AngieFitnessTV: Rebounder & PHA Interval Workout

Rebounder & PHA Interval Workout was filmed live–yesterday! This review is posting later than that–but as soon as I saw it popped into my inbox I knew I had to re-arrange my rotation schedule to fit it in ASAP. There are two things I love–rebounding and total body PHA workouts. AngieFitnessTV combined my two loves into one amazing workout. I did it this morning and I absolutely loved it! Now, prior to Angie, the PHA workouts I did were created by Cathe, Fit Body by Julia and Kelly Coffey-Meyer. And I love those. I do have to add that if you are familiar with PHA workouts by those 3 trainers (most especially Cathe and Fit Body by Julia), this workout is not as advanced as their PHA workouts. However, as Angie points out, there are ways you can increase (and decrease) the intensity. Before I go any further, here is the PHA definition I add to all PHA workouts I review. PHA stands for Peripheral Heart Action. What this means in training terms is 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 up 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.

I loved this workout. Have I said that already? (o: It might be my absolute favorite rebounding workout to date and I love a lot of rebounder workouts. Angie said she burned 488 calories and “walked” 5,070 steps. My stats: 413 calories, 3534 steps and I was in my peak heart rate zone for 8 minutes. Looking at the FitBit graph for this workout, I was clearly in my peak zone during circuit 4 which was the most intense of the cardio circuits.

There is a problem with this video that the home exerciser needs to be aware of. During the final circuit, around the 58 minute mark, during crunches (#3 of Circuit 5), the video freezes but you can still hear Angie counting off your reps. However, once that exercise is done and she moves on to the next exercise, you will have to follow her verbal cues. It sounds like she is doing pull overs, which makes sense because you are doing back work. It is frozen for the next exercise as well, but again, from her verbal cueing you can tell what that exercise is (and I have listed them in the breakdown below). Angie gets it unfrozen at the very end of that exercise. So you are following her audio cues for 2 and a half exercises. Due to the nature of the exercises, I would only have glanced at the TV a few times anyway, so it really wasn’t a big deal for me. I knew what was going on and how to perform the exercises so it didn’t mess up my workout. But if you are new to strength training then that might be a problem for you.

I actually listened to the last 16 minutes of class after the workout was over, which was just Angie talking to the home exercisers/viewers. Apparently, some people have the problem of feeling like they are going to pee while rebounding. Thankfully, I have never heard of that or experienced it myself. But during the warm up, you have a pilates or playground ball squeezed between your thighs while you are health bouncing on the rebounder. According to Angie, that should help your pelvic floor and correct that need to urinate while rebounding. She also discusses it during the warm up but goes into greater detail afterwards. So, if that is a problem for you, Angie is offering a solution.

The good news is, my left shoulder is healing really well. It still isn’t 100% but apparently that is normal for rotator cuff surgery and it will take a long time before it is 100% but I am lifting a lot heavier. In fact, I am now able to lift heavy enough with my left arm that I am just lifting lighter with my right arm so that I can start balancing my strength out. So the dumbbell weights listed below are what I used for both arms but I could have lifted heavier on many of the exercises–at least with my right arm. But I am not complaining. My left arm has come a long way so I am very pleased with what it lifted this morning! I also wore an 8 pound weighted vest to increase the intensity.

One more thing before I move on to the breakdown. Angie introduced me to a “light bulb” idea for how to make my dumbbells more accessible when doing her rebounder workouts. She had a step stool set up beside her rebounder that she bought at Walmart. She had her dumbbells and ankle weights setting on it so that she could get to them easily and quickly. That has been my biggest gripe about her rebounder strength workouts. You are stuck with one weight because it takes too long get off the rebounder, swap out your weights then get back on the rebounder. By the time you are back in place you’ve missed half of the set! I set up my full step at 14 inches behind my rebounder. I needed so many weights I also had to also set up a chair beside it–but there they were! Easy access to all of the dumbbells I needed for this workout–5 through 20 pound dumbbells plus my ankle weights. What an excellent idea! I will now be doing that will all of Angie’s rebounder strength workouts.

