21 Day Fix Upper Fix

Autumn leads this workout with 6 backgrounders one showing beginner modifications. You will need dumbbells or tubing for this 32 minute upper body workout. This workout is on disc one and has audio options.

You perform 2 rounds of 5 exercises one minute each followed by 15 seconds of rest and a one minute rest between rounds. After a warm up exercises include lat row, weighted cross punch, push-ups, plank, clean & press, ribcage pullover, circle crunch, bench press, bicycle leg drops, front raise, and a cooldown stretch.

I rate this a solid intermediate routine depending on the poundage used. Autumn provides excellent pointers, and motivation. No wasted time but not rushed. Works all upper body muscles & hits your core. I felt like I accomplished a lot in only 30 minutes. 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.

Upper Fix appears in the rotation on Day 2, and the theme (each workout has a theme) is "It Doesn't Get Easier, You Get Better." This routine uses two sets of dumbbells (heavy and light). One background exerciser uses tubing as an alternate, and another, Cat, modifies with no weights.

This workout is performed in just two rounds. Each round has a total of five exercises; the first round is repeated in its entirety before moving on to Round 2, which is also performed once, then repeated. 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 two rounds for Upper Fix are as follows:

ROUND ONE
*Bent-over rows
*Transverse twist (punch to either side)
*Push-up
*Forearm plank
*Biceps curl with overhead press

ROUND TWO
*Lying lat pullovers
*Circle crunches
*Chest press
*Scissor twists
*Standing front delt raise

The cool-down for this routine is much shorter than the other 21 Day Fix workouts; Calabrese quickly (<1 minute) moves through brief upper body stretches only.

Instructor Comments:
I find Autumn's instruction 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!).

Beth C (aka toaster)

This is a review of 21 Day Fix, the Upper 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 crew of 6 background exercisers, 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.

You will need at least two sets of dumbells for this workout, one light set, one heavy set. There is a background exerciser showing how to use tubing if you don’t have dumbells. As some of the moves are done lying down, you may want to use a mat depending on personal preference. A towel and water are also suggested.

The workout starts with a warm up, then goes into 2 different rounds of 5 exercises, and ends with a brief cool down/stretch. With the exception of the cool down/stretch, everything is repeated twice before moving on. 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.

Each exercise in a round is done for one minute with 15 seconds rest to transition to the next exercise. The rounds are as follows:

Round 1: Bent Over Rows (heavy weights), Push Ups, Forearm Plank, Weighted Alternating Cross Punches (light weights), Hammer Curl to Overhead Press (heavy weights). This round is repeated.

Round 2: Lying Down Lat Pullovers (heavy weights), Circle Crunches, Lying Down Close Chest Press (heavy weights, also works the triceps), Scissor Crunches, Standing Shoulder Front Raise (light weights). This round is repeated.

The cool down/stretch is very brief and consists of shoulder stretch, chest stretch, triceps stretch, and side stretch.

As demonstrated by Autumn this workout is a solid intermediate level. It can be made more advanced by using a heavier weight. There is a modifier and she shows the moves with no weight or lighter weights and showing easier variations that would make it suitable for high beginner/low intermediate.
Overall this is a good, solid upper body and core weight workout. It does cover all the bases although I would have liked to have a designated triceps exercise rather than relying on other exercises (lat pullovers, close grip bench press) to work this muscle group.

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