Edge Booty Extreme 2

I discovered this workout system from Oxygen Magazine–they sent me a sales email. I was immediately intrigued. I am getting ready to start another round of STS in September and I am planning on adding additional glute focus. I have already tried The Butt Bible for that purpose and loved it, so I decided I needed this program. Edge Booty Extreme 2 was created by Ingrid Romero. She is a Spanish (with a thick Spanish accent, but I understood everything she said) fitness competitor who has won a lot of competitions including The Arnold Classic. I do not follow fitness/bodybuilding competitions but the Arnold Classic sounds like a big deal to me since it is named after Arnold Schwarzenegger and she won 1st place in it as well as 1st place in many other fitness/bodybuilding competitions. That’s the kind of person I am interested in learning how to strength train from. She is also a writer, a cover model, a fitness and nutrition expert and coach, as well as the founder of Team Edge which is apparently a fitness/bodybuilding competitor team. (info found on her website) So she has the credentials to build a pretty amazing strength training program. The clip I watched on her website was short but the exercises looked pretty advanced and the program is glute focused–so I ordered it immediately. BTW–it was not cheap. But so worth it.

Edge Booty Extreme 2 is a 7 week workout program that comes with 7 workouts on 3 DVDs, 2 firewalker bands (resistance band loops) and fitness guide that includes the rotation calendar and the meal plan. When I ordered and received my email receipt, it also contained a digital version of the fitness guide, which is pretty cool because you can start reading about it before the program even arrives. And just to clarify, when you receive it, it comes with a hard-copy fitness guide, too. These workouts are available digital, as well, if you don’t want DVDs (or want immediate access). However, my program shipped quick. I received it in less than a week.

If you follow the rotation calendar that comes with the program here is how the program plays out: For the first 3 weeks you do the first 3 workouts: Weighted Legs, Weighted Upper Body and Weighted Glutes. In addition, she wants you to do cardio 5 days a week. There is no workout DVD for the cardio she wants you to do; she breaks it down in the fitness guide. They are interval workouts that give you circuits of running, jumping rope, jump squats, ice skaters, jump lunges–even treadmill and stationary bike. The 2nd 3 weeks uses the second 3 workouts: Weights + Plyo Legs, Weights + Plyo Upper Body and Weights + Plyo Glutes. Just like the first 3 weeks she wants you to do additional cardio 5 days a week and lays it out for you (no DVD) in the fitness guide. Week 7 is different from the first 6 weeks. You use one workout–Peak Cardio which is a plyo HIIT workout. You do it every single day the 7th week. You also do 30 minutes of “fasted” cardio; it can be any kind of cardio–running, biking, elliptical–but you do it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. You also get a detailed meal plan for the entire 7 weeks. There is an optional vegan meal plan. It’s pretty detailed and comprehensive. And, of course, I will not be following it.

The workouts all have the same structure (except for Peak Week Cardio). They are set up in supersets and the superset is repeated 4 times. During a superset repetition (repeating the same superset 4 times that is) you get little to no breaks (except in the lower body w/plyo workouts–you get more breaks in those). You do get a brief break before you start the next (different) superset. This is a very tough and effective training method. It is also very metabolic so are getting cardio, too. All of the workouts also have excellent graphics along the bottom, telling you what exercise you are doing, how many reps and which stage of the superset you are currently in. All of the workouts (except Peak Week Cardio) have the same warm up:  circling the arms, side lunge stretch w/ arms raised overhead, bend at the waist with legs wide to stretch hamstrings/glutes, crossover stretches (cross one leg over the other and bend at the waist, reaching for floor), high knee march, jog in place, butt kick run in place. And finally, in each workout there is someone doing a “gym” version of the exercises that uses a bench and sometimes gym equipment (a cable pull around the ankle). Ingrid and the other crew member (she always has 2 crew members except in Peak Week Cardio where she has 5) are doing the “home” version which uses a stability ball and the firewalker bands. But if you have a bench or step with lots of risers, you can easily do the gym version for every exercise except the one that uses the cable pull.

Summary: After having done all of the workouts I do think Ingrid put together a solid rotation, but I will still never follow it. I like more upper body and core work than what this program provides. Plus I like more variety in my cardio. But these are all excellent, advanced workouts and they will fit perfectly into my upcoming STS rotation. I do have some nitpicks. First, none of these workouts have a cool down or a stretch. I find this very irritating, but lately I’ve been coming across this a lot. RIPT90 workouts have no cool downs/stretches, Lindsay Brin‘s Pretty Fierce workouts sometimes have no cool down/stretches tho she always directed you to cool down and stretch if she didn’t include it. Ultimatum had extremely short cool down/stretches. Maybe this is the new thing? I don’t understand it; after working a muscle is the ideal time to stretch it. Here is a short article on the Benefits of Post Workout Stretching. It is important. So after I finished these workouts I would always pop in a Cathe workout, either her pure stretching workouts or one of her regular workouts; in the case of the latter, I used chaptering to go straight to the stretch.

