Body Bar: Energy Action Circuit

Body Bar Challenge, Master your Body, Energy Action Circuit with Mindy Mylrea

Workout Type: Interval Training and Body Bar. (If you like Mindy's CIA2101, and CIA2K02 this is just like those!)

Fitness Level: Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced (everyone will be challenged by this workout!)

Equipment: Body Bar (I used my barbell which weighs 10lbs and loaded it with 6lbs more... when the reps were so many I couldn't do them I picked up my dumbells, first the 7lbs then the 5lbs)

Workout Length: 30 min. interval training + 30 min. circuit training = 1hr total

The Set: Pearl Burgundy walls, and pearl white walls, large oriental fan... (I never get tired of this set.. I love the colors!)

The Cast: Mindy Mylrea, Andrea, Stella and Jeffrey

Music: The usual Dynamix (in the fast segments they got some fast music that went well with it, unlike other tapes where she has to tell you to ignore the music.

The Attire: Black pants or shorts, black tank tops.

Presentation: It went by so fast I didn't even realise it was a workout! The fun factor is very high in this tape!!

The Warm Up: Marches, step touches.

The bar is on the floor horizontal to TV. - step touches forward and back accross it.

Then L-step - step touches (calls it ice step)

Double toe lifts in place

Roll onto toe then heels , then taps... incl..shoulder rolls then shoulder lifts. then reach around.

at 5.30 min. - stretches

The Workout NOTE: each Interval is approx 30 seconds!

at 6.30 min. - Put bar on shoulders and begin Interval training for 30 min.

Interval - 30 squats

pivot squats 28x each side

IntervaI - combo 1 : 4 squats and jump up - 12x

marches

combo 1 other leg leads

IntervaI - (at 12.45min.) 28x jump out feet wide then jump in feet together.

40 sec. rest

IntervaI - Shuffle feet to one side then leap back twice.

then faster

rest - 40 sec.

IntervaI - shuffles to other side

Alternating knee lifts

IntervaI - (at 16.45min.) Knee lifts with a hop

then alternating knee lifts again

IntervaI - Jumping knee lifts

IntervaI - 4 slow hop knee lifts 8 fast - 3x

cross one foot back behind other

IntervaI - Hop to one foot then other (like speed skater)

IntervaI - Hop again

IntervaI - 4 slow 8 fast hop one foot to other 3x

Bar is still on floor lying accross the front of you.

IntervaI - right foot crosses other side of bar, diagonal then left plus 2 hops

boxer shuffles side to side

IntervaI - (at 24.30 min.) shuffle 4x to one side then double foot hop twice - 8x each side

IntervaI - (at 26 min.) straddle bar 4x

IntervaI - add speed (football move)

marches

IntervaI - straddles with speed other foot leads

Andrea uses the bar as marker, she does NOT hop accross it. She does low impact throughout the tape.

Interval - fast run forward and back of bar.

IntervaI - repeat

at 30 min. She picks up Body Bar

Bent over rows with bar 16x

Bent rows while lifting one leg straight back 16x

Bent rows while lifting other leg straight back 16x

tic tocs

Militaries - 20x

Militaries while holding one knee up other leg slightly bends down 16x

then repeat other leg 16x

tic tocs

shoulder shrugs and shoulder rolls slowly

Bicep curls 16x then 10x with heel lifts

short pulses 30x

full range 12x

Triceps: bend arms above and behind head while tapping one toe in front (works shins)30x

same move other leg 30x

tic tocs then shoulder shrugs

Place bar on floor vertical to TV.: walk each foot on each side. (For Andrea the bar is a marker only.)

Begin Intervals again:

IntervaI - become a hop to each side of bar then run back

walk front straddle back

IntervaI - same move faster

IntervaI - hopups and crisscross feet

step straddle come back 6x slow then

IntervaI - speed up.

IntervaI - repeat other foot leads

IntervaI - straddle, come back double foot hop to other side of bar then hop in place once.

IntervaI - same moves other leg leads

Pick up Bar:

12 lunges 6 side lunges, 6 dips (same leg moves all 3)

then 1 front 1 side 2 back

repeat entire sequence other leg leads.

Pliee, jump ups 16x ( Andrea doesn't jump!) (Mindy encourages you to modify!)

Alternating lunge jumps or (Andrea does lunges) (This is tough!!!)

Hold bar upright in front of you, let go and let it fall to one side catch it with hand - 10 x

same arm Lat rows with Bar 10x

repeat other arm.

Pushups... then traveling pushups.

Core stabilisers - ouch!!

Stretches

Total Rating: I loved this tape... on a scale of 1 to 10 ... 10 being best... I give this a 10!

This is another Mindy video where her exuberance is contagious, but the workout is not for me. This is basically a boot camp style workout with Mindy's signature moves consisting of plyometric jumps, lunges, skater moves, run up and back, high stepping mambos forward and back and utilizing the bar on the floor as a guide for jumping over it and running around it. Mandy switches gears and picks up the bar for a series of sculpting exercises as well as plyometric jumps with the bar on your shoulders. I really loved her recent Intervals and Pump Party video, so I was somewhat disappointed with this one. The movements were revisited from other videos and were just there to get your heart rate up. Her personality is terrific and she is always encouraging. I just did not find the moves particularly fun or interesting. When she picked up the bar however and began to sculpt, then I enjoyed the workout. She incorporated balance moves with the sculpting and which became a real challenge. She stressed using the abdominal muscles (core again!) to help maintain balance. The end of the workout had a few very challenging pushups and plank variations. She always seems to pop in something new and fun at different points to keep everyone happy. Overall I would give this a grade B. It is a great workout for those that like boot camp type exercise and don't want to think about choreography or style. The moves get your heart rate up and she does them for a long enough period to get you into a fat burning zone. I am just tired of these types of workouts.

