***Update: Kelly has removed all of the Raw workouts lI reviewed from YouTube. I am sure they are still available on her Raw streaming site but that is not free.***
Cardio Crush is another workout from Kelly Coffey-Meyer‘s Raw workouts she does for free on YouTube. I really enjoyed this workout, but it’s not the most intense workout out there. Still, for 30 minutes, it gave me a decent calorie burn. Plus, it was fun and that is pretty important–enjoying your workouts. I really enjoyed this one. This workout is primarily cardio but there is some body weight conditioning, too. Kelly uses some equipment, but she also shows modifications for doing every move without equipment. And for the exercises with some impact, she shows low impact modifications. Kelly uses a 6 inch step. I also used one and I do think using a step at 6 or even 8 inches is important to keep the intensity of this workout up. She also used a firewalker loop around her thighs for one exercise. She placed a towel on the top of her step for some moves in which your hands or elbows will be on the step and finally, she was wearing lifting gloves. I don’t know why, but probably for the same reason I ended up putting them on–to protect my hands on the step during squat thrusts. I used a folded up yoga mat rather than a towel on top of the step when protection was needed for my elbows and finally, I also used 3 pound handweights for any punching drills. There were times during this workout when Kelly slowed down because maybe she was getting tired. If you keep pace with her during those times, it will lower the intensity of the workout, so I kept the same pace that she set in the first few circuits. The most intense circuit of the workout is the squat thrusts. After the squat thrust circuit, she gives you a longer recovery (50 seconds I think) before moving on to the next circuit. So if you are getting tired and winded, keep in mind that about halfway through the workout (after the 4 squat thrust intervals) you get a longer recovery.
This brings me to structure. Now that I have done 3 of Kelly’s Raw workouts, I see that she does have a specific structure she uses for these workouts. She does 30 second intervals with 10 seconds of recovery between each interval. She does 4 of these 30/10 intervals for each exercise–so that equals one circuit. For this 30 minute workout, that equals 11 circuits. This structure keeps her workouts moving at a fast clip. Today I used this workout as a warm up before yoga and it worked very well for that. Not terribly intense, but still a solid cardio workout that warmed me up nicely for yoga.
Cardio Crush is 33 minutes long. She gives you a one minute warm up while explaining the workout and a 30 second stretch at the end. She uses a 6 inch step with a towel on it (I used a folded mat to protect elbows/hands) and a firewalker. I also used 3 pound dumbbells for the punching drills.
Remember, each exercise is done for 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off. Each exercise is repeated 4x.
- 2 low impact jacks + 2 regular jacks
- Hands on step, lower to elbows then bring each knee in once, raise back to hands and do 2 plank jacks
- Jab cross 6x each side; each side she steps one foot onto step
- Squat outs (place firewalker loop around thighs above knees, step to side, squat, raise heels, lower heels and stand; alternate sides)
- Squat thrust (burpee) w/ hands on step then jump on top of step
- Crab straddling step, touch hand to opposite foot (you do it over the step to remind you to keep your hips raised–if your hips drop, they touch the step)
- Charleston on step (step on step and raise knee then lunge back and tap hand to step
- Hooks
- Jump squat to side, squat jump back, squat jump onto step
- Side kicks
- Side bends (legs wide, knees bent, tilt torso side to side while keeping hips still/forward; different arm movements each interval)
For more info on CoffeyFit Raw and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
