Amy Dixon’s Breathless Body 2: The Edge is a 54 minute HIIT workout; 5 minute warm up, 44 minute training period and 5 minute cool down/stretch.
This workout is INSANE! My daughter and I actually have a debate about which is harder–Breathless Body 1 or Breathless Body 2. She says 1, I say 2! We will get back to our debate in a moment.
The Edge is an advanced workout, just like Breathless Body, but it isn’t in the same tabata format. It’s still a very intense HIIT workout. The Edge has 4 “rounds.” Each round has 3 drills and each drill is done 3 times. The drills are each done for 30 seconds with 15 seconds of recovery between them. You get approximately 2 minutes of recovery before the next round. During that recovery, Amy shows you all of the drills for the next round. And if that isn’t enough, the workout ends with a “Finisher” that truly finished me off! The Finisher consists of all twelve moves, done one after the other, with no recovery between the moves. The Edge is brutal. In her intro, Amy calls it HIIT and “threshold training.”
There are 3 exercisers in addition to Amy. One shows low intensity/low impact moves, one shows “moderate” intensity/high impact moves and one shows high intensity/insane impact moves. Amy does the moderate moves along with the “moderate” exerciser. These level distinctions need more clarification. The low intensity moves are something of a joke to me. In Breathless Body, a few of the lowest intensity moves were still intense (not all of them, but a few of them). In The Edge–none of the low intensity moves will get you a true HIIT workout. Maybe an aerobic workout if you are out of shape. I appreciate the reason behind them, I really do. If you have bad knees or are recovering from an injury then you should be doing low impact workouts; but why would you waste your money on a HIIT workout? Get some Leslie Sansone or something like that and you will get a better low impact workout. I used quotation marks for “moderate” intensity because there is such an enormous intensity/impact jump between the low intensity and moderate intensity. The “moderate” intensity moves are high intensity moves. That is, until you see the highest intensity moves. Most of those are insane and some were undoable for me. I’m sure there are people out there who can do all of those moves (the exerciser is obviously one of them! Though I did see him stop doing one of the moves at one point during the workout–tuck jumps I think). I followed both the “moderate” and the insane intensity. Insane intensity when I could, that is! Like I said, there were times when I was not capable!
Let me break down how the rounds work a little more and then return to my daughter and my debate. There are three drills in each round. The drills are alternated–Drill 1 is done for 30 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery, Drill 2 is done for for 30 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery, Drill 3 is done for 30 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery, back to Drill 1 and so on until each drill has been done 3 times. This does keep the Rounds more interesting than the tabata circuits in Breathless Body. That is why my daughter feels Breathless Body is harder than The Edge. She said The Edge, even though it is basically the same length, seems by go by so much more quickly than Breathless Body. I do agree with that; nevertheless, The Edge felt harder to me!
Round #1 drills: cross country, Russian dance, plank tuck ins
Round #2 drills: squat jacks, forward and back, double leg parallel sides (similar to moguls)
Round #3 drills: X jumps (jump lunges side to side), broad jumps, plank quarter turns
Round #4 drills: up and over, tuck jumps and plank jacks
By the time I finished Round #4 I was pretty wiped out. During the longer recovery after Round #4, I was psyching myself up for the Finisher (which is approx. 6 minutes long). I told myself–Hey, you’ve done Insanity. 6 minutes of non-stop plyo/HIIT moves cannot be worse than a 9-10 minute Insanity warm up. You did that without stopping, you can do this! The difference of course is that the Insanity warm ups are at the beginning of the workout, not at the end after your ass has been kicked! It is brutal–but I did it and without stopping.
Overall, I love this workout. It is advanced and brutal–but it does the job, trust me. Today was the first time I did The Edge and I plan to do it (and of course the original Breathless Body) regularly. I will say that I am pretty sore in an unexpected place after finishing the workout–my calves.
Hi, my question is during the tuck jumps the advanced exerciser(I think his name is Matt)does a double jump then tuck. Now Suan T. just keeps tuck jumping singularly. Is Suan’s the more advanced or do you think Matt’s way is more advanced. I think Suan T’s is more advanced but I am just curious of your opinion.
Thanks in advance!
Debby
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It has been a long time since I’ve done this workout but I think what you are referring to is 2 small jumps + one tuck jump. If that is what he is doing, you are right, doing even one small jump between a tuck jump makes it easier. Doing one tuck after the other is much more challenging. Those little jumps are like tiny recoveries.
