Focus 15

Focus 15 contains 3 body weight workouts from Mark Lauren. The “15” in the title indicates the length of the workouts, but they are all longer than 15 minutes, even without the warm up and cool downs, and approx. 30 minutes with those. However, just like in his other workouts, Mark demonstrates every exercise you will be doing to show proper form and you get your cool anatomy graphics. So if you minus that from the workout time, then they probably are 15 minutes long. And after you’ve done the workouts a few times and feel comfortable with them, you can just skip the demonstrations. The workouts are chaptered–not a menu that you can select from but if you hit the skip forward button on your DVD remote, it skips over segments.

Prior to this collection, his workouts tended to be total body but with this set, each workout focuses on a body part: Upper, Lower and Core. The workouts themselves are different, but like all of his other collections, the warm up and cool down are the same for all 3 workouts. During the exercise demonstrations, Mark also shows modifications you can make if the actual move is too advanced for you.

Mark suggests doing one workout a day on back to back days then taking one day of recovery. The workouts are all structured the same. They started with timed circuits. You do two exercises for 40 seconds each then repeat 3 times. You do two different exercises the same way. Each workout ends with Ladders. For Ladders you do two exercises back to back, first for 1 rep, then for 2 reps, then for 3 reps, then for 4 reps, then go back down the ladder–3 reps, then 2 reps, then end with 1 rep. For the timed circuits there is a timer, but it appears and disappears at random–so don’t count on it being there when you want to check your time! Mark uses some clockwork graphics to separate sections which is kind of cool. Also, there is a woman on the front of the DVD cover with Mark, so I assumed that (unlike his other workouts) he would have someone working out with him. Nope. Just Mark. So… why is there a woman on the cover with him? Kind of weird.

I like these workouts a lot. They were what I have come to expect from Mark Lauren’s workouts. They worked me hard and effectively with zero equipment. His calm focus somehow motivates me and the fact he does the entire workout with you with perfect form always inspires me to work hard to do the same.

Warm Up is 5 minutes:

Hip rotations
Good Mornings (hands behind head, narrow stance)
Trunk rotations
Prisoner squats
Spiderman Complex (start in straight arm plank; bring right foot up beside right hand, drop right forearm to ground, raise back up onto right hand while also straightening right knee, lower back to forearm while bending the knee, then straighten again; next, with right knee bent, raise right arm toward ceiling, rotating torso and looking up toward ceiling; come up to deep lunge w/ arms raised straight overhead, palms together; lower right hand and reach toward ground while reaching toward ceiling with left hand; repeat entire complex on other side of body)

Cool Down Stretch is 5:30 minutes. These stretches are the same as the cool down stretches used in EFX, but sequenced differently.

“Z” stretch: while still in position of last stretch, bring one heel in toward crotch, bend the other knee in the opposite direction so your other heel is near your bottom; reach arms overhead then reach arms forward, placing hands on floor, torso over front leg
Legs still in “Z” position, lean upper body back and to the side (same side as front leg) so you are on your elbow and twisting your body
Repeat 1 & 2 on other side of body
Lie on your stomach, stretch one arm out to side with elbow bent at 90 degree angle; bend opposite knee and lift, then push up with other hand, twisting body and raised foot toward bent elbow on floor
Sit on bottom with legs spread wide in a V and straight and raise arms overhead then reach arms forward, placing palms on ground; then reach toward each foot and hold; next, reach toward each foot again but this time reaching arm overhead so you are stretching side of body, too

Upper Body is 19:30 minutes. Like most of Mark’s workouts, this one is deceptive. When he demonstrates the exercises it doesn’t seem like it will be so hard. But by the end of many of the segments, whatever body part we were working was screaming in agony, wanting it to just end. And the stretch! I cannot tell you how good it felt to stretch out my aching arms and shoulders. So–consensus? Excellent upper body workout! I feel like I worked muscles that have been laying dormant! For the first two pairings, you do 2 exercises, each for 40 seconds and 3 times. The only break you get is between pairings when Mark is demonstrating the exercises. For the final pairing, you do ladders (described below). The arm swing really wasn’t a very hard exercise and felt like a nice relief each time I got to do it.

Wide Grip Push Up (push up w/ arms wide)
Prone Snow Angel (lay on stomach, feet on ground, arms/shoulders/chest raised as if in superman, palms facing the ground; swing straight arms around to sides of body, then sweep the back to superman position)