Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Les Mills Combat: Shock Plyo HIIT 2

Workout four on the Les Mills Combat schedule was Shock Plyo HIIT 2. This was definitely a solid workout with basic moves that worked your body effectively. Today's workout last 28 minutes. While called a HIIT workout, the segments were slightly less defined than in some HIIT workouts that I've done, for example the HIIT workouts in TurboFire. This led to an effect of more of a workout with segments, similar to the other workouts in the Les Mills Combat program.
Today's exercised were led by Rach, who I think is a good instructor. She's upbeat without being overly intense. She was a bit late on some of her queues, but I think another go through the DVD and this won't be a problem at all.
The workout started with a dynamic warm-up which featured lots of running in place. We also went through a sequence with push-ups into side t-stands (which they call side planks). This did a great job warming up my body. Rach and the lady that she had doing modifications did the push-ups on their knees, however, the men in the workout did everything full plank. I liked seeing the modifications. Because there weren't too many reps of this move, I was able to do the entire set full plank, which leads me to believe that most people could too -- my upper body is not my strongest part.
After the warm-up and plank work, we moved into a set of burpee inspired moves. For this segment, we did burpees without the push-up. (The move was squat, jump into plank, jump back into squat and stand.) The segment started slow but quickly built intensity as extra moves were added to after the burpee. First a drop squat was added, then a drop squat into a jump. This second move definitely got the heart rate up and was my favorite part of the workout.
The second segment featured lots of lunges. We did sets of plyo lunges with running segments in between. I always find lunges to be more difficult than squats and definitely felt that this worked my legs.
The next segment called for the incorporation of one hand weight. We did squats side to side with an overhead press with the hand weight. We then lost the weight and transitions into doing lateral hops into a squat position, followed by lateral skates. This section was one of the more easy ones for me in the workout.
To round out the half-hour workout, we headed back down to the floor for another set of plank and low plank work. Rach definitely had you holding a low hover position for quite a long time. We alternated this with floor sprints at half time. We also did push-ups into t-stands again. By the end of this my arms, especially the shoulders, were quite tired.
I definitely like this workout. It uses easy-to-learn basic moves and allows you to add intensity. I think it's somewhat of a misnomer to call this workout a HIIT workout; there were not set periods of hard work and then rest. They were much more fluid with the time and didn't count down the intervals. As a result, I approached this like more of a traditional workout than a HIIT workout. (I would say the same thing for the Power HIIT 1 workout as well.)
I'm definitely enjoying Les Mills Combat. It's much easier than Asylum, so it's a nice change of pace. I still feel as though I definitely get a good workout when I'm doing it. So far, I would rate the Combat 30 and Combat 45 workouts the most highly. They are definitely give the TurboFire workouts a run for their money. The HIIT workouts are probably easier than the TurboFire HIIT workout, but I say this more because they are not traditional HIIT workouts. I think they are a great accompaniment to the Combat workouts because they let you do resistance work with your body. In a way they remind me of a simplified and easier Insanity because they use the same idea -- do easy moves quickly and powerfully.
The only two workouts on the schedule I have yet to explore are the Combat 60 and Combat 60 Live workouts. These don't get added to the workout calendar until the second week of the program, so I have a ways to go.
I also still have the bonus Combat 30 Live DVD I got for being a Team Beachbody member that I need to try. As time allows this weekend, I might "cheat" on the workout calendar and try some of these workouts a bit early. I loved the Combat 45 workout so much -- it's been my favorite so far -- I'd be excited to see what an even longer workout brings.

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