Rebounder & PHA Interval Workout is 65 minutes. However, the video timer shows it is an 1 hour and 26 minutes (1:26:19) but that’s because this workout was filmed live. The first 5 minutes of the workout is Angie talking while home exercisers are logging on. And the final 16 minutes is Angie talking to the home exercisers who worked out with her (answering questions, etc). In the first 5 minutes Angie does give you information about the equipment you will need for this workout but you can scrub through it if you are reading this because I am listing all of the equipment needed in this review. Equipment: rebounder, various dumbbells (Angie uses 8 and 10 pound dumbbells, I used 5-20 pound dumbbells), pilates or playground ball and ankle weights (Angie wore 2.5 pound ankle weights and I wore 3 pound ankle weights). I also wore an 8 pound vest. And something set up near your rebounder to set your dumbbells on so you get at them quickly and swap them out quickly (step stool, high step, etc). For the warm up, you will place the pilates/playground ball between your thighs. The warm up is 9:30 minutes. At the end of the warm up you will put on your ankle weights. The workout ends with a 5 minute cool down/stretch.

Circuit 1 (PHA) (put on ankle weights):

1. Alternating bicep curls (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used 12# DBs)
2. Wide squat (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
3. Overhead tricep extension (French press) (Angie is using one 10# DB; I used one 20# DB)
4. Raise and lower straight leg behind you (hold T bar if you have one)
5. Wood chops (Angie calls them “core rotations”) (one 10# DB)
6. Alternating hammer curls (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used 12# DBs)
7. Squats with feet hip width apart (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
8. Tricep dips of edge of rebounder (hands are on rebounder frame, feet on floor)
9. Get on all 4s on rebounder, extend one leg straight behind you, raise and lower straight leg
10. (remove ankle weights and set aside) Stand on rebounder, legs wide, arms bent with elbows near waist and hands near shoulders, rotate torso side to side

Circuit 2 (rebounding cardio):

1. Scissor run, punching arms overhead
2. Jumping jacks
3. High knee runs
4. Butt kick runs
5. Repeat #1-4
6. Wide high knee runs (Angie calls them tick tocks and humpty dumptys)

Circuit 3 (PHA) (put on ankle weights):

1. Chest flys lying on rebounder (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used 12# DBs)
2. Lay on side and do side straight leg raises
3. Kneeling side lateral raises (Angie is using 8# DBs; I used 5# DBs)
4. (still kneeling) Alternating overhead press (Angie is using 8# DBs; I used 10# DBs)
5. Get on all 4s on rebounder, extend one arm and opposite leg out straight behind you, bring knee and elbow under body, tapping knee to elbow, then extend them both straight again
6. Push ups on rebounder (knees on canvas and hands on frame)
7. Lay on one hip, top knee is bent with foot on rebounder, bottom leg is straight, raise and lower straight leg
8. (kneel on rebounder) Holding one DB in both hands, do straight arm front raises, raising DB from thighs to overhead; she speeds up the tempo and you only raise the DB to forehead level (one 10# DB)
9. Stand on rebounder, alternating knee raises, touch opposite elbow to knee when it raises

Circuit 4 (rebounding cardio intervals: 40 seconds of work + 20 seconds of recovery) (remove ankle weights):

1. Air jack jumps (no arms)
2. Jump and bring feet together when in the air, heels touching, knees turned out to sides
3. Tuck jumps
4. In split stance, jump opening legs wider when jumping (like a scissor jump)
5. Repeat #4 with legs swapped
6. Repeat #1-3
7. Fast 180 turn jumps; changes to jumping side to side

Circuit 5 (PHA) (place pilates/playground ball between thighs):

1. Double arm bent over back row (Angie used 10# DBs; I used 15# DBs)
2. Lay on back on rebounder, knees bent and feet on frame (ball still between thighs), place DBs on hips, raise and lower hips in bridge (I placed one 20# DB on my hips as well)
3. (still in same position as #2, ball between knees, but set DBs aside) Place hands behind head and do basic crunches
4. **See note above, the video freezes during #3 but the audio is still going** Pull overs (Angie is using 10# DBs; I used one 20# DB)
5. **Video still frozen, so its all audio) Single leg bridges (ball is still between knees, so it must have stayed there for #4 as well)
6. (video is back!) Still laying on back on rebounder, ball is still between knees, do reverse crunches, bringing knees into chest and lowering legs so toes almost touch the floor
7. (ball is still between knees) Straight arm plank with hands on rebounder frame and feet on floor; slowly drop knees almost to floor then straighten legs; move hands so they are on rebounder canvas and continue dropping knees to floor and straightening legs

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