Fighting Fit, Fighting Fat
Harvey Walden IVYear Released: 2003
Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance
This is a a very straightforward and decent
workout. It's not going to be a favorite of
mine, but it will be a keeper. It's a high-
intermediate interval workout divided into 3
parts. Every exercise is done for 30 seconds
within those 3 parts, with the parts going
from "basic" to "intermediate" to
"advanced" (but some of the exercises don't
ever change that much).
The warm-up, 8 minutes consists of lots of
marching (march shallow, march wide, march
low is the first set, there are two other brief
sets ). The setting is a room decorated with
vaguely military-esque trappings. Two
women and one man, who act appropriately
grim. Harvey wears a broad-brimmed hat
and a constant scowl as he keeps telling you
something about" bag of chips" and "this will
separate the men from the boys and the
women from the girls" and exhorts you, "I
know you're not just sitting there."
In each of the three 15-minute "circuits" you
do basically the same moves. Jacks, arm
circles (the least interesting and effective of
the lot), wide pushups, "diamond" pushups
(for the triceps), ab crunches (from basic to
clamshell to bicycle), squat thrusts, squats,
lunges (from forward lunges to the more
"advanced" back lunges), jab-jab-uppercut-
uppercuts, side lunges, fast jogs, skip ropes,
cross-country skis, "supermans"). The main
different between "advanced circuit" and the
other two is that you jog in between moves
rather than march.
It's not complex or creative in choreography,
but it gets the basic job of getting your heart
rate up and sweating a bit in 45 minutes. I'm
somewhat advanced as an exerciser, so
cardio-wise this wasn't killer, but it was fine
for getting in a feel-good-enough workout.
Strength wise, I found it more difficult
throughout the 3 circuits to keep doing
pushups without going to my knees. But 30
seconds of everything makes it all fly by. This
is primarily a cardio workout.
Instructor Comments:
To me he's like a male Jillian Michaels...he puts
on that "drill sarge" demeanor and you're not
sure how much of it is an act, but no matter,
because he pulls it off well. He yells "Suck in
that gut" so many times that I'll never forget it.
But he's charismatic, natural-seeming and very
competent at cuing. He plays the drill sarge role
quite well.