Kick Start Your Metabolism

Kick Start Your Metabolism is another Prevention workout led by Chris Freytag. This is the last of the Prevention/Chris Freytag workouts that I own. I bought this workout a long time ago but I never actually did it. It contains 4 workouts. 3 of them are approximately 15 minutes long and one is 9 minutes long. There is something a little odd about this DVD. There is a warm up and cool down but it appears nowhere on the menu and the only way you can actually do the warm up and stretch is by selecting the “play all” option. So they apparently do not think you need a warm up or a stretch unless you plan to do everything on this DVD. However, when you choose “play all” it is chaptered, so you can do the warm up and then jump to whatever workout(s) you want to do then jump to the stretch. If you do choose play all and do all of the workouts plus the warm up and stretch, it is a 67 minute workout.

When I did this workout this morning, I did “play all” and did the 67 minute workout. I wore weighted gloves to increase the intensity. Though it is definitely not the most intense kickboxing/metabolic workout I’ve ever done, it is a solid one and I really enjoyed it and got a great workout. According to my Fitbit I burned 500 calories in 67 minutes. Fat Blast is all cardio kickboxing, Ab Attack is primarily standing core work with some mat work at the very end, Body Sculpt is metabolic strength work and Express Kickstart is another (shorter) cardio kickboxing workout. Everything, including Ab Attack and Body Sculpt is kickboxing inspired. These are not advanced workouts. The kickboxing combos are easy to do, nothing complicated but they will get your heart rate up. And FYI-Jessica Smith is again one of Chris’s crew members.

There is a 4:40 minute Kickboxing 101 segment in which Chris demonstrates basic kickboxing moves and terminology. There is a beginner modifier in all of the workouts. However, she doesn’t modify much and during the kickboxing workouts she doesn’t modify anything.

The warm up is 4:30 minutes and the stretch is 4:30 minutes. Again, the only way you can do either of these is if you chose “play all.”

Fat Blast is 16 minutes. This is all cardio-kickboxing. Here are some of the moves in the order they appear. Some of these moves are built into combos and many of them reappear. Side to side squats, half jacks, bob and weave, knee pulls, front jabs, hook punch, upper cuts, cross punches, jabs to the side, jab-cross, back kick, front kick, grapevine, speed bag arms with side step squats, side kick, jab-cross-hook-hook, 4 hops.

Ab Attack is 16 minutes. This is primarily a standing core workout full of kickboxing inspired moves. The workout starts with some boxing: bob and weave, front jab, hook, side to side squats, elbow blocks, knee pulls. Then you start some standing abs.

1. Core rotation (with hands in guard rotate torso side to side)
2. Standing oblique crunches (raise arm overhead and raise same side knee to side, bringing elbow to knee); changes to side kick
3. Repeat #1
4. While doing figure 8 motion with hands clasped together and arms straight, step out in a shallow squat then bring feet back in close together, alternate sides
5. Cross punches + squats
6. Elbow plank hold on mat; add dropping hips side to side
7. Lay on hip and one elbow, legs bent and top arm reached overhead–open top leg as if in clam, bringing it up to side of body and bring elbow down to meet the knee; changes to raising both knees to meet elbow; continue this move but with straight legs
8. Lay on back, knees bent and feet on floor, hands in guard–roll up and back down; hold at top of sit up and do cross jabs; combine those two moves: roll up and do 4 punches then roll back down

Body Sculpt is 17 minutes. Equipment: dumbbells. Chris and crew were using light dumbbells–I can’t tell how heavy but they look like 3 or 5 pounds. I used 5 pound dumbbells for everything except #2-3, for those I used 15 pound dumbbells. You are holding the dumbbells for everything in this workout except #7 & 8 and #14. Unless you are following the modifier; she doesn’t use dumbbells for some of the exercises. This is kickboxing inspired metabolic strength training. I would never count it as my strength work–just part of the cardio kickboxing and for that purpose it worked very well. However, if you do want some real strength training, I would use heavier weights.

1. Alternating reverse lunges; continue reverse lunge on one leg and add bicep curls; add knee lift; knee lift changes to front kick (still lunging) while holding DBs in guard; jab opposite arm while kicking
2. Squats
3. Forward leaning back rows
4. Squat pulse 3x + one row
5. Stationary side lunges, 2 to each side; continue stationary side lunges on one leg punching high then low with each lunge
6. Angle to one side and do single arm punches
7. Butt kick run w/ jump rope arms; changes to hops; hop side to side; jump forward and back
8. Wide pulsing plie squats; turn toes in for wide pulsing regular squats; keep alternating between these two squats as you bring feet closer together then jump feet back out into wide plie squats; add speed bag arms
9. Bicep curls w/ alternating glute raises (lifting leg behind you)
10. Hold DBs out to side, arms almost straight (slight bend in elbow) and palms facing the ceiling, raise and lower DBs from waist height to shoulder height
11. Still holding DBs out to side at shoulder height, bend elbows, bringing DBs to shoulders (bicep curl w/ arms starting in a T)
12. Combine 10 & 11
13. Alternating front lunges; add one arm overhead press; continue alternating front lunges (no more overhead presses) but add 3 pulses to each lunge; add alternating front jabs during pulses
14. Push ups on knees; this changes to isometric push up holds
15. On hands and knees, do single arm tricep kickbacks while kicking opposite leg out behind you

Express Kick Start is 9 minutes w/ 1:30 cool down/stretch. This is another little cardio kickboxing workout. This one contains a short warm up (not sure how long the warm up is) and a short cool down/stretch. Here are some of the moves in the order they appear. Boxer shuffle, bob and weave, front jabs, shuffle side to side, squats, front kicks, overhead speed bag, butt kick runs w/ jump rope arms, shuffle forward w/ cross punch then duck back (squat steps), squat + side kick.