Hollywood Bootcamp 4X4

Paul leads this 72 minute bootcamp workout in a cute brick room with 2 backgrounders. You will need dumbbells for this workout. There is no modifier but Paul offers plenty of modification options for most exercises.

Absolutely LOVE the structure of this workout!!! You do 5 blocks; each block consists of 2 sets of: 1 min cardio, 1 min lower body strength work, 1 min upper body strength work, 1 min core work, and 30 seconds of rest. All the cardio is straight forward and athletic, lots of bootcamp-esque moves included. Very well rounded and done at a great cardiovascular pace! A lot of the cardio work will also work the lower body (bonus) and he hits the core in a lot of the exercises! The structure really makes this challenging workout doable!

Cardio Exercises Include: jump rope variations, burpee- Mt. climbers, runners lunge to hop up, squat jack & air jack, and hopping lunge & squats. Strength Exercises Include: iron cross, squat & lunge, quick pushups to Mt. climbers, squat knee up to curtsy knee up, lying tri press, and progressive lunges w/ a bi curl. Core Work Includes: windmill squats, plank, sit up & knee twist, plank (or chataragna) w/ a lateral knee pull, and X sit ups. A warmup and cooldown are also included.

I would rate this workout a lower advanced workout. You can easily go at your own pace for each 60 second exercise-making it very adaptable to many fitness levels. Paul & crew appear to be using 8's but I used heavier and didnt have any issues with keeping up or my form. Great cardio, strength, and core work- absolutely love this one! The time really flys by! This is my first time w/o'ing out w/ Paul and I really like him & his training style. His cuing is good and he provides plenty of form pointers throughout. Cant wait to try more from him. Received this from a distributor to review

ABOUT ME

I consider myself a "barely-advanced" exerciser. For instance, I can make it through workouts like Cathe's HIITs or Cardio Core Circuit, but I pretty much feel like I'm going to keel over when I do them. I have been exercising with home videos for about 7 or 8 years, but only started doing advanced workouts about 2 years ago. Cathe Friedrich is my favorite instructor, but I am catholic in my tastes as long as the instructor has good form, decent cueing, and uses tolerable music.

EQUIPMENT NEEDED

At least one set of dumbbells: Paul and his crew appear to be using 4 lb dumbbells for everything, so that's what I used.

SET

A well-lit, airy space with blonde wood floors, one brick wall, and one wall that has wood columns separating bright white rectangles (frosted glass perhaps, or lighted scrims). There are 2 female background exercisers.

MUSIC

The music is a bit hard to hear, and I frankly did not really notice it much because I was working so hard on completing the exercises.

WHERE THIS WORKOUT FITS IN MY EXERCISE WORLD

Because of the speed at which some of the moves are performed, I was glad that I stuck with 4-lb dumbbells. This allowed me to keep good form and not tax my cardio system so much that I had to pause the DVD; however, it also meant that the weights were not heavy enough to truly fatigue my muscles on many of the exercises. That being said, this was a very, very tough workout. There was at least one exercise that I couldn't even attempt to do as shown (the Chaturanga climbers), which is unusual for me. I will be using this on days that I want a high calorie burn and solid cardio challenge, but also want to get some strength training in.

DETAILED SEGMENT BREAKDOWN

(The DVD is not well-chaptered, so I am providing this as a reference for fast-forwarding.)

Warm-up

1:05-1:35 Knee-ups

1:35-2:05 Jogging

2:07-3:07 Squats

3:10-3:45 Jumping jacks

3:45-4:00 Shuffling feet

4:05-5:05 Alternating front lunges

5:13-6:11 Knee hug to rear lunge

Block 1

6:28-7:26 Double rope jump to a high-knee jog

7:42-8:36 Progressive front lunges (weights)

8:44-9:43 Bicep curls (weights)

9:58-10:57 Squat rotations (weights)

30-second break

11:28-12:28 Double rope jump to a high-knee jog

12:35-13:39 Progressive front lunges (weights)

13:42-14:41 Bicep curls (weights)

14:44-15:45 Squat rotations (weights)

30-second break

Block 2

16:15-17:15 Burpee/mountain-climber combo

17:33-18:36 Squat/front-lunge combo (weights)

18:50-19:49 Iron cross (weights)

20:08-21:04 Forearm plank

30-second break

21:41-22:41 Burpee/mountain-climber combo

22:51-23:51 Squat/front-lunge combo (weights)

24:00-25:00 Iron cross (weights)

25:11-26:12 Forearm plank

30-second break

Block 3

26:52-27:51 Starter block (deep lunge into one-legged hop)

28:13-29:13 Lateral lunge (weights)

29:43-30:45 4x4 Pushup & Run (mountain climber / pushup combo)

31:10-32:10 Crunches with side-to-side twists

30-second break

32:43-33:43 Starter block (deep lunge into one-legged hop)

33:54-34:53 Lateral lunge (weights)

35:11-36:12 4x4 Pushup & Run (mountain climber / pushup combo)

36:27-37:27 Crunches with side-to-side twists

Block 4

38:05-39:04 Squat jacks to air jacks

39:38-40:38 1-2-3 Booty (2 rear lunges and a 1-leg arabesque/deadlift) (weights)

40:56-41:56 Renegade rows (weights)

42:30-43:30 Chaturanga climber

30-second break

44:17-45:17 Squat jacks to air jacks

45:35-46:35 1-2-3 Booty (2 rear lunges and a 1-leg arabesque/deadlift) (weights)

46:49-47:49 Renegade rows (weights)

48:16-49:16 Chaturanga climbers

30-second break

Block 5

49:50-50:50 Double-run into a squat

51:15-52:15 Squat, knee lift, curtsy lunge (30 seconds per side, with weights)

52:41-53:41 Skull crushers (weights)

54:09-55:09 "X Factor" - basically sit-ups with knee-ins

30-second break

55:44-56:44 Double-run into a squat

56:53-57:33 Squat, knee lift, curtsy lunge (30 seconds per side, with weights)

58:01-59:01 Skull crushers (weights)

59:08-60:08 "X Factor" - basically sit-ups with knee-ins

30-second break

Bonus block

60:50-61:51 Squat crawl to pushup

62:10-63:07 Squat, overhead press, triceps extension (weights)

63:29-64:29 Hover squat with front raise (weights)

64:56-65:56 Plié squat with bicep curl (weights)

Cool-down

66:20-72:31

This is a circuit style workout that alternates 1 min cardio, 1 min lower body, 1 min upper, 1 min core, rest and do it again. There are 5 blocks that you do twice each and then a bonus 6th block that you only do once (thank goodness). The cardio is drill style without any choreography. Although the cardio is only for 1 minute, my HR stayed up until we got to the core exercises.

I absolutely love this workout. I found it very challenging (which isn't usually the case with a circuit style workout for me). The time went quickly because the exercises change every minute (I can do anything for a minute). I felt I got a thorough workout, brings on the endorphin high.

I consider myself an advanced DVD exerciser and I would put this in the advanced category.

Only con: Music is there for background noise, not motivation. There is a music off option.