel
Year Released: 2014

Categories: Boxing/Kickboxing/Martial Arts , Circuit Training (cardio and weights) , Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance , Total Body Workouts


Cardio Capoeira – Trilogy 1. This is one of the bonus workouts and is included in the first trilogy. The total running time including the warm up and cool down is 29:14.

Main Menu – Cardio Capoeira, English subtitles, Spanish subtitles

Set, Music, and Exercisers - The set is nice, light, and airy looking. There are some 20 Minute Body banners on the back wall and it’s not cluttered looking and the exercisers aren’t too close together. The music is instrumental and I can’t recall it at all which means it was neither really good nor really bad. I do remember that it helped pace the workout nicely. Brett works out with 1 other female exerciser. Brett is not wearing a shirt and is wearing long pants. The woman is wearing athletic tops and tights. She is supposed to modify some of the moves by not going as low.

Equipment – no equipment is needed. You may want to have a towel and water nearby although there are no breaks during the workout.

Warm Up – This is the same warm up throughout the series. The moves include forward fold to plank, cat/cow, spider lunge w/ a twist, sumo squat to forward fold, sumo squat w/ twist, 8 jumping jacks.

Main workout – There are 4 sections to this workout that each last 5 minutes. The sections are punches, kicks, capoeira, and combined where you take exercises from all the previous sections.

In addition to the main moves listed below are filler moves such as jacks, balanca, and bunda (small squat jumps). As an example, you might do 8 side kicks, then go into 8 balanca before doing the 8 side kicks on the other lead.

Punches – jabs, crosses, knife, double jabs, triple jabs, jab/cross. At times the punches are done double time.
Kicks – side to side stomps, side kicks, knee thrusts, front kicks, something like a crescent knee, something like a crescent kick.
Capoeira - jinga, esquiva, jinga/esquiva combo with a pivot, balanca.
Combined – takes moves from all the previous sections.

Cool down – This is the same cool down throughout the series and uses a towel to help increase the stretch. Stretches include seated twist, laying glute/low back, laying hamstring, laying figure 4, and laying twist.

Overall Impressions: I was hoping this workout would have been more capoeira moves. As presented, I’d say it’s about 60% capoeira and 40% filler moves. That ratio doesn’t make the workout bad, just not what I was expecting from a workout titled Cardio Capoeira. I did enjoy the workout and appreciated that it didn’t have a big learning curve. My overall grade would be a B.

As presented by Brett I’d say the workout is solid intermediate. While the woman is supposed to be modifying, she doesn’t modify any of the impact although it would be easy enough to think of a modification on your own as mostly you just need to take out the jump. Still, I think it was a missed opportunity to make this workout appear more accessible to beginners. Advanced exercisers will probably find this workout is not intense enough as the pacing and choice of capoeira moves are not conducive really getting the heartrate up.

Instructor Comments:
Out of all the trilogy 1 workouts, Brett is the most focused in this workout. This is due to the fact that he does the entire workout with you and doesn’t have the opportunity to move around and comment on background exercisers. Brett’s form is impeccable and he is beautiful to watch. There’s no way I looked that fluid doing the capoeira moves! And Brett is his usual encouraging self and offers good form pointers, and frequently reminds the at-home exerciser to modify when needed.

Sabine Reuter

03/08/2015