This is a continuation in my review of the Supreme 90 Day workout series.
One cost saving measure that I totally understand from a lets-make-this-on-the-cheap stand point that really gets in the way of my enjoyment is that every work out has a boilerplate (that’s good jargon) warm up and cool down.
This has an aim for the middle effect where before a leg work out you are stretching arms and after a cardio work out you are really slowly stretching out your calves. In trying to be all things for all work outs it doesn’t do a good job at any one of them, but here’s the review:
Work out: The Warm Up
Length: 4:19
Equipment: None
Format:
Lots of dynamic stretches. Starting on the mat and then working up. Gradually transition from stretches to calisthenics like jacks, jumping lunges, skaters etc…
Review:
Host Tom leads and 3 back ups try to follow. Occasionally they get out of synch. Not “I’m doing this at my own pace” out of synch, that’s fine. Instead they are “wait, what are we doing?” out of synch. One of the girls looks incredibly disinterested, the other one’s feature is that she is a flotation device, if you know what I mean.
I like the earlier dynamic stretches, they do a good job of working all the little support muscles of the legs. They would incorporate nicely into a pre-run stretch. There’s not much of an upper body stretch. The blood pumping exercises are good, but they don’t necessarily match with the start of the actual work out.
Overall I give the common warm up low to middling marks because if they expect you to do this 90 days you are going to need more variety.
Score (out of 10): 5
Compared to P90X:
P90X wins on this one, Tony takes the time to tailor the warm up to the work out it goes with. There are a lot of common elements, but on a heavy lifting day you get the blood pumping to the right muscle groups. Also, I like the continuity of the entire work out, warm up and all, being on one video track.
Work out: The Cool Down
Length: 5:57
Equipment: None
Format:
The Warm Up crew returns with more static stretches
Review:
The problem of the cool down not matching the work out is even more dramatic than the warm up not matching the work out. It is half legs, but more than half of the work outs are just upper body. While with an improper warm up you will get into the swing of things eventually once the workout starts with the cool down it’s more important to stretch out what you just pounded so hard. The cool down makes a bigger impact on how you recover the next day or two.
Also with this workout the transition from high activity of the work out to the warm up is “wait a few seconds for the next video to begin” there aren’t any transition activities to bring your heart rate down gradually.
Score (out of 10): 4
Compared to P90X:
P90X wins on this one too. Just worked out upper body? There’s no wasted time on stretching legs. Also being one continuous work out you slow down gradually and do a couple transition things to keep moving after you are done with the resistance.
I’m not biased, P90X doesn’t win all reviews. Check back soon for more updates.
~Steven