21 Day Fix Lower Fix

Autumn leads this workout with 6 backgrounders one showing beginner modifications. You will need dumbbells or tubing for this workout. This workout is on disc one and is 30 min in length. The DVD has audio options.

You perform 4 rounds of 2 exercises repeated 2 times, each exercise lasts one minute with 15 seconds rest between. After a warm up exercises include side lunge & dip, squat knee raise, curtsy, calf raises, static lunges, plie, seated inner & outer thigh work, donkey kicks and a cooldown stretch.

I rate this a solid to high intermediate routine depending on the poundage used. You can easily adjust your poundage to fit your needs. I like Autumn and her instruction style. The exercises are all straightforward and easy to follow. I received this DVD to review.

The 21 Day Fix system is a series of seven workouts (plus several optional routines) plus a nutrition plan designed to change your body when followed as specified for 21 days. The workouts are led by Autumn Calabrese, who teaches each routine live with a group of approximately six background exercisers. In general, Calabrese sets up each move and then walks around the room, offering words of encouragement and pushing the class members to perform.

Lower Fix appears in the rotation on Day 3, and the theme (each workout has a theme) is "If You're Tired of Starting Over, Stop Giving Up." This routine uses two sets of dumbbells (heavy and light, although the latter are rarely used). One background exerciser uses tubing as an alternate, and another, Cat, modifies with no weights.

There are four rounds, with two exercises in each round; each round is repeated once before moving on to the next one. The brief (15 second) breaks barely allow enough time for equipment setup/a sip of water. The Warm-Up is EXACTLY the same on ALL 21 Day Fix workouts: Calabrese starts with a light jog and then moves through jumping jacks, side reaches, "windmills" (large alternating arm circles front and back), overhead reaches to either side, and alternating toe touches (3 minutes total).

The four rounds on Lower Fix are as follows:

ROUND ONE:

*Side Lunge

*Squat with Alternating Knee Raise

ROUND TWO

*Curtsey Lunge

*Calf Raises (heel lifts)

ROUND THREE

*Split (static) Squat

*Sumo Squat

ROUND FOUR

*Seated Leg Lift Front (with arm reach)

*Seated L-Shaped Leg Lift

BONUS ROUND

*All Fours: Bent-Leg Push Rear

All of the cool-downs for the 21 Day Fix are basically the same as well. This one is about 2.5 minutes and starts on the floor with child's pose (L-R), seated forward bend, butterfly forward bend, wide-leg forward bend, and finish standing with a quad stretch.

This is a review of 21 Day Fix, the Lower Fix workout.

This workout is led by Autumn Calabrese. She is a personal trainer and bikini competitor. With Beachbody, she created a system utilizing color coded containers to use for portion control and workouts to be done in conjunction. The review is for the workout only.

Autumn is instructing a crew of 6 background exercisers, two of which demonstrate modifications. One modifier shows using tubing instead of dumbells, and the other modifier shows how to make the exercises less intense. Autumn is wearing a sports bra that is topped with what looks like a cropped sweatshirt and workout shorts and the other backgrounders are also wearing athletic clothing. One of the background exercisers, Eugene, can be heard periodically making comments in the background. I personally thought it was funny rather than annoying, but everyone's perception of this is different.

The set is brightly lit and is meant to resemble a gym. The music is typical of Beachbody and is pretty non-descript and is not noticeably good or bad.

While Autumn says you will need at least two sets of dumbells for this workout, one light set, one heavy set, she only ever demonstrates the moves using the heavy set. For those modifying the intensity, you can choose heavy or light weights depending on the exercise. There is a background exerciser showing how to use tubing if you don't have dumbells. As some of the moves are done in the seated position, you may want to use a mat depending on personal preference. A towel and water are also suggested.

The workout starts with a warm up, then goes into 4 different rounds of 2 exercises, a bonus exercise, and ends with a brief cool down/stretch. With the exception of the bonus exercise and cool down/stretch, everything is repeated twice before moving on. The total workout time is right around 30 minutes.

The warm up consists of jogging in place, jumping jacks, windmill arms (both forward and back), side reaches (both right and left), and alternating toe touches. The moves in the warm up are repeated again.

Each exercise in a round is done for one minute with 15 seconds rest to transition to the next exercise. The rounds are as follows:

Round 1: Side Lunge to Back Lunge (heavy weights), Squat to Alternating Knee Up (heavy weights). This round is repeated. The first time through the right leg leads on the side lunge/back lunge exercise, the second time through, it's a left lead.

Round 2: Alternating Curtsy Lunge (heavy weights), Standing Calf Raise (heavy weights). Note that on the calf raises the last 10 seconds are a static hold. This round is repeated.

Round 3: Static Lunge (heavy weight), Sumo Squat (heavy weights). This round is repeated. The first time through the right leg leads on the static lunge exercise, the second time through, it's a left lead.

Round 4: Seated Inner Thigh Leg Raise (switch legs half way), Seated Quad Flex Lift and Sweep (switch legs half way). This round is repeated.

Bonus Exercise: Fire Hydrant Variation (first on the right leg for a minute, then the left leg).

The cool down/stretch is brief and consists of child's pose (forward, right, then left) forward fold, straddle stretch (center, right, then left), butterfly stretch, and standing quad stretch (right, then left). There are also very brief stretches for the shoulders and chest as well.

As demonstrated by Autumn this workout is a solid intermediate level. It can be made more advanced by using a heavier weight. There is a modifier and she shows the moves with no weight or lighter weights and showing easier variations that would make it suitable for high beginner/low intermediate.

Overall this is a good, solid lower body weight workout. It does cover all the bases and includes the calves which are often overlooked in a lower body workout. There are a lot of squat and lunge variations in this workout which may make it problematic for someone with knee issues.