Wow! Another winner by Patrick Goudeau and I think this one is my new favorite! It is tough, fun and signature Patrick metabolic strength training. I think this is his best one yet. Don’t let the title Body Weight Blast fool you–this is not a body weight only workout. In fact, he uses heavier dumbbells than he does in any of his other workouts. One set of heavies–though in the future I will have two sets available–15s and 20s. The first time though I just used 15s and I got an excellent workout, but I could have gone heavier on a few and I will in the future (in fact, for my own future reference I have noted below what weights I will use the next time I do the workout).
This workout is similar to his other metabolic workouts, yet different. He structures it differently and I love this new structure. The workout consists of 8 circuits. Each circuit has 3 minutes of body weight training, 2 minutes of strength training using dumbbells and a one minute cardio interval (HIIT), in that order. In his intro he warns you that you will be moving non-stop (that is not entirely true) and he is curious how far you will make it before hitting pause. Now, I won’t lie, in some of Patrick’s other workouts I have been forced to hit pause because I couldn’t breath (Lean, Hot Body and Hard Work Conditioning 2), but in this one I never had to hit pause and that is because he does give you breaks (unlike the afore mentioned workouts–which have zero breaks!). These breaks are very short, but long enough to regroup and come back strong enough to carry on. Let me explain why you get these brief breaks (this is cool!); each circuit is a chapter. On the main screen you have these choices: Intro, Full Body Blast and Create Your Own Workout. Go to Create Your Own Workout and it has each circuit broken down so that you can choose your circuits and build the workout however you want to. Order the circuits differently than Patrick does in Full Body Blast. Or do a shorter workout. Just focus on specific body parts. I LOVE it! The length of the Full Body Blast is perfect for my morning workouts (65 minutes) but I can also easily use this workout for shorter doubles! And the workout itself is awesome! The point is, because of the way it is filmed and chaptered, you have a brief black out between each circuit in which you can catch your breath, towel off and grab a very quick sip of water.
When I came to this workout I was expecting it to be much harder than it was for two reasons–1. it’s Patrick and he usually kills me with his workouts and 2. body weight training if done Shaun T style is brutal and hard and has a huge dread factor (for me, at least). Now, Patrick does have some of that type of body weight training (lots of things done in plank) but he also has a lot of other types of body weight training (Kelly Coffey-Meyer style; see her Body Training) that I love and are fun and effective. In addition, just about everything done in this workout is done at a brisk pace so that your heart rate is always elevated and at times is through the roof–btw, some of the times when your heart rate is through the roof isn’t always the HIIT segment! Sometimes he hits you hard during other parts, then hits you even harder with the HIIT! Also, in his other workouts you do an entire circuit, then repeat that circuit on the other side of the body. Not in this one. While in each segment of a circuit you work both sides of the body, then throw it way–you’re done with it. For instance, in one circuit you do all of the body weight exercises on both sides of the body, move on to the dumbbell strength exercises and do all of those exercises on both sides of the body, then move onto the HIIT and do that on both sides of the body (if it is something that favors one side of the body–some of the HIITs don’t and you just do them for a solid minute, or the exercise changes halfway through).
Finally, even though Patrick does his signature compound moves in this workout they are the least complicated compound moves of any of his workouts I have done so far. Overall, excellent, challenging yet doable. I loved it. I’ve mentioned it before in other Patrick Goudeau workout reviews, but he rules with metabolic weight training. I could create a whole fat-blasting rotation with his workouts at the core of them and this one would be featured the most!
Body Weight Blast is 65 minutes long; warm up 4:30 minutes; training time 54:30 minutes, and stretch 6 minutes. For this workout all you need is 1 set of heavy dumbbells (as mentioned above, I used 15 pound dumbbells the first time though but in the future I will also have a set of 20 pound dumbbells available for some of the circuits) and a mat.
Circuit 1 (7 minutes): body weight: walking squats, kneel and stand (but do not stand all the way, raise only to squat)–do not use hands!, get into plank and do one push up, bring one leg forward so you are in a deep lunge with foot next to hand and swing your other leg through, raise opposite hand and kick that leg in front of you (kind of complicated move). Grab one dumbbell and hold with both hands (20#): get into lunge position but with knee on the ground and do overhead tricep extensions; hold dumbbell overhead and do static lunges. Cardio: grab the other dumbbell and put them on the floor in front of you (holding them); frog jumps, change to squat thrusts (but leave weights on the ground, just grab them during the thrust), add jump at the top; end just doing jumps.
