AngitFitnessTV: Cardio Step Body Bar Style

Wow–another kick-butt step cardio workout from AngieFitnessTV. I was ready for this one though. I previewed this workout and saw that even Angie was getting gassed. Cardio Step Body Bar Style is metabolic step workout. You start doing step cardio using a body bar then it changes to more metabolic work using the step and dumbbells. It was during this part that Angie kept swapping out her dumbbells for lighter ones and finally just tossing them aside! She did finally settle on 2 pound hand weights. This is a low impact workout. I wore my 6 pound vest and had my step at 8 inches. Angie is using a 5 pound body bar for the first part of the workout. I have a 9 pound body bar that can be separated into 3 parts. I removed one part, so my body bar was 6 pounds.

This workout seriously kicked my butt. Each exercise is done for 60 seconds and for some of the exercises, 60 seconds seemed like a very long time! This worked my arms and shoulders very well. It gave me some excellent and intense cardio. As with most of Angie’s workouts, it is what you make it. It obviously would have been easier had I not worn my vest, had my step at 6 inches and used a lighter (or no) body bar. As already mentioned, this is a low impact metabolic cardio workout. No complicated choreography but it will work you hard.

My stats: I burned 251 calories, was in my cardio zone 63% of the workout and spent 6 minutes in my peak heart rate. I walked 2,596 steps.

Cardio Step Body Bar Style is 35:26 minutes; no warm up and stretch is 1:30 minutes though #24-28 are technically part of the stretch. Equipment: step at 6 inches, a body bar (Angie is using a 5 pound body bar), dumbbells and a weighted vest or towel. As noted above, my step was at 8 inches, I used a 6 pound body bar, and I wore a 6 pound vest. I also used 5 and 2 pound dumbbells and my 8 pound weighted vest at the very end.

1. Basic step doing bicep curls with body bar
2. Corner knee with bicep curls
3. One basic step + one step with back leg extension; add reaching bar forward when extending leg behind you
4. Repeat #1-3 on other lead
5. Step on step with one foot and swing other foot over to the floor behind you on other side of the step, repeat to return to start + 2 knee pulls on corner of step, while doing this you are pushing bar forward and back and with the knee pulls you do bicep curls
6. Basic step with reverse bicep curls
7. Side step tap off side of bench with upright rows
8. Side step on bench with side leg extension + overhead press
9. Repeat #5-8 on other side of bench w/ other lead
10. Alternating knees on step, hold bar out away from body and when knee raises, pull bar in to waist
11. (get rid of body bar and grab DBs) One basic step on bench then on floor do 3 stationary side lunges to same side while bringing one DB down to foot when lunging and pulling back into a row at top of lunge (I held two 5# DBs in one hand)
12. One basic step on bench then on floor do 3 stationary curtsy lunges with hammer curls (halfway through Angie stops doing the hammer curls; I continued the hammer curls but I also had lighter DBs) (I used 5# DBs)
13. 2 basic steps on bench + step back into reverse lunge and do 2 stationary lunges on floor (halfway though Angie swaps out whatever DBs she was using for lighter DBs–5# DBs; I was still using 5# DBs)
14. Wide pile squats with bent arm side raises (Angie stopped doing the side raises after a few reps; I continued the side raises) (I used 5# DBs)
15. Repeat #11-13 on other side of body
16. Wide plie squats, alternate straight arm side raise with straight arm front raise (Angie takes a break from the arm movements about halfway through but then starts them up again) (I knew what was coming so for this exercise I swapped out my 5# DBs for 2# DBs)
17. (get rid of DBs–though Angie continues to teach as if her viewers are still holding DBs, so dropping the DBs is a choice) One basic step on bench then on floor do 3 side knee raises raising same side arm overhead and bringing elbow down to thigh when knee raises (I used 2# DBs)
18. One basic step on bench with arms overhead then on floor do one front knee raise while bringing hands together under thigh
19. (Angie grabs her 2# DBs) Narrow squats on the floor behind step, raising straight arms/DBs straight in front of you when squatting
20. Repeat #17-18 on other side of body (Angie has 2# DBs throughout this side and so did I)
21. Repeat #19 but this time she has you lift one heel while squatting; halfway through your arm position changes so you are lifting them wider in a V formation
22. One basic step on bench with arms/DBs raised overhead then on the floor, lower/chop arms/DBs down to one side of body while twisting torso
23. Repeat #22 on other side of body
24. (get rid of DBs and step) Drape a towel or a weighted vest over your left shoulder, circle shoulder w/ arm at side (if using the towel, it is draped over shoulder like a toga and you are holding the ends near the waist with other hand, pulling on it so that the shoulder is circling against resistance) (Angie used her 8 pound weighted vest for this exercise and so did I)
25. With vest/towel still on shoulder, drop head to side, away from vest/towel to stretch neck
26. Repeat #24 & 25
27. Remove vest/towel and circle both shoulders
28. Repeat #24-26 on other shoulder

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