Workout #5: Metabolic Cardio and Yogic Intervals is rebounder workout led by trainer Greg Sims and it is part of the URX-MT fitness program. This was a deceptive workout. The first 4 minutes of this workout is push ups. FOUR MINUTES. That is the harbinger that this will not be an easy workout. But then after the push ups, the pace slows down and it seems pretty easy for a bit. But then the workout creeps up on you and before I knew it, I was working hard. This is an extremely high rep workout. So even tho you are using those very light sandbag weights, you do get some burn out anyway. I didn’t love this workout but I did like it. A fun bonus to this workout–about 5 minutes into the workout, Gay Gasper shows up with a rebounder and joins the workout. Her and Greg banter back and forth throughout the workout. He points out that she waited until after the push ups to show up! This is the first Greg Sims workout I’ve done. I like him! He was a very personable trainer. It was definitely a solid workout and those “yogic intervals” were not easy nor much of a recovery. I would say my lower body was hit the hardest. He works it throughout but those chair pose jumps at the end were killer. There is not a stretch at the end of this workout and I needed one, so I did one of Cathe‘s extended stretches afterward and it felt very good on my lower body.
Here is a little background on this series. URX-MT stands for Urban Rebounding Extreme Metabolic Training. I bought the entire series as a program. The program is made up of 13 workouts but you can buy each workout individually on the Urban Rebounder site, so that is how I will be reviewing them. The program apparently originally came with more than just the rebounder and the workouts. It also came with sandbag hand weights that you can no longer purchase. I think all of the workouts in the program use the sandbags. They range from 1-3 pounds. I did not purchase an Urban Rebounder. My rebounder is a different brand. I also did not buy the DVD program from the Urban Rebounder website. I found it much cheaper on Ebay.
Metabolic Cardio and Yogic Intervals is 51:30 minutes; no warm up or stretch. Equipment: rebounder and sandbag weights.
- Push ups with hands on rebounder and knees on floor; continue doing push ups but on your toes now; drop to knees again and do plyo push ups; add a double arm punch while pushing up off rebounder; pivot to side lifting one leg off floor, placing one hand on floor and keeping other hand on rebounder and do an uneven push up, alternate sides; regular push ups on knees; raise onto toes again while continuing to do push ups; plyo push ups on knees and when pushing up off rebounder, reach arms overhead
- Hop on top of rebounder
- Stop hopping, turn to side but face front and do front jabs; changes to cross punch with back arm; changes to jab-cross; continue jab-cross but faster; changes to jab-cross-jab-knee raise; add a jump when raising knee
- Wide plie squats on floor behind rebounder; hold squat isometrically, grip edge of rebounder in front of you in underhand grip with elbows close to sides and lift it (doing a bicep curl), lower rebounder and raise out of squat; hold squat isometrically, holding the edge of the rebounder and lift and lower rebounder
- Repeat #3 facing the opposite direction and leading with other arm
- Wide plie squats on floor behind rebounder; hold squat isometrically, grip edge of rebounder in front of you with elbows out to sides and lift it (doing an upright row), lower rebounder and raise out of squat; hold squat isometrically, holding the edge of the rebounder and lift and lower rebounder
- (grab sandbag weights) Wide leg hops on rebounder; jack legs in and out while punching sandbags/hands down narrow then wide; keep jacking feet but raise arms overhead and hold sandbags together overhead
- Squats on top of rebounder; add one knee lift after each squat, alternate sides; knee lift changes to front kick; when squatting reach hands/sandbags down and between legs and tap rebounder
- Tuck jumps
- Stand on rebounder, arms raised to sides at shoulder level, sandbags by shoulders, extend one arm straight out to side the back in to shoulder, alternate arms: add a hop; do both arms at the same time (bring sandbags to shoulders then extend arms out to sides in a T); return to alternating arms but this time hold arms on an angle so one is lifting high on a diagonal and the other arm is extending low on a diagonal; changes to both arms; return to alternating arms but this time swap arm positions; changes to both arms; changes to X arms–alternating which arm is high and which is low with each rep
- Right angle yoga pose with front/bent leg on rebounder (hold for a long time)
- Stand on rebounder and do single knee pulls (all on same leg), reaching arms overhead and pulling them down to knee; Greg goes around to his background exercisers and hands them all their sandbag weights to pull down to their knee; changes to pulling sandbags down across knee in a chop
- Repeat #12 on other side of body but you are holding the sandbags from the very beginning
- Hinge forward at waist (like a deadlift) still holding sandbags then jump pushing sandbags overhead (deadlift into jump); jump changes to tuck jump, still reaching arms/sandbags overhead
- Hinge forward (on rebounder) and do alternating back rows; start rowing faster; still hinged forward, lower into a squat while continuing to do fast alternating back rows
- (drop sandbags) Do warrior 1 yoga pose with front/bent leg’s foot on rebounder; keep foot on rebounder and do stationary lunges in and out of Warrior 1, reaching hands toward rebounder when lunging
- Hop on rebounder with directional changes; continue the directional change jumps but reach arms overhead with palms together and hold while jumping; when jumping land in squat (you are basically landing in chair pose)
- Warrior 2 pose with front/bent leg’s foot on rebounder; flow side to side, as if from right angle to reverse warrior; wrap one arm overhead (elbow reaching toward ceiling) other arm is wrapped around behind back, crunch top elbow toward knee on rebounder
How unexpected and fun that there was a surprise guest for this workout — that probably made the workout more fun! (P.S. Sorry about the multiple EFX comments last night.)
