Ignite

Ignite is my first workout by Toby Massenburg and I love him! The workout was advanced and really challenged me. It was well put together and I really, really like Toby! What a great find! It is an all out HIIT workout. It is short but does an incredible job in very little time. It is 30 minutes total. 5 minute warm up, 22 minutes of HIIT drills and 3 minute stretch. For the drills, you get 21 of them and they are each done for 30 seconds; then you get a 30 second recovery before moving on to the next drill. What is really impressive about Toby is he uses that 30 second recovery to show you the next drill–form and all. And he does it without seeming rushed, even when it is obvious he is worn out from the last drill, too. And I also like some of his commentary. He is very specific on form. On some moves you will be touching the ground with your hands. He urges you to do the move properly and touch the ground or it doesn’t really count. I love that! I really liked the way this workout is put together because even though the drills are tough and wore me out, the 30 second recoveries were enough time for me to regroup so I could give the next one my all.

This workout uses a “high step” (the square step) with 4 risers, making it 12 inches. This seemed bit daunting to me at first, for a HIIT workout that is, but Toby makes it work well. In the breakdown below, the step is at 12 inches unless otherwise specified.

In other reviews I have read some complaints about the warm up and stretch. The complaint about the warm is that it uses the step at 12 inches for regular stepping and it is done fast. Now, I will admit, I thought this was odd at first. I have done a lot of stepping, but never traditional stepping on a 12 inch step! And it does move fast. However, this is a HIIT workout with a lot of moves on that high step. It seems important to me that any warm up for a HIIT workout be intense and that you get your body ready to be using that high step in a powerful manner. The warm does that. I was able to catch on after a few missteps but I found even the warm up challenging! It definitely got me ready to start HIITing it hard! The other criticism was about the stretch. You do your last HIIT and then move right into a stretch–no cool down. Now, I can see that this can be a problem. You do need to lower your heart rate at least a little before stretching. However, this is a “timesaving” workout. There is no way he could fit an intense workout of adequate length into 30 minutes and have a cool down and stretch. So if it is really important to you, then pause the DVD and cool yourself down. I paused it and put my step away, laid out my yoga mat, toweled off and got a drink. So I cooled down a bit before I joined the stretch. Maybe a minute.

HIIT breakdown:

1. Jump Squat

2. Wide Lateral Tap Down (starting on top of step)

3. Touch Down Lunge, Front Kick

4. Touch Down Lunge, Front Kick (other leg)

5. Wide Forward Leap (straddling the step)

6. Uneven Squat (starting on top of step)

7. Sideline Touchdowns

8. Burpee (using 4 inch step topper only)

9. Fast Feet Shuffled (using step–back at 12 inches)

10. Plie Kip (plie jumps)

11. Double Leg Lateral Jump

12. Plunge Lunge (starting on top of step)

13. High Wide Run (sort of straddling the step–or at least using it as a prop to make sure your legs are wide enough apart)

14. Side Shuffle Squat

15. 1-2-3 Straddle Jump (using the step with 2 risers)

16. Around the World Shuffle (same as Fast Feet Shuffle except you move around the step as you do it)

17. Power Knee Drive

18. Power Knee Drive (other leg)

19. 180 Jump Squat

20. Switch Jump Lunges

21. Frogger Leaps