Another irritating thing was Ingrid’s silliness. She is very perky and bubbly, so much so that it did get annoying at times. Usually, however, she was working me so hard that I stopped noticing it. But she is “over the top” excited about everything. Then there are the outfits. This doesn’t affect my workout and I really don’t care, but I honestly cannot imagine working out dressed like Ingrid and some of her crew members (not all of them). The outfits are like bathing suits–many of which look as if her breasts are about to pop out of them. When doing plyometrics I need a very strong support sports bras, but apparently this is not an issue for Ingrid. Also, Ingrid’s rep count is sometimes off. That is ok because I counted every rep I did and since the graphics at the bottom of the screen are excellent, I always knew exactly how many reps I was supposed to be doing. But I often noticed when I was on pace with Ingrid that she did more reps than I did. And finally, she was inconsistent with form. Her form was not bad per se, but she did her reps quickly. However, when she would stop to point out form on her crew members she would always make them slow down! Which was weird because they were going as fast as she would go when she performed the exercise! She didn’t demonstrate the same control she expected from her crew.

Overall, I love all of these workouts and will incorporate every single one of them into my upcoming STS rotation.

Workouts:

Weighted Legs is 50 minutes w/ a 4 minute warm up and no stretch. This workout was brutal. It was the first Edge Booty Extreme 2 workout I did, but it made its mark as the hardest lower body workout I’ve ever done. And there are still 3 more lower body workouts to sample! I am both excited and scared. This workout was very advanced, very challenging and I was struggling to get through it from the first super set. Not early on but you do each superset 4 times, so by the time I was on the 4th superset, I was in pain. Fast forward to the final superset and I was struggling through all 4 times you do it. My a$$ and hamstrings are still burning. That is another thing that came as somewhat of a surprise to me. I expected the Weighted Glutes workout to be the workout that focused on the glutes (and it probably does, I haven’t done it yet) but Weighted Legs hit the glutes very hard–harder than any of the other lower body muscle groups. I had initially planned to do some HIIT cardio after I finished Weighted Legs then finish it off with a long stretch. Well, that did not happen. When I finished Weighted Legs I was done. D.O.N.E. There was no way my lower body was going to cooperate for a plyo/HIIT workout. I did a long stretch however and called it a day! Ingrid and crew were using decent dumbbells (unlike Pauline Nordin in Butt Bible) but I would still expect a competition level fitness competitor to use heavier weights. The heaviest dumbbells anyone used (and it wasn’t even Ingrid–hers’ were even lighter) were 20 pound dumbbells. Now, you do so many supersets that it is hard to go heavy on some of the exercises. I found myself resorting to 12 pound dumbbells more than I like to for a lower body workout because I was wasted–but I also used 30, 25 and 15 pound dumbbells.

Equipment: dumbbells and a bench or stability ball. Ingrid shows limited equipment modifications for all of the exercises. You can also use a high step for some of the exercises instead of a bench (or instead of doing the floor/limited equipment version); I used mine at 14 inches.

Exercises:

Superset #1:
Squat + Kickbacks (rear leg raise) (DB)
Hip Thrusters (DB & stability ball/bench)
4 sets of 20 reps (on 4th set of Hip Thrusters you hold the final rep at top of move for about 20 seconds)

Superset #2:
Split Squats Lunges (DB & step/bench)
Deadlift (DB)
4 sets of 12 reps

Superset #3:
Step Up to Reverse Lunge (DB & step/bench) 12 reps
Lying Leg Curl (stability ball) 15 reps
4 sets (on final set of Lying Leg Curls, after finishing all reps, hold in “out” position for about 5 seconds then in “in” position for about 5 seconds)

Superset #4:
Curtsey Lunge to Side Lunge (DB)
Crossover Step Up (DB & step/bench)
4 sets of 12 reps

Weighted Upper Body is 34 minutes long with a 3 minute warm up and no cool down/stretch. Another excellent workout from Ingrid. I am really impressed. As far as upper body workouts go, Cathe still rules, however–this is the best complete upper body workout crammed into 34 minutes that I have ever done. So it wins in that respect. Very, very effective and in a short amount of time.

Equipment: dumbbells in various weights and a stability ball or bench. I used a bench for this workout.

