Fit Body by Julia: Cardio Madness

Cardio Madness is a Fit Body by Julia workout. This is my 4th workout by Julia. It was actually created by someone named Daniela but, of course, it was performed by Julia. This was another super tough workout (does Julia do any workout that isn’t super tough?). Julia wore a weighted vest off and on throughout this workout. Apparently sometimes she felt she wasn’t working hard enough and put on her vest and other times she was struggling and removed her vest. I did not wear a vest because I am not insanely fit like she is. She also used a plyo box set at 12 inches. I used my step at 12 inches. It is only used for the first part of the workout and after that it served as a nice bench for my water and towel. (o:

This workout should actually be called Plyo Madness! It is primarily plyometrics and some body weight strength work. It was intense and it is gearing me up for the next two weeks–my Fit Body by Julia weeks! What a way to end the year! Starting Monday I am doing a Fit Body by Julia workout almost every day. There will be a few Yvette Bachman workouts thrown in for variety (and to keep me sane) but it is primarily 2 solid weeks of Fit Body by Julia. We’ll see if I can complete it. I won’t lie–there is some dread.

Anyway, this was a great and intense cardio/HIIT/plyometric workout. As usual there is no warm up or stretch so you are on your own there. I used a warm up and stretch from a Cathe workout to start and finish this workout. Since Cathe chapters her workouts so well, they are my go to for warm up and stretch add ons. Plus, no one is better than Cathe at warming you up for a workout then stretching you out afterward. She is the master. I will be using her workouts for the next two weeks as my warm ups and stretches when doing one of Julia’s workouts.

Cardio Madness is 48 minutes long, no warm up or stretch. No equipment is needed though Julia uses a plyo box at 12 inches that is only used for part 1. She also wears a weighted vest. I only used my step @ 12 inches. The breakdown below was copied from Julia’s YouTube page. I only made some formatting adjustments and explained any exercise that isn’t obvious from the name.

Part 1: HIIT 50/10,  done 2x (12 minutes)

1. Burpee + 180 squat jump + lateral box hop
2. 3 switch lunges + pistol squat
3. 1 divebomber push up + 1 donkey straddle jump
4. In and out box squat jumps (straddle squat jumps on step)
5. Ninja jump + lateral jump up and over the box (Ninja jump is starting on your knees and jumping to your feet)
6. Knees down (from pike, bend/hop to hover knees and back to pike–or Pike to quadruped)

Part 2: Tabata Pairs: 20/10 and each pair is done 3x (15 minutes)

Pair 1: Double buttkickers (plank donkey kicks) and Squat jacks

Pair 2: Star jumps and 2 walking pushups + knee tuck jump

Pair 3: Wide and narrow tuck jumps and plank jack pushups

Pair 4: High knees and Burpee heel grab (burpee + tuck jump)

Pair 5: Jumping front kicks (Russian kicks) and Switch lunges

Part 3: Quick cardio Ladder (7.5 minutes) Do each move for 60/50/20 second intervals (you get a 10 second recovery between each interval), complete each move before moving onto the next move.

1. 5 Angry donkeys + 5 in and out squat jumps
2. Inchworm hops + double burpee (2 push ups, in plank jump feet in and out 2x, 2 jumps while standing)
3. Crow pose to 3 high jumps to 2 star jumps

Part 4: Cardio AMRAP (8 minutes) (following Julia’s pace, which is what I did, you get through this AMRAP 3 times)

1. 8 frog plank hops
2. 8 squat jumps
3. 8 tuck jumps
4. 8 burpees
5. 8 tricep pushup + plank hop left and right

For more info on Fit Body by Julia and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.