ACE HiiT Series: Core HiiT

I was very excited to get this set as I am loving short (30 minute-ish) intense workouts. The DVD set has an upper body, lower body, total body, and abs HIIT workout one one DVD, and a bonus 10 minute ab and another 10 minute lower body workout, and a 20 minute yoga workout on a second DVD. For about $25 retail you get a great set.

Each workout is structured with a nice solid warm up of about 5-6 minutes, then five 4-minute Tabata circuits - four exercises for 20 seconds each (10 second rest), repeated twice, making up each 4-minute circuit. The first two circuits are repeated once (making up the first four circuits); the last 4-minute Tabata is not repeated. Lindsey provided a listing of the exercises in each workout.

The core workout is mostly composed of body weight exercises - lots of plank variations, repeater knees, squat thrusts, a couple of pilates style sit-up variations. In one of the circuits she picks up weights for weighted sit-ups. As I do a lot of plank work already with Horizontal Conditioning and as a more advanced exerciser, I found this to be a little too easy for me. I also thought there was more emphasis on strength in this HIIT workout and not so much of a cardio impact (depending on your endurance for bodyweight exercises, I suppose). For an intermediate exerciser this would be great to build endurance. I would rate the workout intermediate although with body weight exercises it really depends on how much (or little) energy you put into the exercises.

Chris works out alone in a studio for this 30 minute core HiiT routine. You will need dumbbells for workout. Chris provides modification options. Classic HiiT style- each exercise lasts for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest completed for 4 minutes followed by a 45 second rest. You perform 2 rounds of 4 exercises two times total, and then one final round of 4 different exercises.

After a warmup, exercises include: side plank, plank squats, standing side & front knee pulls, knee pull hops, weighted sit ups, gorilla walk, reverse plank jacks, bicycle, side plank oblique crunches, row boat, squat jacks, and concludes with a stretch.

I rate this a high intermediate. Love the core cardio combo and the sequencing allows you to give it your all. Chris is fantastic in this entire series, motivating, great form reminders, modifications, and cuing. Love the pace- not rushed but no wasted time. I received this dvd to review.