This was a surprisingly intense little metabolic workout from Popsugar and Anna Renderer! And only 20 minutes long. I was very impressed. It has another title (it flashes across the screen at the very beginning) of Cardio Strength Metabolic Mash Up, which is also appropriate. I used it this morning as a “warm up” before doing yoga and it definitely warmed me up! I was sweating all over my mat! This will work excellently as a finisher workout after a total body strength workout–or even liked I used it today, before doing yoga. Heck, it was intense enough I think it would qualify as a good doubles workout! It is set up in 3 circuits; each circuit has two exercises and you repeat each circuit twice. However, in Circuit 2, you do not repeat the second exercise of the circuit, just the first. And IMHO, that is appropriate because I felt like the first time you did the second exercise you did it for a long time and really burned your triceps out. You need dumbbells for this workout, too. Anna used 8 pound dumbbells and her two crew members used 5 pound dumbbells. I used 8s and 10s. I’ll used 12s instead of the 10s in the future. Anyway, I loved this workout. What was really surprising was the fact it is only 20 minutes and over 5 minutes of that time is warm up and cool down and yet you still get an excellent workout. The warm up is an intense little warm up and the cool down does a great job stretching you out. An all around winner for 20 minutes of intensity!
Metabolism Boosting Workout is 20 minutes long; 3:15 minute warm up and 2:30 minute stretch. You need at least one set of dumbbells for this workout and a mat.
Circuit 1:
- Low burpee w/ high knee shuffle (stand behind mat at one end; do a burpee w/ a push up, but when you come out of the burpee, stay in squat, jump feet back out and do a second push up, jump feet in, stand and high knee run to other end of mat; repeat at that end of mat–and just keep doing this move back and forth until Anna tells you to stop;
- Plank burn out: plank jacks followed by mountain climbers, followed by pike jump in and out;
Repeat Circuit 1.
Circuit 2:
- Hold DBs at shoulders and do a reverse lunge, stand and kick leg in front of you, this changes to reverse lunge, stand with knee up (so balance move) with overhead press (I used 8# DBs); repeat on other side of body
- Stand on one leg (balance move), torso bent forward, and do tricep kickbacks; change legs when Anna tells you to (I used 8# DBs);
- You only repeat #1 in this circuit, not #2.
Circuit 3:
- Man-makers (start in plank but you are holding DBs while in plank; do a push up followed by a renegade row (both arms), jump feet in so you are in squat, bicep curl the DBs to shoulders, stand and do overhead press) (I used 10# DBs but will use 12# DBs in the future);
- Bicycle burn out (lay flat on back, arms overhead and legs straight, come up into what Anna calls an “atomic crunch”, which is coming up into bent leg boat pose; while in boat pose do bicycle maneuver–so bicycle in V sit (tough!); you do this until Anna tells you to roll back then you roll back flat, come up into “atomic crunch” and bicycle in V sit again; you go through this series several times until Anna tells you to stop;
Repeat Circuit 3.
For more info on Popsugar and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
One thought on “Popsugar: Metabolism Boosting Workout”