Breathless Body 4: Going Strong

Going Strong is the newest high intensity workout from Amy Dixon in her Breathless Body series and I love it! I love all of her Breathless Body workouts but this is my absolute favorite. However, it deviates from the first 3 a lot. In fact, it is more along the lines of Patrick Goudeau‘s awesome metabolic strength workouts and Michelle Dozois‘s intense Peak 10 Cardio Strength workouts. The first 3 Breathless Body workouts are HIIT cardio workouts. Very intense workouts. So in Going Strong you are getting the HIITs but you are also getting strength work. This is an awesome workout and I loved it. Not the same kind of intensity as the first 3 Breathless Body workouts and IMHO not as advanced as the Peak 10 or many of Patrick’s metabolic workouts. Still, it is fairly advanced if you heavy up on weights. I do want to note that the cardio intervals in this workout are not as intense overall as the ones in her other Breathless Body workouts; some are not actually HIIT level, and some are. In BB 2 & 3 the Finishers wiped me out; that didn’t happen in this workout. Still, combined with the strength intervals, it is intense and excellent. And as an aside, Amy looks incredible. She is always beautiful and fit, but wow! She is glowing in this workout and looks more fit than ever. And of course, her personality is so motivating.

This workout is set up in stages. First you have 8 strength/cardio rounds, then you have an all out cardio finisher. The workout ends with core work. Amy recommends two sets of dumbbells: medium and heavy. Of course, what is medium and what is heavy is unique to your strength and fitness level. I had many more than two sets of weights and I used them all. Mine ranged from 5 pounds to 20 pounds. For the first part of the workout you will do 8 strength/cardio rounds. Each round consists of a compound strength move done for 45 seconds with your medium weight. You get a 15 second recovery. Then you do the same compound strength move again for 30 seconds except you change to your heavy dumbbells. You get a 30 second recovery then you do 15/15 cardio/HIIT 3 times. That means you do a cardio exercise for 15 seconds and get a 15 second recovery. Repeat 3 times. Then you get another recovery and move on to the next round. Once you complete 8 rounds, you do all 8 cardio/HIITs, one right after the other, each for 15 seconds. This lasts 2 minutes. Then you move to core work. You will still need your dumbbells for the core work. You will do 5 core exercises, each for one minute. This is a tough workout! It builds in intensity and is so varied that it goes by fast. I really enjoyed it.

There are two modifiers. One who is doing an easier version of Amy’s move and one who is doing a more advanced version of Amy’s move. I did either Amy’s version or the advanced version of the moves. For the first 8 rounds there is a timer in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen so you can keep track of where you are in an interval. However, there is no timer for the core moves. And finally, Amy’s warm up is different from her other warm ups in her Breathless Body series. It starts slower and seems more focused on warming everything up thoroughly–joints and all. I really liked it.

Going Strong is 55 minutes long with a 6 minute warm up and 5:30 minute stretch. Remember, in each round below you do the compound strength exercise twice–once for 45 seconds with your medium weight and once for 30 seconds with your heavy weight. The cardio is done 3 times in 15/15 intervals.

Round 1: Strength: Reverse Lunge Halo Chop; Cardio: Switch Lunges (alternating plyo lunges)

Round 2: Strength: Chest Fly w/ Hip Bridge; Cardio: The Tombstone (start standing then, w/out your hands, lower to your bottom, roll onto back raising knees and bottom, roll back up and stand–all without hands)

Round 3: Strength: Front Lunge into a Deadlift with a Reverse Fly, Reverse Lunge and Stand; Cardio: Lateral Reverse Kick (lateral jump w/ a kick back, alternating leg that kicks)

Round 4: Strength: Plank Row w/ 4 Mountain Climbers; Cardio: Spider Plank (wide mountain climbers with opposite shoulder taps)

Round 5: Strength: Alternating Front Crossover Lunge with Front Arm Swing (front curtsey lunge with front raise); Cardio: Front Crossover Chug (I think she said “Chug”–it’s the same as the strength move but with no weights, done more shallow and very fast)

Round 6: Strength: Frogger Plank Biceps Curl (holding dumbbells, get into plank, jump up into a wide squat and do a biceps curl, never raising out of squat, then jump back into plank). Cardio: Frogger Plank with Hop (frogger planks w/out weights and with a hop while in squat–remember, you never stand–you either in plank or in a squat)

Round 7: Strength: Transverse Lunge w/ Overhead Press (lunge to the back corner pressing dumbbells to ground, come back to standing and do overhead press; alternate sides); Cardio: Lateral Lunge with Hop in Center

Round 8: Strength: Overhead Tricep Extension w/ Squat and Knee Raise; Cardio: Prisoner Squat Jumps

Finisher–all 8 cardio moves, one right after the other, 15 seconds each = 2 minutes

Core: each done for 1 minute.

1. Roll Up w/ a Long Arm Pull Over: you need one DB, hold in both hands; lay on back with arms straight; holding dumbbell do a sit up, reaching dumbbell forward, at top of sit up lift dumbbell overhead.

2. Russian Twist w/ dumbbell

3. Windshield Wipers (no dumbbells)

4. Plank to Side Plank with Snatch: hold a dumbbell with one hand and get into plank, turn to side plank and raise dumbbell to ceiling.

5. Supermans (dumbbell not needed but Amy uses it as a marker in front of her)