I’d show up after the 4 minutes of pushups too 😉 At least they were varied. How did you modify the pushup exercises so that you didn’t further injure your rotatory shoulder cuff?
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Unfortunately I am back to doing push ups on my knees. By the time I finally get the surgery and then recover from it, I will back to square one with push ups. I also do the wider/bench press variety of push up. That is easier on my shoulder.
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I’m sorry that you’ll back to square one with pushups. I know from reading your blog that you spent considerable time and patience rebuilding your push-up game — I think you used ML’s EFX and Illaria’s Push-ups & Abs.
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It was primarily Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge, but I used Ilaria’s Push Ups & Abs to help me at the beginning.
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yes I remembered it was the 90 day (monotonous) challenge after the comment posted. I still haven’t yet opened up Ilaria’s PU&Ab DVD. I think mostly because I’m going to realize how puny my upper body strength is. when it’s safe to go out again, I want to get 7 pound weights. I can use the 8s for some moves but not all, and I think 7s might help. The % of weight increase is less from 5 to 7 than from 5 to 8………
I’m also intrigued by Atletica 4. I know it’s probably a hard workout but the burpees maybe add a fun factor?!
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I enjoyed Atletica 4. I haven’t done it in a while but I do remember really enjoying it when I was doing it.
A few years ago I invested (with the help of lots of Amazon gift cards for my birthday and Christmas) is getting dumbbells in every weight increment from 1 pound to 15 pounds. They don’t make 16 or 17 pound dumbbells, but I did find 18 pound dumbbells. After that I have them in 5 pound increments up to 50 pounds. Prior to this weird decision, I had them in the basic weights–5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25 and so on uo to 50. I tell you this because those dumbbells from 5-20 pounds got me through cancer treatment. I could not lift nearly as heavy as I could pre-cancer but I was still able to challenge myself by being able to lift exactly what I was capable of at whatever state of treatment I was in. I would have never thought I would use 6, 9, 11 and 13 pound dumbbells as much as I did during that time period. That wasn’t even why I bought them! I was diagnosed in 2018. I actually bought them in 2017 because I had planned to do another round of Cathe’s STS and being able to increase your weights in small increments as you progress is so helpful. The first 3 times I went through STS I had to do all kinds of weird things to increase my weights in small increments. I never did do that 4th round of STS, but the weights still became invaluable over then next year.
I share this because you should make that investment if you plan to keep working out and challenging yourself. Those 1 pound increments make it safer and easier to gradually get stronger.
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thanks for the detailed info about the weights. it definitely motivates me to acquire 7s, especially sometimes i feel like the 5s aren’t challenging me enough but the 8s are too much. i love my time spent working out and i’d love to make my workouts a bit more intense with a slightly higher weight.
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Just checked online, none of my local stores have 7s (target, dick’s, academy) it sounds like you ordered all your weights from amazon. sigh. for personal reasons, i just don’t like the idea of amazon, many because they are so darn huge, have a lot of third party sellers, and i think their customer service is done all online, you can’t just pick up the phone and call.
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just checked again, my local target has 2 pound weights. i assume it would be very awkward to hold 5s and 2s in my hands at the same time. especially if i was in a plank pose doing a row or something……. you think?
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That’s what I was referring to–I had to make all sorts of weird adjustments to micro load when I was doing STS–holding multiple weights in one hand, velcroing weighted gloves or ankle weights to a dumbbell. I also bought short barbells to use with my barbell plates but those don’t do smaller weight increments. Those were so I could do weird weights like 27 pound dumbbells or 33 pound dumbbells. I also had plate mates (magnetic plates you add to the end of dumbbells to increase the weight) but I could not find them in anything smaller than 2.5 pounds.
I have been an Amazon customer since 1998 and I have never had any problem with them. And they do customer service over the phone. They call you tho. But I’ve always solved any problems I had with them via chat and they have always fixed a problem. But before I begin the chat, they always give the option to do it via phone call if that’s what you prefer.
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Thanks, I’m going to have to figure out how to macgyver some 6 and 7 pound weights. I got notified that Target got 6 pounders back in stock online but by the time I got back online they were sold out again. It’s possible that my local store actually has 2s in stock, so I could combine those with my 5s……. If my store has both in stock at the same time I could hold them together and see how it feels but I don’t know how I feel about going to Target at this time…… I definitely know that acquiring 6s and 7s will make my workouts better since I struggle with the 8s for nearly all moves except renegade rows and bicep curls
Amazon has really crazy high prices right now for dumbbells…. there’s a pair of 6 pounders for over $50 and then this set for nearly $1500
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I used to own Select Techs! I did not pay $1500 for them tho! I bought them new back in 2007 I think for $500. I used them for several years without issue but then the dials started sticking. My husband fix them a few times but finally they locked up and I couldn’t change the weight anymore. They ended up in the trash and I replaced them with cast iron dumbbells. They do take up more space. But they are actually easier to use than dial up dumbbells for most DVD workouts. In a DVD workout the dumbbell changes need to be done relatively quickly which is not possible with a dial up dumbbell.
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I would want free weights too rather than the click/dial dumbbells.
The pricing for weights on Amazon is so crazy, who has that much $ to spend on dial weights?!
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