Category: Sport

This is the fourth workout review from the Supreme 90 Day program.  All S90 work outs use a common warm up and cool down.

Work out: Chest Shoulders Tri

Length: 34:53

Equipment: Dumbbells, Ball

Format:

First set targets core muscles (2 exercises, repeat 2 times).  Then

3 super sets (3 exercises, repeat 3 times).

Review:

After the intro core set (which I think all workouts may have) it is 3 super sets.  The pace one notch below Frantic.  I call it “I think I may miss the train” (you know, where you are too embarrassed to run all out, so you do an awkward shuffle run while you hold your backpack still).  The demonstrators aren’t racing and they don’t transition between sets in the superset like triathletes so you can mostly keep up with them.  This was a great improvement over previous work outs reviewed so far.  I found if I did 8 reps while they were doing 12 I would be done with time to change my adjustable weights for the next exercise.

The sets were pretty good and the use of ball made it more interesting.  The shoulders and tris get a little more workout than the chest.  At one point the rashness of the production shows itself when all three of the demonstrators finish the second repeat of the super set, put their dumbbells away and look at the host.  They all share an awkward moment before he realizes there’s still a repeat left and tries to spin it like it was just them who forgot and not everyone in the studio except the one producer frantically waving his clip board off stage.  That guy still has hopes of advancing his career past infomercials.

Score (out of 10): 7

Compared to P90X:

Chest Shoulders Tri on P90X is ten times the workout this is, but sometimes you don’t feel like killing yourself.  Also the use of the ball adds some levity and I enjoy it.

 

I will try to keep the pace of the reviews at about two per week.  There are 6 more workouts to review.

-Steven Gangstead

This is a continuation of my serial reviews of the Supreme 90 Day program.  All S90 work outs use a common warm up and cool down.

Work out: Total Body

Length: 23:18

Equipment: Dumbbells

Format:

4 super sets of 2/3 exercises, repeated 2 or 3 times in succession with a brief demonstration before the set begins.

Review:

The fitness model Mark is Zack Morris on steroids.  His dad might be Laser from American Gladiators.  This work out had some of the same problem as Chest & Back where everyone is racing through at different speeds except one guy who is going normal pace and the 3 other people are waiting on him to finish Mark/Zack Morris is the winner of the “race”.  The demo before the super sets gives you at least a chance to catch up before the next one starts.  The model Mark is the most annoying.  He is the buffest looking guy out there and he’s doing clean & jerks with 15lb dumbbells so that he can rocket through.  If I had to summarize the workout it would be Cleans & Pushups.  There is the beginning core set with some crunches and plank core work, but each other super set has a variation of a clean (clean, clean and jerks,  clean jerk and press), a squat and a pushup and one plyometric move (plyo pushup, squat jumps, broad jump).  It was a pretty good workout.  Total body mostly ends up being back, shoulders and thigh which is an important set.  The plyometric was there just to make you a little more tired.  Overall I thought this was a good morning workout.  It lasted just long enough to break a sweat, but not so much that I’m going to sweat profusely for the rest of the day. The main reason I took points off was the pacing being so fast.

Score (out of 10): 5

Compared to P90X:

Similar to Legs & Back (except with cleans to work out your back instead of pull ups) and there was a little bit of the old Plyometrics.  S90 Total Body didn’t have enough plyo to replace the P90X Plyometrics.  If you hate pull ups and like cleans then S90 is the way to go.  I eat pull ups for breakfast so I give the nod to P90X.  I also like my plyo an hour long and separate.

 

The reviews continue.

-Steven

Today I continue my review of each workout from the Supreme 90 Day program.  Like all S90 work outs it uses a common warm up and cool down.

Work out: Core Dynamics

Length: 18:07

Equipment: Dumbbells

Format:

5 sets of 5 30-second exercises with 45 seconds break between sets.  Only one time through each set.

Review:

Pretty good core work out.  I expected of all workouts this one would use the ball, but I was wrong.  Nice variety of exercises and they were grouped well. There was a hilariously useless visual timer that counts down only the last 5 seconds of each exercise.  It just reminded you that it needed a more useful display like a CNN news banner across the bottom to show the current and upcoming exercises.  I would definitely do this again, maybe after a run or another work out.

Score (out of 10): 8

Compared to P90X:

Core Synergistics is very similar.  CS has more “fun” exercises (Superman…. Banana!) and is an hour long were as CD gets down to business.  I think I give a slight edge to S90 on this one because I don’t think a whole hour of core exercises is really necessary.  I’d rather do the shorter core workout more often as an adder to others rather than a stand alone workout once a week.

 

 

-Steven