21 Day Fix Total Body Cardio Fix

Autumn works out with a group of background exercisers, one providing beginner modifications. You will a set of dumbbells for this 30 minute cardio & toning blast.

After a warm up, 4 rounds of 2 exercises done 2 times each are performed for 1 min each followed by 20 seconds rest. Exercises include: surrenders, shuffle & floor touch, squat & wood chop, weighted scissors, weighted jog extending arms, weighted knee pull, frog crunches, and oblique crunches.

This is a high intermediate routine that is moderately paced. The exercises are all athletic and def get your heartrate up. Mostly cardio, some abs, and some light toning keep this workout interesting and well rounded. I received this DVD to review.

lindseylu8

The 21 Day Fix system is a series of seven workouts (plus several optional routines) plus a nutrition plan designed to change your body when followed as specified for 21 days. The workouts are led by Autumn Calabrese, who teaches each routine live with a group of approximately six background exercisers. In general, Calabrese sets up each move and then walks around the room, offering words of encouragement and pushing the class members to perform.

Total Body Cardio appears in the rotation on Day 1, and the theme (each workout has a theme) is "1 Day at a Time, 1 Pound at a Time." It is a cardio workout which adds light dumbbells to up the intensity. There is a modifier, Cat, who keeps the impact low and who generally does not use weights. The workout is performed in four rounds, with each rounds consisting of two exercises. You will perform each exercise for one minute, then go back and repeat the round once before moving on to the next round. There is a brief (20 seconds) rest between exercises/rounds. The Warm-Up is EXACTLY the same on ALL 21 Day Fix workouts: Calabrese starts with a light jog and then moves through jumping jacks, side reaches, "windmills" (large alternating arm circles front and back), overhead reaches to either side, and alternating toe touches (3 minutes total).

The rounds for Total Body Cardio are as follows:

ROUND 1
Surrenders, holding weights (coming down to one knee, then the other, then back up; start on R leg ofr the first repetition, L leg when repeating)
Side Shuffles

ROUND 2
Squat Wood Chops, holding one weight
Cross Country Skiers

ROUND 3
Weighted Jog, pushing one weight in and out
Knee Pulls, pulling one weight from overhead to knee

ROUND 4
Frog Crunches
Oblique Crunches

All of the cool-downs for the 21 Day Fix are basically the same as well. This one is about 3 minutes and starts on the floor with an abs stretch and then moves into child's pose (L-R), butterfly forward bend, wide-leg forward, and finish standing; the entire workout clocks in at just under 30 minutes (29:35).

I'm not a huge fan of cardio, but this workout was mostly okay to me. I didn't mind the Surrenders, which some people hate because of the stress on the knees (I don't have knee problems myself), yet I found that all of the use of the dumbbells but a strain on my shoulder. When repeating this workout several times in the rotation, I found that I had to keep the weight VERY light and sometimes skip it entirely, such as during the Weighted Knee Pulls. Calabrese does NOT suggest modifications for injury or similar issues, so users will be on their own here.

Instructor Comments:
I find Autumn's instructor to be just okay. She does mirror cue, which is nice, and she offers decent form pointers at times. But I'm not a fan of the walk around the room style of instructing, which comes across more like a drill sergeant to me; I find it much more motivating when the instructor does the workout right along with me the entire time. Also, I don't like the ways in which Autumn says things that could unnecessarily lead you to push yourself to injury, such as "you can do anything for 60 seconds!" (no, sometimes you can't) and suggesting that you should be getting "all the way down to the ground" when stretching.

Beth C (aka toaster)

This is a review of 21 Day Fix, the Total Body Cardio Fix workout.
This workout is led by Autumn Calabrese. She is a personal trainer and bikini competitor. With Beachbody, she created a system utilizing color coded containers to use for portion control and workouts to be done in conjunction. The review is for the workout only.
Autumn is instructing a fairly large crew of background exercisers (approximately 8), one of which does show modifications throughout the workout. Autumn is wearing a sports bra top and workout shorts and the other backgrounders are also wearing athletic clothing. None of the background exercisers act in annoying fashion or mug for the cameras.
The set is brightly lit and is meant to resemble a gym. The music is typical of Beachbody and is pretty non-descript and is not noticeably good or bad.
Since this is a cardio workout there is no required equipment. A light set of hand weights and a mat are optional. If you are working out on a hard surface a mat is pretty much required for one of the exercises as it involves kneeling and then standing up.
The workout is starts with a warm up, then goes into 4 different rounds, with each round being repeated before moving on to the next. It ends will a brief cooldown/stretch. The total workout time is right around 30 minutes.
The warm up consists of jogging in place, jumping jacks, windmill arms (both forward and back), side reaches (both right and left), and alternating toe touches. The moves in the warm up are repeated again.
The rounds are as follows:
Round 1: Surrenders w/ weights at shoulders (first right lead, next time through left lead) and side shuffles w/ a touch down.
Round 2: Weighted cross country ski with overhead arms and weighted squat to woodchop (first to the right, next time to the left).
Round 3: Weighted jog with chest press arms and weighted knee pull (first right, next time through left).
Round 4: Frog crunches and oblique crunches.
The cooldown/stretch lasts about 3 minutes includes stretches such a modified cobra, straddle stretch, butterfly stretch, shoulder stretch, chest stretch, quad stretch, and others.
As demonstrated by Autumn this workout is a solid intermediate level. It can be made more advanced by using a heavier weight or by going faster than Autumn and the crew. There is a modifier and she does a good job of taking out the impact and showing easier variations that would make it suitable for high beginner/low intermediate.
Overall this is a good, solid cardio workout with some light toning effect. It’s not the most fun cardio I’ve ever done and it’s not the most imaginative, and it gets the job done and is great for those days when I only have a short amount of time to get a workout in.

Instructor Comments:
Autumn is a pleasant instructor. While there is some talk about looking good and about body image, most of her talk focuses on taking it one minute at a time, doing your best, and modifying when you need to. She’s not goofy or humorous and does a good job seeming genuine, engaging, and nice.

Sabine Reuter