TapouT XT: Sprawl & Brawl

Mike leads this 46 minute cardio workout in a MMA gym set with a group of exercisers. You will need your optional TapouT weighted gloves for this workout. There are music and subtitle options and an on-screen countdown timer.

Each exercise is performed for 30-90 seconds. Mike includes some nice knee, elbow, & lunge combos, quite a few pushup variations, and some nice sit up & crunch variations in this workout. Other exercises include: bridge -punch-situp- elbow strike, elevator plank to side plank hip drops, burpee variations, bob & weave & punch, hi knee run, explosive pushups, Mt climber - plank tucks, and kneeling -drop to pushup. The workout ends with a killer move: 70 seconds of kneeling -drop to pushup- Mt Climber.

There are definitely some advanced exercises but overall I rate this a high intermediate workout. I wore weighted gloves and got a great cardio w/o. This is a fun fighting style workout with a lot of unique exercises! I received this dvd to review.

lindseylu8

As the title would suggest, this is a mix of planks/pushups/sit-up variations on the floor - “sprawl” and MMA-style punching - “brawl,” organized as one sprawl then one brawl exercise, for the entirety of the workout (so you are constantly getting down and up from the floor). The workout is about 47 minutes including a 5-minute or so warm up and a brief 3 minute cool down/stretch. Like many of the other Tapout XT workouts, this is mostly bodyweight work with a great cardio factor. I definitely felt my arms and abs especially the next day, with the punches and plank/pushup/sit-up moves. There were also about two or three sets of burpees – actually not as many as I was expecting. Mike had you do each exercise for about 45 seconds – 90 seconds and made sure to work both sides of the body with the punches by having you switch sides halfway through. As in other Tapout XT workouts, he did not repeat exercises although there were definitely different variations on similar exercises. He encourages you to use your weighted gloves; I found myself preferring to using light weights (1-3#) for the brawling and leaving my hands free for the floor work.

The brawling is really a break from the tough floor work – just lots and lots of planks and burpee-style moves with some sit-ups, crunches, and burpees in between. The constant up and down is also taxing so I would say this is a high intermediate/low advanced workout. The workout itself is pretty fun and is a great way to get a cardio, plus arm and ab toning workout. I’ll be picking this one up on a regular basis. Overall grade A!

Instructor Comments:
I think Mike is a great instructor, full of energy and enthusiasm for his workout system, demonstrates each move, tells you when to start/stop clearly, and points out form and encourages his background exercisers. A lot of people said that he talks too much, but I didn’t find that he talks more than other instructors, but he is pretty energetic! When he demonstrates some of the explosive moves, I am inspired by his power and agility. Wow!

Emily B.