RevAbs-Fire up Your Abs

Fire up your Abs is a great workout for your upper body and obviously your abs.  It consists of 5 workouts and 3 rounds.  It lasts about 40 minutes and is a great workout to do in the morning.  I usually do my workouts in the morning and I like this one because it’s not so cardio focused and more strength focused.  The warm up is usually the same for all the workouts and it is a little leg stretching and jumping jacks.  With P90x it was necessary to focus on the warm up because it was way more intense on every workout but with RevAbs your focusing more on your core and stretching isn’t the focus its just trying to get the heart pumping. 

The first workout is Plank and it is a push up position with your forearms flat on the ground.  The point is to focus on squeezing your abs and keeping your back straight.  Now when I first did this I thought it was too easy and never felt a burn but I was putting all the pressure on my arms and not by abs.  This workout lasts a minute and then you move onto cobra.

Cobra is an exercise that focuses on your back because if you don’t have a strong back then you will not have good abs.  All your doing is laying on you stomach with your feet together and lifting your upper body off the ground.  You take your arms and form a U like shape and hold it for a minute.  I was used to this move because In Yoga X Tony had us do so many plank to chaturanga’s  that it was fairly easy for me.  The only burn I got from this exercise was my shoulders from holding my arms up and I had a little trouble controlling my breathing. 

Dumbbell Jackknife is next and probably my favorite of this workout.  You get a really good burn on the Abs and it also works on your flexibility and shins.  I get terrible shin splints from playing soccer and this exercise always relieves some pain.  So I use a 20 pound weight for this one and you pretty much lay on your back in a sit up position and put the weight behind your head.  You’re doing a weighted sit up and raising one leg at an 80 degree angle to meet in the middle.  The other foot stays flat on the ground for balance and a little help on the way up.  Brett has you do 8 on each side and trust me it’s pretty painful if you use a heavy weight so make sure you challenge yourself. 

Side plank is next and it’s a fairly simple exercise that works the love handles.  Its like plank as described above but with one forearm on the ground and your body side ways with one hand high in the air.  Your feet and legs on top of each other and keep your hips as straight as possible.  Its only 30 seconds on each side but after a few weeks the love starts to become muscle. 

The last exercise is striders and it’s a cardio move that works your whole body.  For 30 seconds you are scissoring your legs and arms from front to back as quickly as possible.  If you lead with the left leg then you lead with your right arm. 

 After the striders you take a quick break and start round 2 which leads into the last round called the spice round.  Brett adds a spice round to every workout and always does it during round 3.  The spice round is always the same exercise’s but with a little more ump!  I will give you an example, for plank instead of just staying in the plank position you rotate lifting your arms up in the air for a 3 count.  Not only does it kill your balance but your shoulders as well.  He adds a little extra burn so you can feel it more at the end.  I think every workout has satisfied me and I can’t stress enough how nice the workouts are time wise.  The 90 day schedule is easy and not as time consuming as P90X.  Remember that after an intense workout you should always give yourself time to recover and there is no better way to help with that than the recovery drink.  I’m hoping that my next 45 days will get me the same results as when I did the P90x program.