Ultimate Cardio Body

This is a 62 minute, advanced, high-rep/cardio workout led by Bob Harper. He works out mostly personal trainer style with three women and one male backgrounder (the male, Joe, he picks on often! But I think it was all in good fun) in a bright white room with his classic black socks. The music is a rock instrumental and there is a countdown timer. The DVD also has a 10 minute bonus glute workout which I did not do.

Bob starts out working your legs heavily to get your heart rate up, and starts with an exceptionally long lunge sequence (maybe too long for my tastes), suitcase swings, squat varieties, more lunge work (starting to incorporate upper body now), high knees (low impact to start then two of his backgrounders take it high impact), pushups, bob and weave, and crescent kicks (then repeat this from the high knees), more squat variations including plyo squats (with more upper body work-mostly shoulder work), front shoulder raise then hold, “ass burners” which is basically a low repeater knee while holding a low position for the working/stabilizing leg (really was a burner!), plie squats, mountain climbers, more upper body work (triceps), and nearing the end, he goes into a LONG sequence of single leg hops (which didn’t think was a good choice-that is a rolled ankle waiting to happen! Even he mentioned you had to be safe and not roll your ankles) and only left about 3 minutes for a cool down/stretch.

The only other advanced (non TBL) Bob workout I’ve done is Body Rev Cardio Conditioning which I found to be a little harder and marginally more fun (which to me means there was a lot more kettlebell work!) but on the whole I am finding myself to be lukewarm on Bob’s workouts. I see how this workout (and BRCC) have a real cardio impact, but they aren’t IMO “real” cardio rather they are high-rep light weight workouts that get and keep your heart rate up. I will admit I’m not a fan of being repped to death and don’t usually do that type of workout (like Slim Series or Jari Love) but I really like Bob, so keep giving him a try. I can work with some of the high-rep stuff if there were more plyos (there was some plyo work here though) and other true cardio work interspersed with the high-rep work.

I found the music (rock music) to be OK but not anything different than his other workouts, and the bright white set was clean and vivid and a HUGE difference from his Inside Out Method dark sets. I am still not crazy about the nearly blinding white set but still like it better than the gritty locker room.

On the whole I would say this is a low-mid advanced workout (can be flexible depending on poundage used) and is a high-rep style. I may not keep this one since I like BRCC better and they’re not all that different in terms of how you are being worked or the time length. It certainly does challenge your endurance and is a productive calorie burner though. Just not fun. Overall grade B- for me.

Instructor Comments:
I really like Bob and he is enthusiastic and fun (even if I’m coming to terms with not enjoying his workout style) and in this one he gave one guy (Joe?) a really hard time, all in good fun I’m sure…but he did pick on him a lot. He raved quite a bit about how hard his workout was and instructed PT-style.

Emily B.