Category: Sport

I’m reviewing Supreme 90

Warm up and cool down are common on all Supreme 90 workouts and were reviewed previously.

Work out: Cardio Challenge

Length: 31:07

Equipment: Dumbbells, mat (optional)

Format:

30 sec exercise, 30 sec off.  Repeat a lot. Light weights or just body weight.

Review:

This is my favorite work out so far.  I’m highly skeptical of cardio workouts because how much cardio can you really do in the few square feet of your living room in a half hour? Especially if you’re like me and regularly go out and run for half hour/hour at a time during the week or go bike for 2/3 hours at a stretch on the weekends? I was pleasantly surprised that with a light amount of weight you get pretty thoroughly worked out in Cardio Challenge.  The pacing is good.  30 seconds recovery and a good description of the next exercise gives you ample time to switch your PowerBlock or other adjustable dumbbell.  Good variety of exercises, this is more of a total body workout than the Total Body workout.  There are no repeats, but variations mean you come back and do a similar move but with a twist — that’s exactly how a workout should be.  I think this particular workout would be well suited for a runner.  With light weights you aren’t going to be jogging through a lactic acid burn the next day, but it’s still going to build up muscle so that you don’t get that emaciated striated runner’s build.  If you are trying to get huge ripped muscles: this ain’t it.  Go to Gold’s.  My only note/tip for this workout is to go light weight for most of the exercises.  This is supposed to be cardio, you aren’t doing 8-12 slow reps with a heavy weight, you’re doing 30 seconds fast (15-20 reps) with light weight.  Since the instructor gives really vague statements like “Don’t make it heavy this is cardio, but don’t go too light either!” I’ll give a specific example.  One exeercise is a bent over row, a move that’s also in the weight lifting work outs.  I’d normally do 8 reps with 30’s, on this workout I used 15’s for the 30 seconds (not sure on reps, 20 maybe?).

Score (out of 10): 9

Compared to P90X:

The cardio workouts in P90X are Kenpo X and Plyometrics X and to a lesser extent Core Synergistics and MAYBE if you are really liberal Yoga X (I never did Cardio X, so I can’t speak for that).  I’d say that these (Kenpo and Plyo) don’t really compare chiefly because they don’t use weights.  Plyo has a different focus so if I was comparing Cardio Challenge to one P90X workout it’d be Kenpo.  Kenpo was a great workout for me the first couple weeks, but after that I got used to it and my heart rate didn’t go up very much.  I don’t think I’d have that problem with S90 Cardio Challenge because I could always go from 10s to 15s or 15s to 20s (or a 2.5 lb increment if I feel like using the PowerBlock adder weights).  S90 wins this round.

 

There is only one workout left to review, Ultimate Ball (snicker).

-Steven Gangstead

This is the fifth workout review from the Supreme 90 Day program.  See the common warm up and cool down that workouts share.

Work out: Back and Bi’s

Length: 46:24

Equipment: Dumbbells, Ball

Format:

4 super sets (1 core followed by 3 back and bi).  Each super set is 3 exercises repeated 3 times

Review:

I learned something today.  In Supreme 90 speak Circuit is the term for Super set.  Following the pattern of not having a pattern this video has a demonstration cut scene before each set.  The pacing is nice and easy to keep up with if even if you are doing a real amount of weight.  I’m no super man, but the guy demo models are sometimes doing curls with what looks like 15 pound weights.  Aside from the core circuit the each set has two types of rows followed by a curl.  Ample variation and no repeats.  The way the ball is worked into the workout is usually by doing an exercise normally done reclined on a bench except putting your shoulders on the ball and doing the exercise from a bridge.  Very easy to imitate.  The trainer guy is starting to bug me by making lots of timing mistakes.  Almost every video he’ll make a mistake like saying it’s the last time through on the 2nd of 3 repetitions of the circuit or saying it’s the last circuit when there’s another circuit left.  Since there’s no progress bar like P90X if you were focusing on the workout you don’t know if he’s right or not.  This bothers me so much because it’s his one job and he doesn’t do it right.  Also this isn’t a live show, you get to do multiple takes to get it right.  Still the workout was good.

Score (out of 10): 7

Compared to P90X:

There is a back and bi’s P90X and it’s a killer.  Instead of one third curl exercises it’s more like one half curl exercises so your biceps swell to big numb basketballs by the end.  Also P90X B&B utilizes pull ups and rows instead of just rows.  This is extra killer because you can’t fake a pull up.  With a row you can do bad form and make it more of an arm and less of a back work out or cheat yourself and not do enough weight.  Not possible with a pull up.  But if you aren’t a pull up machine (too heavy, too woman) S90 is better.  I feel like I got more lower back work out with S90 than P90X on this one.  Overall P90X wins out for the variety and pull ups, but S90 is good when you have less time available.

Come back soon for the remaining 3 workout reviews.

-Steven Gangstead

This is the fifth workout review from the Supreme 90 Day program.  See the warm up and cool down that are common to all S90 workouts.

Work out: Tabata Inferno

Length: 37:47

Equipment: Dumbbells

Format:

6 Tabata sets ( A set is 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest X8, 1 minute between sets)

Review:

Welcome to the inferno that is tabata!

I sometimes liked this, sometimes didn’t.  It builds up a good sweat and I like the resistancy cardio-y aspect of it.  Two of the sets are just 2 exercises repeated 4 times (ABABABAB) and that gets really boring.  Those mundane sets make it hard to keep up the intensity.  The other 4 sets are 4 exercises repeated twice (ABCDABCD) and are much more engaging.  Minus one point for variety of exercises.  Many sets have repeats from earlier sets and by the last set all 4 exercises are repeats.  Also minus one point for organization.  All Supreme 90 workouts have the same warm up and cool down videos on the disc, but the TI workout goes ahead and begins with a warm up that’s almost identical to the one included on the same disc.  I thought maybe this was just a problem with editing and the warm up track wasn’t supposed to be on the disc, but at the end Phony Horton references the separate cool down track so I don’t know what they were thinking.

Score (out of 10): 6

Compared to P90X:

It’s got some leaping exercises, kind of like Plyometrics, but there are also pushups and some weight exercises, but it’s a cardio workout.  There isn’t a direct comparison.  Not enough jumping to fully compare to Plyo but that’s probably the closest.  Too much cardio to compare to compare to one of the resistance P90X workouts.

 

Come back soon for the next workout review!

-Steven Gangstead