Circuit 2 (6 minutes): body weight: step back into a reverse lunge, touch ground with both hands, then keeping arms straight, open and close at top–staying in the lunge the whole time; get into side plank and raise arm overhead, slowly touch the ground and raise arm; do a “push up” but come all the way to the ground and do parachute–alternate push ups and parachutes. Grab both dumbbells and stand with legs wide (20#); do slow squats, dumbbells touching the ground between legs at bottom of the move; stay at bottom with dumbbells on ground and do single arm rows alternated with double arm rows. Cardio: high knee runs, jacks with high knees.
Circuit 3 (7 minutes): body weight: knee pulls, hold leg back and do one leg deadlift with chest pull at top, this changes to a balance move: warrior 3 with knee lift at top; do a wide squat pushing hands between and under body and stretching arms wide overhead at top of move. Grab both dumbbells (20#) and put them on either side of your feet; do suitcase deadlifts picking up and setting down dumbbells, change to alternating single leg deadlifts; stand wide again with feet on either side of mat, put dumbbells on mat between feet; do squats picking up and setting dumbbells down, next is an odd move–keeping legs straight, lower dumbbells as if in a deadlift while pushing hips to side, alternate sides. Cardio: butt kick runs; get onto mat in crab position and do “Can-Can” kicks.
Circuit 4 (6:30 minutes): body weight: walk backs (into plank) but at top of move stay in squat, change to walk back and frog jump; push up segment: push up, tricep push up, push up, pike push up; get into low plank and bring knees to elbows. Grab dumbbells (15#) and stay in plank; raise one leg and do row with opposite arm then bring leg that is raised under body to touch opposite elbow; stay on knees and do bicep curl to overhead press. Cardio: mountain climbers, lateral mountain climbers.
Circuit 5 (7 minutes): body weight: around the clock lunges; alternating reverse lunges touching the floor at bottom of move; side to side squats; repeat the lunges and squats but rotating upper body. Grab both dumbbells (15#) and do reverse lunges with dumbbells and knee touching the floor; do same move but faster, setting dumbbells down at bottom, standing and pushing hands over head, reverse lunge again and pick up dumbbells; stand holding both dumbbells and bend to side, working obliques. Cardio: ski/shuffles, two ski/shuffles alternate with jump lunges.
Circuit 6 (7 minutes): body weight: alternating step taps, change to step and high straight leg kick to the front. Do one straight leg kick, drop into plank, so a push up then spiderman mountain climber; bear crawls. Get into low plank and do around the clock arm taps to the side then up and downs (high plank to low plank). Grab one heavy dumbbell (15#) and do a squat, over head press then lean to the side with dumbbell overhead; high pulls (dumbbell to shoulder). Grab dumbbell in both hands and do upright row. Cardio: set dumbbell down in front of you and fast tap it with your feet.
Circuit 7 (7 minutes): body weight: scissor straight arms over each other three times in front of you them open arms wide, add side squats. Curtsey lunge, at the top bend and kick leg to side. 8 high side kicks. Plie squats, raising and lowering straight arms overhead. Grab both dumbbells (15#) and do side lunges, touching the dumbbells to the ground. Slow curtsey lunge touching dumbbells to ground. Stay in low curtsey lunge and pulse while doing running man arms. Cardio: skaters (he says it doesn’t count if your fingers don’t touch the ground!)
Circuit 8 (7 minutes): body weight: jack in and out then reach right and left. 180 jump lunges touching fingertips to ground at bottom of move. Still facing the side, step tap then back and reverse lunge and tap the ground. Animal jumps–these are similar to the 180 jump lunges, but they are more explosive. Grab both dumbbells (15#) and stand with feet wide; squat touching dumbbells to floor between legs. Add burpee at bottom of squat. Add two push ups. Add renegade rows. Add bicep curl to overhead press at top of move. Cardio: football shuffles with jump lunges. Tuck jumps.
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