Exercises:

SuperSet #1:
Push Up w/ Renegade Row (DB) 10 reps
Tricep Kickback (DB) 15 reps
4 sets

Superset #2:
Shoulder Press (DB)
Bicep Curls (DB)
4 sets of 12 reps

Superset #3:
One Arm Bent-Over Row (DB)
Chest Press (DB & stability ball/bench)
4 sets of 12 reps

Superset #4:
Front Raise to Lateral Raise (DB)
Skull Crushers (DB & stability ball/bench)
4 sets of 12 reps

Weighted Glutes is 54 minutes long with a 3:30 minute warm up and no cool down/stretch. I’m not sure why I expected this workout to be even harder than Weighted Legs, but I did. It is not. It is a very good glute focused workout, but not nearly as challenging as Weighted Legs. In fact, I could have done some HIIT/Plyo cardio afterwards, but I didn’t schedule it after how Weighted Legs burned my lower body out. The reason it was easier is probably due to the use of the firewalker band and the floor work. Those components are good for targeted glute work; however, I am used to doing them Cathe style–super high reps. Now, the fact you are doing supersets 4 times does make it high rep–cumulatively–but you get breaks, unlike in a Cathe workout (and even Butt Bible) where they rep you out to failure or close. By the end of this workout I came up with several ways to make it harder which I think will make a good workout great. The first is rather than using one firewalker band I used both at the same time. The second thing I did is for the hip thrusts, rather than keeping my foot on the ground I put it on an 8 inch step to increase my range of motion. And finally, in the future I will also wear ankle weights for some of the exercises. However, overall it is a very good workout and compliments Weighted Legs perfectly. I think using the two in conjunction gives your glutes some seriously comprehensive work! Oh–this workout also contains the exercise shown in the clip on Ingrid’s site that sold me on this workout: Kneeling Squats. Now those are hard! I had to drop to lighter dumbbells halfway through!

Equipment needed for this workout is firewalker bands (if you have a cable for leg extensions (gym machine) you can also use that for one of the exercises), dumbbells and a mat.

Exercises:

Superset #1:
Cable/Band Kickbacks 12-15 reps
Side-Step w/ Band 30 seconds
4 sets

Superset #2:
Kneeling Squats (DB)
DB Donkey Kicks (DB) (for the last set hold and pulse at the top of the move for the final rep)
4 sets of 12 reps

Superset #3:
DB Plie Squats (DB) 12-15 reps
Angled Donkey Kicks 15 reps (for the last rep of every set hold isometrically at the top of the move)
4 sets

Superset #4:
Single Leg Hip Thrust (DB + 8 inch step) (for the last rep of every set hold isometrically at the top of the move)
Fire Hydrant w/ Band (for the last rep of every set hold isometrically at the top of the move)
4 sets of 15 reps

Weights + Plyo Legs is 51 minutes with a 3 minute warm up and no stretch. Holy cow! This was brutal! Even more challenging than Weighted Legs. But that’s because of the weighted plyometrics. Even Ingrid was struggling and she only did about half of the workout! She took a lot of breaks to “point out form.” You do get more breaks during this workout, unlike the first 3 workouts. But you need them. Even during a superset she will let you catch your breath. I was pushing and I wont lie–halfway through the final superset I had to drop my weights and do it unweighted. I was dying! This workout definitely gives me something to work toward! Not only increasing the weights of my dumbbells, but using dumbbells throughout w/out dropping them! Ingrid’s rep count is off, as usual, but in this workout she sometimes does less reps than required rather than more. She does do too many reps, too. So it is important for you to keep track of your reps in this workout. Oddly, Ingrid also has you stop in the middle of the workout and stretch your lower body, commenting on how important stretching is… yet she never stretches you out at the end of any of these workouts–including this one! I used Cathe‘s Xtrain Legs stretch to finish this workout off. Equipment needed is dumbbells and a bench if you have one; if you don’t, Ingrid and one of the crew members does the exercises on the floor. I used my high step at 14 inches. As you can see below you use dumbbells for everything–including the plyometrics! Though she does frequently tell you to drop the dumbbells if it becomes too much for you. I did keep my dumbbells throughout until halfway through Superset #4. I was dying so I dropped my weights so I could finish the workout strong and with good form. BTW–the weighted plyometrics bring this to a HIIT/strength workout.

