AngieFitnessTV: Rebounder Cardio Fusion

Before I even start this review, I have to preface it with–I am back to rebounding!!! It has been a little over 7 weeks since I last used my rebounder and I missed it so much! My ortho surgeon gave me clearance to jump again so I pulled my rebounder back out and started re-arranging my workout rotation calendar. This was the first workout I plugged into it. And OMG, it felt so good to bounce again. Literally my favorite thing to do.

This is a really interesting workout by AngieFitnessTV. I was excited about it when it appeared back in May until I saw the length of it–82 minutes! WTF? But I decided to preview it anyway. It was filmed live and in reality it is only about 63 minutes. Since it is filmed live, the first 5:30 minutes is Angie watching viewers log on to workout live with her and the final 14 minutes is Angie talking to her viewers. After previewing the workout I sat and listened to Angie chat with the live viewers and learned a lot about her. Some pretty cool stuff. I knew from things she said in her other workouts that she is a physical therapist but she has been a fitness trainer for a long time (20+ years) and apparently certified in just about every fitness modality out there. As a side note, I have been scouring the hundreds of workouts Angie has created and she also creates little 1-2 minute blurbs explaining what she is currently working on (there are several since she has been doing this for a long time) and in addition to all I’ve mentioned before, she rescues animals and is a beekeeper. She is a pretty cool lady!

Anyway, back to this workout. This is a long workout but it is a lot of fun and worked me well. In addition to the rebounder, Angie uses a lot of other equipment but you actually don’t need anything except the rebounder. All of the other equipment just increases the intensity or adds resistance to work your muscles more. I used all of the equipment and got an excellent workout. There are no complicated moves. Each exercise is done for 1 minute. The workout is broken up into 6 approximately 9-10 minute segments and each segment uses a different piece of equipment. I have become accustomed to Angie’s long and thorough (and excellent) cool down stretches. So I was little surprised (and disappointed) that the stretch at the end of this workout is barely over 2 minutes. But that is my only complaint. Considering the length of the workout I guess that’s a good thing. Finally, as always, Angie offers suggestions and modifications for people at lower fitness levels.

Angie started the workout wearing her weighted gloves and her 8 pound weighted vest. She took her vest off after the first 10 minutes. I left mine on until the very last segment. The final segment is body weight strength on the rebounder. Angie removed her weighted gloves for that and I removed my vest and gloves. It’s been so long since I’ve used my rebounder that I am not sure how much the vest increased the intensity for me. Plus, since my surgery, I wear weighted vests, belt, gloves and ankle weights for nearly every workout I do now. So I am also probably a lot more accustomed to them than I was before. So again, I don’t feel like I can accurately judge how much the vest increased the intensity until I do some more rebounder workouts without it.

Rebounder Cardio Fusion is 82 minutes; 5:30 minute “intro”, 5 minute warm up, 2:20 minute cool down and 14 minutes of Angie talking to viewers at the very end. Actual workout time is 62:30 minutes. But you do have to scrub through the 5:30 minute intro. Equipment: rebounder, weighted gloves, fit stick, weighted vest, light hand weights, pilates ball or playground ball, ankle weights and booty band/resistance loop. A “fit stick” is just a very light dowel. I have a piece of equipment that is used with resistance bands so that you can do things like lat pull downs. It’s very light. That is what I used. What I used looks a lot like what Angie is using but I really don’t know what she used. She might have said something about it during the 5:30 minutes at the beginning when viewers were logging on but I didn’t listen to that.

The workout starts with Angie wearing the weighted vest (Angie’s vest is 8 pounds), holding the fit stick and jumping on the rebounder. The first 10 minutes of the workout is rebounder cardio with the fit stick. Angie starts it out very low like a warm up then ramps it up to a more intense level about 5 minutes in. Angie removes the weighted vest and sets the fit stick aside. You do a low health bounce for a minute then grab the light hand weights. Angie used 2 pound hand weights. She is was also wearing 1 pound gloves so she was using a total of 3 pounds. I did the same (2 pound hand weights + my weighted gloves). For the next 9 minutes you are doing upper body strength work with light hand weights. Angie stands on the rebounder while doing the following exercises:

1. Pilates bicep curls (hold arms out to sides in a T then bend elbows, bringing DBs to shoulders)
2. Alternate punching arms/DBs overhead; changes to alternating front punches
3. Straight arm side raises
4. Alternating tricep kickbacks done quickly (Angie calls them runners)
5. Bent over reverse flys
6. Stand with legs wide on rebounder and alternate side bends, reaching arm/DB overhead to other side; same motion but remain on one side
7. Straight arm front raises, at top of raise, rotate wrists as if pouring something out of a pitcher so that thumbs are pointing down and backs of hands are facing each other

Set hand weights aside and grab your pilates or play ground ball. You do 10 minutes of cardio on the rebounder using the pilates ball. Next you toss the ball aside and put on your ankle weights. Angie is using 2.5 pound ankle weights. I used 4 pound ankle weights and man did it burn! For the next 9 minutes you are doing lower body barre style exercises on the rebounder. Angie has her T bar attached to her rebounder and holds it for balance.

1. Holding onto T bar for balance, lift one leg out straight to side
2. Repeat #1 on other leg
3. Still holding onto T bar for balance, raise knee in front of you then kick leg out behind you
4. Repeat #3 on other leg
5. Still holding T bar, with insole facing ceiling, swing leg in front of you the out to side
6. Repeat #5 on other leg
7. Alternating knee raises, lifting knee higher than T bar

Remove ankle weights and grab your booty band/resistance loop. Angie is using a thick/wide fabric booty band. I used my medium EnriqQ loop which is also fabric. Put the band around thighs, just above knees. Angie says this booty band segment was done for one of the viewers named Leah. For the next 10 minutes you will do cardio bouncing using the booty band. So this is a cardio lower body strength segment. Remove the booty band for 9 minutes of body weight strength using the rebounder.

1. Tricep dips off edge of rebounder
2. Knee push ups on rebounder
3. On all 4s on top of rebounder do bird dogs
4. Still on all 4s on rebounder, extend one leg out straight behind you and do small circles
5. Repeat #4 on other leg
6. Lay on your back on rebounder, hands holding the rebounder frame behind your head and legs extended straight to ceiling, in this position do straight leg reverse crunches, pushing flexed feet up to ceiling
7. Still laying on rebounder, legs still extended straight to ceiling but arms are on rebounder mat at sides now and head/neck/shoulders are raised, alternate raising and lower legs (scissoring legs)
8. Still on back on rebounder, one leg is bent with foot on frame of rebounder, hands are behind head, bring one knee into chest and touch elbow of opposite arm to knee then extend leg out straight
9. Hold hands behind knees (knees are bent and feet raised off mat) and rock body in this position; straighten legs and grab ankles or calves while continuing to rock (when you are rocked onto your bottom you are in boat pose); continue rocking but at top of rock hold boat pose for a few seconds
10. In bent knee boat pose alternate pushing legs out straight

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