Treadmoves: Total Body Sports Conditioning

Today I used another Treadmoves video - Total Body Sports Conditioning. While this workout is similar to Aerobic Cardio Blast, there isn't much for plyometrics in this one, so I found it much lower impact - though still quite challenging with plenty of variety. The entire workout is about an hour long, but the treadmill portion is only about 35 minutes. I enjoyed it, and felt like I got a very good workout from it. I still have plenty of work to do before I progress to the intermediate level with this one, as well as with Aerobic Cardio Blast. But, it's safe to say that I enjoy these enough that in the future I also want to add the other two Treadmoves workouts to my collection in the future.

There are four exercisers on treadmills in this workout, with two exercisers as instructors. Each person shows a different level. Having on screen numbers for speed and incline would have been helpful here, but it's pretty easy to keep yourself challenged at your own level without following one of the treadmill-ers exactly. Lynn, from Aerobic Cardio Blast leads the cardio segments, and Barb (also from Aerobic Cardio Blast) leads the weights segments. Lynn is a bit more serious and direct when she leads, and Barb is more lighted hearted with chatter and joking. While I liked each instructor individually, I didn't think their personalities meshed very well together, and Barb sometimes talked over Lynn. But, it's not a hard workout to follow, so it doesn't really hinder the effectiveness of the workout.

The intervals included are power walking, running, sprints, hills, and higher repetition upper body weights. There is also a brief section of rope skipping style jumps toward the end. I liked the weight work, but see it more as a cardio intensifier, as you probably wouldn't use medium or heavy weights for the arm work while walking briskly. It really made the time fly for me, though. Focusing on the weight work while trying not to bump my treadmill console made me sort of forget about the brisk walking. As usual, I had some ceiling issues with the overhead shoulder work - but just did sort of a 45 degree press instead. The upper body work is alternated in between the sprint and hill work, with a different focus each time. The other arm work includes biceps curls, triceps kickbacks, upright rows, and front and lateral shoulder raises. Like Aerobic Cardio Blast , you need adequate room on either side of your treadmill for the arm work.

Lynn leads the floor work by starting with lunges, so I stayed on the treadmill, turned the speed down, and did walking lunges - like those done in Tracey Staehle's Walking Strong. The lunge segment is close to five minutes, so I was really starting to feel the walking lunges by time she wrapped up the lunges. That is followed by push ups with Lynn and then Barb leads a nice abs and stretch segment. I liked this one very much, and appreciate the assortment of challenges it offers.

This is a great video for "mixing it up" on the treadmill. It alternates between walking, running, sprints, and weight work done while walking.

I was absolutely dripping in sweat once I was through with this workout, it is a great burn, and the time flew on the treadmill.

HOWEVER, the one really terrible thing about this video is the form displayed by some of the instructors. There were parts of the video where I was gasping at their form. Granted, I know better, but I really hope people who aren't as informed about proper technique don't get injured by following the instructors.

That said, I'm very happy with this video.

This 60 minute workout is intended for exercisers that are very familiar, comfortable, and perhaps even bored with their home treadmill. Not your typical treadmill workout, this video combines walking, powerwalking, jogging, sprinting, hill climbs and even weights all on the treadmill. It's led by two instructors who split the responsibilities of cardio and weights.
The total equates to approximately 3 miles total (depending on how fast you go). The weights must be light due to the moving belt and need for balance. Therefore, the effectiveness of the weights for strength is questionable. It does however increase the intensity of the workout and provide variety to reduce monotony. The downside is that the instructors are not always clear on what they are increasing- the speed or the incline, they mistakenly cue the inclines as"50%" and "75%" which most likely equate to a 5% or 7.5 % incline since most treadmills only incline to 15% max. Also, the audio is sometimes cloudy and hard to hear. Some of the weight exercises push the limits of reasonability and safety. The forward punches seem out of rhythm with the body mechanics necessary for treadmill power walking. The tricep kickback is barely effective due to the lack of resistance against gravity, and there is no place for home users to put their weights down, so they may have to stop to do so.
In general, this is an "ok" workout for an occasional change of pace. It's not for the beginner because of the need for high kinesthetic awareness, but it's not tremendously advanced either. Certainly, it's not as effective as straight running followed by a tough weight taining segment. It is good for an hour of exercise that focuses a little bit on everything including lunges, push-ups,abdominals, and adequate stretching.

There are two instructors and two other exercisers. The woman on the left (Barb) shows beginner level, the woman on the right (can't remember her name) shows intermediate, and the woman and man in back show advanced level. Barb says, "Yeah Baby" way too much. The first part of the video has music from an old Cathe video.

You start out with a walking warm-up with upper body stretches. You then move into jog/sprint intervals. I didn't like that they didn't tell me how many mph to increase. You just have to find a place that feels like a sprint to you. Next is biceps while walking. The woman on the right states that she is walking about 4.5 mph for the muscle conditioning parts. I felt that was too fast to keep good form, and I have long legs (6' tall). You then do more sprints and hills. Again, they don't tell you what percent incline to go at until they are already there. Then comes shoulders, and more hills, and finally triceps. I think you do one more hill, while walking, but I can't remember. There is also a skipping segment at the end.

There is a short walking cool down, and it's on to dips, pushups, and abs. The dips felt great after the running, and the pushups were tough.

It was a fun workout, but not one I'll do very often. You really don't get that great of a weight workout, and I'd rather spend that time working on my running. But, I LOVE the way cardio/weight workouts feel because my muscles are so warm. I always feel wonderfully worked out afterwards. My heartrate stayed up the whole time, but it wasn't super intense. I'd say probably intermediate level. You can the sprints and hills easier or harder. So it's a keeper for me!