CoffeyFit Raw: Lower Lift & Kick

Lower Lift & Kick is another YouTube workout from Kelly Coffey-Meyer. I was really excited to try this workout when I saw it. It looked like a ton of fun. Lower body strength training that contains strength exercises that I enjoy and lots of kicking–and I love kickboxing. It was not as enjoyable as I expected! It is a great workout but it was more challenging than I expected it to be. I have done strength exercises for a solid minute before (and longer than a minute) in most of Caroline Girvan‘s workouts but kicking at a slow and controlled pace, with a brief pause at the hardest level of the kick–for a solid minute? Not as easy as I expected. It is definitely doable, but it is fatiguing. Which is what makes this such a great contrast training workout. You do a weighted strength exercise for one minute then further fatigue the muscle group with a solid minute of kicks that target the same muscle group–again, done to a slow and controlled pace with a brief pause at the top of the kick. Because of this you do need something to hold onto to stabilize yourself. Kelly used the wall and I used a chair.

Though each exercise is done for one minute there is no set recovery time between each exercise. Kelly uses a timer to time each exercise but starts it at the beginning of each exercise. You do get recoveries between the exercises but they vary in time and none are long. This is a great workout and one I plan to return to. The only real drawback to this workout is the music. It was not motivating (the song My Sharona–never a favorite of mine–seemed to go on forever) and it sounds pretty tinny, unlike the full music in most of the other workouts I do. I suspect that is because Kelly is playing the music directly from her phone beside her rather than whatever system the other trainers have set up.

Finally, Kelly gives a suggestion to make this workout more advanced–add ankle weights. I may do that one day, but it was fatiguing enough without the ankle weights. However, I did feel like I could use heavier dumbbells for most of the strength exercises.

Lower Lift & Kick is 41:15 minutes; 1:50 minute intro, 2:25 minute warm up and 1:20 minute stretch. Equipment: dumbbells, a wall or chair to hold for balance, and something to elevate your heels with. Kelly is using barbell plates to elevate her heels (I used heel wedges). She is using one 30 and one 50 pound dumbbell. Below I listed the weights Kelly used for each exercise and the weights I used. If only the weight is listed than I used the same weight as Kelly.

1. Heel elevated squats (heels are elevated on barbell plates, hold one DB goblet style) (Kelly is using one 30# DB, I used one 40# DB)
2. Front kicks
3. Repeat #2 on other leg
4. Repeat 1-3
5. Sumo squat (legs are wide, torso hinged forward, hold one DB by bar with both hands) (Kelly is using one 50# DB, I used one 60# DB)
6. Back kicks (Kelly holds a wall for balance so she can get good range of motion with kick)
7. Repeat #6 on other leg
8. Repeat #5-7
9. Stand with legs wide holding one DB by bells in both hands, hinge forward into a deadlift, at bottom of deadlift drop glutes into a squat then return to standing (Kelly is using one 30# DB, I used one 40# DB)
10. Do a crescent knee and when foot is back on floor, twist torso down and tap elbow to the outside of the opposite knee
11. Repeat #10 on other side of body
12. Repeat #9-11
13. Alternating stationary side lunges (stand with legs wide, hold one DB in both hands by bar, as you lunge bring DB to foot, stay low as you shift to other side) (one 30# DB)
14. Side kicks
15. Repeat #14 on other leg
16. Repeat #14-15

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