This is another tape in the Body Bar series and consists of fairly long intervals of alternating cardio and strength using the Body Bar. I have her CIA 2101 as well, and I don't like this one as well. Maybe if I didn't already have 2101 I would like this tape more, but as it is, I found myself wondering if I really needed Energy Action Circuit at all. The style of the cardio is the same, with bursts of intensity followed by recovery, and the strength work had a lot of the same "feel" as Pump Party because she uses the bar there as well. There were a lot of jumping squats and lunges with the bar in this tape which I didn't like, as well as a one-legged squat while doing military presses that made me feel like there was too much going on in one move! The music was a non-issue; whether because I couldn't hear it or because it was just your basic generic sound track. The intensity bursts in the cardio didn't seem as much fun as in 2101-those seemed to just fly by, where as here they seemed like so much more work. Again, maybe if I didn't have her CIA tape to compare it to, this tape would be fine-it certainly works you hard and leaves you dripping. But to me, the fun factor is just not there.

I finally did this tape this morning using my 18 pound bodybar and trust me, that was plenty enough weight. This tape is a 60 minute workout and is basically a cross between Mindy's Extreme Interval's and Pump Party.

She starts with a quick and simple warm-up with the bar on the floor. She then has you pick up the bar and get into squat formation. If you like squats, you'll love this tape because you do a lot of them. She ends the section doing killer plyo squats. This section definitely gets the HR going too.

Next is the cardio portion (like the squats weren't already enough!). This is typical Mindy cardio. The bar is on the floor and you do things around and over it. The intervals are very quick and don't last too long so they are do-able. A lot of the moves are familiar from her others tapes, like the football drill. No complex choreography here. In between the drills, Mindy has you walk in place to bring your heartrate down before going into the next interval.

After the cardio section Mindy takes you right into upperbody work. I did this with my 18-pound bodybar and it was plenty. Mindy says she is using a 472 pound bodybar, but I wouldn't recommend trying that at home. She works each body part with one specific exercise, but you do about a million reps so those muscles are getting fatigued. She also adds in some compound moves to each exercise. For instance, when doing bent rows, she has you balance on one leg with the other leg stretched out behind. When doing military presses, you are on one foot doing one-legged squats. With biceps you do calf raises (I think - my memory is going), and with triceps you work the shins.

Next is more cardio and legwork again. She brings in those plyo squats again and finishes up the section with jumping lunges. After the first set of jumping lunges, Mindy looks behind her and realizes her background exercisers wimped out on the lunges, so she decides to torture us and do them again.

The tape concludes with a few sets of pushups with a few variations. Mindy throws in a very quick plank section and a few Supermans to work the back. This section is also very quick. There is no abwork and the stretch at the end is short. Mindy does plug the other Bodybar videos, saying there are some good ones out there that fill the void on this tape with abs and stretching.

Overall, I really enjoyed this tape. It is an advanced workout and similar in style to Extreme Intervals and Pump Party. I will use this tape often as it is a good fat-burner and keeps the heartrate up through most of the tape. Yes, it is higher impact but the intervals are nice and quick and Mindy has you march in place after each one to bring the HR back down. Mindy is her usual chatty self, which I love. I actually had to stop two separate times during this tape because I started laughing so hard at some of her comments. The nice thing is that I was able to use one piece of equipment through the whole tape and was challenged, especially during the plyo squats and lunges, but even during the upper body section. So, if you like Mindy and her intensity, and you want a shortened combination of her Extreme Intervals/Pump Party, you'll enjoy this tape.

Energy Action Circuit is a tough, high impact, athletic Body Bar workout. Mindy has a 3-person crew: one man, and two women who use the 4-pound mini body bar and show some modifications. Mindy uses the 9-pound body bar. The warmup consists of very basic and rather slow moves--like step touches--but don't hit eject yet! It soon gets much tougher. The workout features athletic and sports moves, like fast feet agility drills, skating-style leaps, and plyo jumps with the bar. Mindy uses short periods of marching to bring the HR down a bit between intervals. The strength training segments kept my HR up. They involve familiar moves with some unique twists made possible by the body bar. There is a very brief stretch at the end.

The set is CIA-type Asian theme, with the color red dominating. I find it pretty. As in the other body bar videos, the participants wear matching black body bar
logo outfits. I like this look: it's sleek and not visually distracting.

I think this video is appropriate for high intermediate to advanced exercisers--depending on the weight of the bar used. I recommend it if you like high impact, athletic style workouts.

About me: I enjoyed Energy Action Circuit but found it too high in intensity and too high in impact for me. I use a 12-pound body bar and most of my workouts are at the intermediate to inter/advanced level, not advanced.