Another great little workout from Popsugar and Anna Renderer. So far I’ve enjoyed every little Popsugar workout I’ve done. And the best part? They are all FREE! As usual, I used 20 Minute 200 Calorie Blaster as an add-on/finisher workout. I was already pretty wore out after the Cathe Live workout I had just completed–Total Body Weights, so I was hoping this one wasn’t killer like last Saturday’s was (Fat Burning Pilates). And it wasn’t, but it was tough enough that it definitely finished me off and wore me out! According to my Fitbit I did not burn the advertised 200 calories. Which kind of surprised me. Now, if I had come to this workout cold it would not have surprised me, but my heart rate was already elevated from a 64 minute intense Cathe Live workout–so I expected to burn at least 200 more calories. This workout was intense enough for that, I thought. But nope. According to my Fitbit I only burned 150 calories. As I mentioned in my last GymRa workout review–I really question the validity of this Fitbit’s stats sometimes. But that’s not what this post is about, so I digress.
200 Calorie Blaster is led by Anna Renderer and she has two exercisers with her. One of them is showing easier/less advanced modifications to all of the moves. For this workout you will need at least one set of dumbbells (unless you are doing the beginner modification and in that case, no dumbbells). Anna uses a set of 5 pound dumbbells. I used 10 and 8 pound dumbbells. The workout is set up in two circuits and each circuit is repeated. The circuits are made up of cardio moves and metabolic strength moves. It is an excellent and fun little workout.
200 Calorie Blaster is 20 minutes long; 2 minute warm up consisting of jump rope drills and 2 minute cool down and stretch (cool down is a walk out burpee with a hop; the stretch is a quad stretch and a hip flexor stretch). As mentioned above you need some dumbbells and a fitness mat. Anna used 5 pound dumbbells for everything; I will list below the weight I used.
Circuit 1 (done 2x):
- Alternating side lunges w/ a skip in the middle; 10# DBs
- Push up, rotate into side plank and crunch (top hand behind head, bring top knee to elbow)
- Mountain climbers
- Quick step (hold one DB overhead in both hands; run forward and back–super-fast little step runs); 8# DB
Circuit 2 (done 2x):
- Lay flat on back with arms straight out to side; roll up, raising one straight leg while also raising torso and touching outside of foot w/ opposite hand; alternate sides
- Creepy crawler w/ hop + renegade rows (get in plank holding DBs; alternate hopping knee up to same side elbow on outside of body–do this 4 times, then 4 renegade rows); repeat combo 4x; 10# DBs
- Split lunge hop w/ a squat (start w/ feet together; hop into lunge, hop feet together, hop into lunge (other side), hop feet together, hop out to squat); 8# DBs
- High knee runs while punching
For more info on Popsugar and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
