Review of 645 and 10 Rounds

Not sure what’s going on, but I have been in a bit of a running lull for the past couple of weeks. Man, what did New Orleans do to me? 😉 Seriously speaking, I think it’s the random weather. It really throws me off we have a couple of days with highs in the 50s and 60s followed by days with temps in the teens. Hopefully, I will get back in gear this week.

Quick runcap:

After a nearly unproductive meeting with one of my running group’s subcommittees, I decided to run home – from the Upper West Side to Harlem. I guess that I was “confused” because I ran to and had breakfast on Roosevelt Island, a small island in the East River where I used to live for about five years. I made this detour because I was kind of bored with running in Central Park. Also, my route gave me the opportunity to get in some hill work by running over the Queensboro and Roosevelt Island Bridges.

LOL because the previous day, I wanted to meet friends to drink but I still wanted to fit in my run. What did I do? I ran to the bar. 😉 I’m a nut.

Beachbody Program Reveiws

Since I’m in a lull and have finally finished Shaun T’s Insanity, I figure that I could talk about my next two BeachBody programs.

645 with Amoila Cesar

The premise: A 13-week plan that combines strength training, flexibility exercises, and cardio. A pretty easy plan of working out 45 minutes for six days.

Materials:

• Dumbbells, resistance bands, a mat, and sense of humor. Oh, and plenty of patience.

Things I like:

• Great attention to stretching because each workout starts with 10-15 minutes of stretching
• Amolia is pretty engaging
• Variety in the workouts. As you progress throughout the 13 weeks, each four-week block brings in something new.
• Checkpoints during the 13 weeks to monitor flexibility and mobility. Even after the first check-in, I realize that I have an inblance that favors my the left side of my body. 😦

Things that I dislike:

• The workouts are not as intense as I expected.
• Too much downtime and chit chat. I get Amolia wants to make the workouts fun and accesssible, but there are just too many side conversations and too much standing around for my liking. Also, some of the supporting “cast” try too hard to be funny (a huge pet peeve of mine). I guess they are trying to get their own BodyBody workout programs/spin offs.
• The one woman on the cast who asks too many darn questions. Girl, just do the damn exercise. There’s nothing wrong (for the most part) with asking questions, but Amoila takes too long to explain things here. Y’all can do that off camera.
• Since the workout has intervals, I would have liked if they had a timer on the screen.

Overall Thoughts:

While I do not burn as many calories as I would like in this program, I think the program has some benefits. In Insanity, I’d burn about 380 – 410 calories in 30 min, but for 645, I burn about 300 calories in 45 min. While 645 is not that intense, it could serve as a nice break between some of Beachbody’s more “aggressive” programs.

10 Rounds with Joel Freeman

The premise: A six-week, five days a week program (30 to 40 minutes) that uses boxing techniques to incorporate HIIT, strength training, and general cardio into one package. Much like a boxing match, 10 Rounds has ten, three-minute rounds where you do your thing with a 45-second break recovery in between the rounds. During the “break”, you are supposed to keep moving by doing a boxer’s bounce while Joel explains the combos for the next round. While the focus is on throwing various punches, a few of the rounds focus on doing various types of squats and lunges. In addition to the boxing workouts, two of the five days are weight lifting days.

Materials:

• Dumbells, resistance bands, small hand towel

Things that I like:

• I did not realize how much core work is needed in boxing so I’m definately hitting up the core during these workouts. I kind of knew that but did not notice/feel it until doing 10 Rounds
• Separation of boxing and lifting days.
• Joel is pretty engaging and is nice eye candy . . . with the exception of his weird laugh.
• The supporting cast is not annoying. While there is side chatter and jokes, they still keep things moving.
• Joel does a great job with explaining form and providing tips about knowing which punches to throw and when.
• Every workout ends with core work.

Things that I do not like:

• Not much of a cool down or stretch component in the workout.
• Some of the boxing combos can be a bit confusing and can take some getting used to. Joel does recommend saying the combos outloud to help with memorization. For instance, Joel will give the following instructions – 1, 3, side step 2, 5, side step, 1, 3, side step, 3, 4. FYI: That would be left jab, left hook, side step, right jab, left uppercut, side step, left jab, left cross, side step, left hook, right hook. This was a bit daunting during the first week, but I told myself that I’m doing this program for fitness not to become a professional boxer. After the second week, I did develop some muscle memory so the combos now are not too bad. Now, if someone says 5, I’ll automatically do a left uppercut. Sometimes, his instrunctions takes me back to imputing cheatcodes while playing Nintendo or Sega video games. Remember: within a few seconds you had to be like ⬅️, ⬆️, B, ➡️, A, A, ⬇️, ⬅️, ➡️ on the game controller for Mortal Kombat’s FINISH HIM/HER fatality.

• Not really the fault of the program. I noticed that I was experiencing some pain in my left shin while running that I attribute to the constant bouncing on the balls of my feet. Now, that I’ve realized this, I have modified my boxer’s bounce.

Overall Thoughts:

From my list of pros and cons, one can see that I really like this program. To be perfectly honest, I prefer 10 Rounds over 645 (with the exception of 645’s attention to stretching).

Question of the Day:

Favorite (or least favorite) cardio, HIIT, or strength training program/plan?

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