Exercises:

Superset #1:
DB Squats
Weighted Jump Squats (DB)
4 sets of 15 reps

Superset #2:
Split Squats or Lunge-Kickbacks (DB & bench) 12 reps
Weighted Lunge Hops (DB) 12-15 reps
4 sets

Superset #3:
Step Up to Reverse Lunge (DB & bench) 12 reps
Alternating Jump Lunges (DB) 20 reps
4 sets

Superset #4:
Curtsey Lunge to Side Lunge (DB) 12 reps
Ice Skaters (DB) 20 reps
4 sets

Ends w/ “Burn Out”–30 seconds of unweighted skaters

Weights + Plyo Upper Body is 29 minutes long with a 4 minute warm up and no stretch. I’m not sure why this workout has the word “Plyo” in it because there are no plyometrics at all. I suppose so that it fits in with the two lower body workouts it is paired with which do contain plyometrics. Nevertheless this is a tough, challenging workout. It is very fast paced, so you are getting cardio, too, plus it is hard to go heavy. Now, prior to doing this workout I created workout cards and chose the weights I would normally lift for the exercises. They were all too heavy because of how fast the rep tempo is and, of course, the structure of the workouts–supersets done back to back 4 times. That is what makes all of the workouts in this series so challenging! It is an excellent workout. Weighted Upper Body is excellent, too, but I felt this one even more. So it was definitely more challenging. Oh and I had serious chest DOMS the next day–so much so that plyometrics were hurting my chest!

Equipment needed for this workout is dumbbells and a bench or stability ball. I used a bench.

Exercises:

Superset #1:
DB Chest Press (DB & bench or stability ball) 15 reps
Push Ups 10 reps
4 sets

Superset #2:
Tricep Kickbacks (DB)
Tricep Dips (bench if you have one/floor if not)
4 sets of 15 reps

Superset #3:
Bicep Curls (DB)
Bent-Over Rows (DB)
4 sets of 15 reps

Superset #4:
Arnold Press (DB)
Upright Row (DB)
4 sets of 15 reps

Weights + Plyo Glutes is 45 minutes with a 3:30 minute warm up and no stretch/cool down. Another super tough workout from Ingrid! Unlike Weighted Glutes, I didn’t have to do anything to increase the intensity and burn of this workout. It was tough on its own! Perhaps mildly easier than Weights + Plyo Legs, but not by much! One of the crew members is also named Ingrid and she seemed to be really struggling during the final superset (sumo squat jumps). I was struggling, too! Just like in Weights + Plyo Legs you get more breaks than you get in other workouts. For this workout you need the resistance band (or a cable machine) and dumbbells.

Exercises:

Superset #1:
Cable/Band Kickbacks 15 reps
Double Jumps (DB) 24 reps (jump squat to jump lunge)
4 sets

Superset #2:
Swing Lunges (DB) 10 reps (pendulum lunges)
High Knees 30 seconds
4 sets

Superset #3:
Curtsey Lunge + Step Up (DB) 15 reps (curtsey lunge and raise knee at top of exercise)
Jumping Jack + Squat 30 seconds (squat jacks)
4 sets

Superset #4:
DB Sumo Squats (DB) 15 reps
DB Sumo Squat Jumps (DB) 30 seconds
4 sets

Peak Week Cardio is 26 minutes long with a 3 minute warm up and no cool down/stretch. This is a tough HIIT/Plyo workout! And tho none of the workouts have cool downs/stretches (and that does irritate me) this one really needs a cool down at the very least since when the workout ends you are panting! It is an excellent cardio workout that continues to work the glutes hard through plyometrics. All of the other workouts have the same basic warm up, but the warm up for this one is different. The structure of the workout is a little different, too. Rather than supersets you are doing trisets, and you don’t repeat them 4 times, you only repeat them once. There are 5 trisets, each exercise in the triset is done for 25 seconds. You get a 30 second break and repeat the triset. You get another 30 second break before moving on to the next triset. The workout ends with a one minute high knee run burnout. Excellent workout–you just need to cool yourself down and stretch out afterwards. I, of course, used one of Cathe’s many excellent stretches. The warm up consists of unweighted squats, jog in place, deep side lunge stretch–but you move side to side, so it is dynamic; repeat. No equipment is needed for this workout.

Exercises:

Triset #1:
Squat + Jump Squats + Tuck Jumps (25 seconds each)
30 second break and repeat

Triset #2:
Mountain Climbers + Core Hops + Burpees (25 seconds each)
30 second break and repeat

Triset #3:
Ice Skaters + Side to Sides (squats) + Side to Side Lunges (25 seconds each)
30 second break and repeat

Triset #4:
Plank Walks (bend at waist and walk out to plank then walk back to feet (but don’t stand) + Plank to Elbows (high plank to low plank) + Plank Jacks (25 seconds each)
30 second break and repeat

Triset #5:
Cheeva Squat Right Leg (start in deep curtsey squat with hands on floor; kick back leg up) + Cheeva Squat Left Leg + Alt. Jump Lunge + 180 Jump Squats (25 seconds each)
30 second break and repeat

1 Minute High Knee Run Burn Out