Fit Body by Julia: PHAT Workout

This PHAT workout is the first workout that made me take notice of Fit Body by Julia–and it was a long time ago! At least a year ago. I saved it to a playlist and never got around to doing it. Until today. And having now done it–I should have gotten to it sooner! Excellent workout!

PHA Training stands for Peripheral Heart Action Training. In a PHA workout you alternate between upper and lower body resistance exercises, allowing as little rest as possible between each movement. The lack of rest and recovery keeps your heart rate elevated for cardiovascular and fat burning benefits, while switching between upper and lower body exercises maximizes blood flow to all parts of the body and reduces build up of lactic acid. This definition was copied from a Cathe Live workout description btw, which is where I first encountered (and fell in love with) PHA training. My favorite of Cathe‘s PHAT workouts is her Live PHA Training. She has also a Live PHAT 2 and her DVD Strong & Sweaty PHA Training. In addition, Kelly Coffey-Meyer‘s Strength & Stamina is also PHA training. This is just FYI for those who love PHA training, too, and would like to find more.

I have only done 4 of Julia’s workouts before this one so I was expecting this to be brutal (like those other 4). It was not. It was excellent and it can grow with you–meaning, increase the weight of your dumbbells to make it more challenging and lower the weight of your dumbbells to make it easier. In fact, if you are intimidated by Julia’s workouts (like I was), this one is a great place to start. Julia has 3 more PHAT workouts that all look more brutal than this one (and I will be doing and reviewing all 3 over the next 2 weeks). With the right dumbbells this is a thorough and intense total body strength workout that also gives you cardio. I loved it and it will definitely be a workout I return to.

Like many of the workouts Julia posts on her YouTube channel, this workout was created by some else: Jori. However, I think the bonus cardio burn at the end is all Julia. But I don’t know that for sure. I loved that little bonus burn at the end! It was fun and a great way to end this excellent workout. However she actually ends the workout after the PHA training and then returns to say her child is still sleeping so she decided to add this bonus onto the end. So if you want, you can just end after the two PHA circuits and your workout would only be 45 minutes long. This is my favorite of Julia’s workouts so far and I am really looking forward to trying her next 3 PHAT workouts. So stay tuned! The next two weeks are Fit Body by Julia workouts almost every day–so my blog feed is about to be flooded with reviews of her workouts!

PHAT Workout is 53 minutes long, no warm up or stretch, and no music. Equipment: a step at 12 inches, dumbbells and a stability ball. I listed both the weights I used and the weights Julia used. I think I heard her correctly but there is a possibility I may have heard her wrong. She uses dial up weights, so I am only reporting what I think I heard her say (but I am pretty sure I heard her right). If only one weight is listed then I used the same weight as Julia used. The breakdown below was copied from Julia’s YouTube page. I only made some formatting adjustments.

Round 1: repeat 3x

1. Weighted Bulgarian Lunge (back leg is on step behind you), 12 reps each leg (Julia uses 24# DBs, I used 18# DBs)
2. Overhead Press, 12 reps (18# DBs)
3. Step up to Reverse Lunge, 12 reps each leg (Julia uses 24# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
4. Bicep Curls, 12 reps (15# DBs)
5. Uneven Squats off Box (DB held goblet style), 12 reps each leg (Julia uses one 25# DB, I used one 30# DB)
6. Push ups 8 reps (down for count of 2, up for count of 2 tempo)

Round 2: repeat 3x

1. Side Lateral Lunge, Weight to toe, 12 reps each leg (Julia uses one 24# DB, I used two 18# DBs)
2. Overhead Tricep Extensions, 12 reps (Julia uses one 15# DB, I used one 25# DB)
3. Single Leg Deadlift, 12 reps each leg (Julia uses 24# DBs, I used 20# DBs)
4. Upright Row, 12 reps (Julia uses 18# DBs, I used 15# DBs)
5. Heavy Weighted Squats (Arms down by side), 12 reps (Julia uses 24# DBs, I used 25# DBs)
6. Pullovers on Stability Ball, 8 reps (down count of 2, up count of 2 tempo) (Julia uses one 18# DB, I used one 35# DB)

Bonus quick cardio burn: (8 minutes) Pyramid down 12 reps, 10 reps, 8, 6, 4,and 2 of each move:

1. Weighted jump squats (Julia uses one 25# DB, I used one 20# DB)
2. Frog plank hop + tuck
3. Knee in press up abs (Julia used one 15# DB, I used one 10# DB)

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