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Thank you!
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Hello,
After finishing Breathless Body the edge I need to share that I followed the advanced person and I didnt feel like I needed to wait 2 minutes before the next drill. I am a Cathe follower meaning I am very advanced. So my question is will it be ok if after waiting a few seconds of the last drill to go ahead and fast forward to the next drill. I dont think a 2 minute rest at least for me is all that necessary. Certainly, I have never seen cathe do that in her HIIT training workouts. She moves right along.
Thank you
Debby
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Every trainer approaches workouts differently. If it is too easy for you then you should do whatever modifications make it worth your while. You could do the exercise Amy is demonstrating while she is demonstrating instead of just watching–so you are already getting a head start on the intervals. I actually do that with Mark Lauren’s workouts–he has 1 minute demonstrations of the exercises you re about to do–I always do them with him while he is demonstrating. Or you could continue doing your favorite moves from the previous circuit. Or just skip through it as you suggested. I haven’t done this workout in a long time but I do think it is chaptered, which makes it pretty easy to skip ahead.
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Thank you very much for your very thorough answer!
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I love Leslie Sansone. I lost a lot of weight with her dvds walking inside during the winter. Good work Leslie!
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Hi Robbin,
Good question. No, I don’t feel like Amy Dixon’s Breathless Body workouts are repeats of Cathe’s. I do feel they are more difficult, for the most part (cardio/HIIT-wise). IMHO, only some of Cathe’s premixes like To the Max “Extreme” are comparable to the Breathless Body workouts. I would even put Amy’s Breathless Body workouts in the Insanity category (https://2lazy4gym.com/2012/08/05/insanity-60-day-total-body-conditioning-program/)–they are that crazy. So, for me at least, the Breathless Body workouts are worth adding to my rotation.
However, I add this disclaimer–I don’t do Amy’s cardio workouts nearly as much as Cathe’s because they simply aren’t as enjoyable. And most of my Cathe cardios are plenty intense that they work perfectly for my primary source of cardio.
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Hi, and thank you so much for responding! I have to say I was looking for a different answer. Only cause I love Cathe, and think no one can be better than her. But your honest opinion is what I wanted, and you gave it. Though, at the end you said the magical words. Cathe just makes her videos plain fun. Also, the thing I like about Cathe videos is they all do the same workout, not one doing a beginner or intermediate, which to me is confusing. Seems like too much jumping around, no structure, which I need the structure. But this is about me, and not hurting Cathe’s feelings, and I will take a look at Amy’s videos again. They definitely look challenging enough. Luckily, I have been able to build up my library of Cathe workouts, and look forward very much to XTrain. Thank you again for your time. I very much appreciate it.
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You are very welcome! And I think it’s a great decision. Cathe alone fits the bill–her workouts are awesome and intense. And no one makes more enjoyable cardio workouts–no one! I feel like there is nothing better than getting an intense workout that is fun! And no one can beat her strength workouts. They are the toughest and funnest out there. Period!
I dread the day I ever burn myself out on Cathe. I hope it never happens.
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Thank you for your encouraging words in my decision! And your last paragraph is a very very scary thought. I think as long as Cathe keeps making her awesome new ones, going back to her old ones will not be a dread. They are all intense workouts not matter how old they get.
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Hi again, would you rate this comparable to Cathe? Are Amy’s workouts worth throwing in my Cathe rotation, or are these just repeats of what Cathe already does? Thank you.
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I can’t believe I forgot Cathe’s Afterburn (and I did it yesterday morning!), Definitely just as intense as the Breathless Body workouts–but obviously very different. Amy’s workouts are very high impact.
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My decision that I have made, from all of your very welcome and very much appreciated responses, would be I gather basically that they are good rotations, Michelle and Amy, to mix with Cathe. Probably more intense than Cathe a bit. But like you said, Cathe’s are certainly intense enough. I know I am working, and I have not even mastered all of hers. I still have room for improvement with Cathe. So, I have come to a conclusion (for now, at least), I do believe I will stick with the fun factor in Cathe’s workouts. When I come to the point, dare I say, that I’m burned out on Cathe, then I’ll do that. I feel like right now I am not missing out since I’m still trying to improve with Cathe workouts. And since the other two lack the structure I desire, Cathe fits my bill. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Have a really great weekend.
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