Ultimatum

I cannot even remember how I came across Ultimatum but it has been on my Amazon Wishlist for a very long time. It is expensive. The trainer is Lindsi Sanor and she created an intense metabolic weight training fitness program along the lines of Michelle Dozois‘s Peak 10 Cardio Strength workouts–except shorter. So I was definitely interested. I watched a clip and these workouts looked tough! You get 8 workouts and one 15 minute stretch. 6 workouts are cardio + strength workouts, one is a bodyweight only workout and the last is a kickboxing workout. Amazon sells it for $89.95. I couldn’t find enough information to decide if it was worth that much money so I bought it used on ebay for cheaper. Now that I own it and have done all the workouts–I think it is definitely worth it.

Before doing these workouts I previewed most of them to create workout cards (a chart with all the strength exercises listed to record the weights of the dumbbells I used–so I can keep challenging myself every time I do the workout) so I have a few observations up front before ever doing any of the workouts. First, these workouts looked very advanced and very challenging. This is evident just from watching the exercises but also from observing/listening to Lindsi during the workouts. Now, let me clarify this by saying she is a very good trainer, she leads the workouts well. She does the majority of the workouts, only stopping occasionally to point out form. These workouts wear her out. Big time. These are not high quality videos. Very well done for the obviously low budget but they did not take the time to test the sound. Her microphone records everything–heavy panting, gulping when drinking. Another thing is the music. All of the workouts appear to use the same music track. It is decent workout music–fast paced beat, but its pretty generic.

Now, having done all of the workouts, I have to re-frame my opinions. They are all awesome workouts (except the stretch). Very metabolic, but the level varies. Some are advanced, others are more intermediate. Some are more intense than others. I would also compare these workouts more to Cathe‘s Crossfire, To the Max and X10 rather than Peak 10’s Cardio Strength workouts. They all fall in the same category–metabolic strength training, but I found them more reminiscent of Cathe workouts. I think it is the fun factor. I find Cathe’s workouts much more fun than Peak 10 workouts. And Ultimatum workouts (to me) are fun. I love an intense and challenging metabolic workout that is also fun. So these are winners. In fact, I would go so far as to put the Ultimatum workouts that use dumbbells (so 6 of them) as a cross between Cathe’s above mentioned metabolic workouts and her circuit based cardio + strength workouts such as High Step Training and High Step Challenge–except Ultimatum obviously uses no step. In the two Cathe circuit workouts I just mentioned you get total body strength + cardio; you get that too in Ultimatum but Ultimatum does not give your muscles the same focus Cathe does in High Step Training and High Step Challenge (and in To the Max, Crossfire and X10 you get cardio + weights, but not a total body strength workout). So it falls somewhere in between–you do get total body strength + cardio, but not the same focus on each muscle group that Cathe gives them. Maybe I am putting too much thought into it? All I know is I really love these workouts!

The more intermediate workouts are the White, Blue, Purple and Bronze workouts. The most advanced one (to me) was the Red workout followed by Platinum. Black and Gold fell somewhere in the middle–maybe lower advanced or high intermediate. And remember–the level of the workouts will depend on the dumbbells you chose. If you are using 5 pound dumbbells you aren’t going to get an advanced workout.

You don’t get a lot of information about this program. You get 3 pieces of literature: 2 rotation calendars and 1 food list. One of the calendars rotates Ultimatum workouts only and the other has days in which you can insert other workouts of your choice. And you get a very barebones meal plan. It gives you breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack choices. It gives you daily calorie ranges base on sex and weight but none of the meal/snack choices have any nutritional information–so you have no clue how those meals/snacks fall into the calorie ranges given. Zero instructions. Extremely barebones.

Workouts: in the exercise breakdowns below you will see “(DB)”–all that means is that dumbbells are used for that particular exercise. Also, the workouts appear in the order I did them (so Blue workout was the first workout I did and Gold the last).

Gold Workout is 44 minutes w/ a 6:30 minute warm up and a 2 minute cool down/stretch. Another great metabolic workout and the final one I did in the program. Red is still the hardest and I think Platinum is harder than Gold–but this one ties with Black, tho Black is more strength focused (and more fun, so Black is still my favorite). There is a lot of plank based moves in the first cardio circuit that you repeat 3 times and I am not a fan of mountain climbers–but other than that, I really enjoyed this workout.