Focus T25: Alpha Cardio

I'm not really new to working out, but I've kind of been ignoring my cardio lately. I started running about 2 years ago, but I injured my shins and took off a while. I moved into doing some kettlebell workouts and did some of the P90X3 workouts. I ended up on the Beachbody web page and the Focus T25 program looked interesting. I managed to come up with the Alpha Cardio workout and gave it a shot. The idea behind this program is to put an hour workout into less that 30 minutes. I'm not sure if Shaun T. has met this goal, but he has put a great workout into 25 minutes.

The first thing that you need to know about Focus T25 is that there is a modifier for each exercise. Second is that Shaun T. doesn't give you any breaks. If you need a break, you switch over to the modified exercise.

The Focus T25 program schedule is supposed to take 2 months to complete. I consists of 3 different levels, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Each level is more difficult. In each level are 5 different workouts. Each week you complete 1 workout on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is intended to be 2 workouts for an hour total. The program also comes with a nutrition guide to help you drop weight.

Alpha Cardio is the first workout of the program. This starts out with a slow high knee "march." I was surprised at how slow it started. But this doesn't last. It progressed to a "march" on the toes, then to a slow jog then finally to high knee jogging. This is how the entire workout progresses. It starts with a simple exercise and works up to the final "difficult" exercise.

I did this workout this morning. I made it the entire way through without hitting pause. I used Shaun T's energy and motivation to keep going with the workout. I wear a heart rate monitor when I workout and when the alarm went off, I would switch over to the modified exercise. I was pleased to find that this gave me enough of a break to bring my heart rate back down.

I feel that this is a great cardio workout. I won't make use of the nutrition guide since I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories, but I think I'll be able to use this program to drop a couple more pounds and build my endurance, which is what I need out of this program.

Title: Focus T25 Alpha: Cardio

Instructor: Shaun T

Time: 25 Minutes + 3 minute stretch

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate/High Intermediate

DVD menu: Play workout, music higher option

Production quality: high

Equipment used: None

I am an advanced exerciser (Tonique/Dream Body are my mainstays) and I tend to rely on running, Tapout XT/XT2, and occasionally Turbo Fire for my cardio, and Firm cardio for lighter days. I knew T25 would be a little different because there are NO breaks (Tapout XT/XT2 are very extreme but there are tiny breaks between exercises as well as water breaks). I was hoping for shorter challenging workouts with a big cardio impact.

My first T25 workout was Alpha: Cardio which was quite high impact, and my feet wore out faster than my cardio endurance. The workout went by fast, and it was reasonably challenging - tons of high knees, jumping jacks, some jumping lunges - I enjoyed the high intensity but the impact was relentless. The exercises were to the beat although the music wasn't as noticeable as say in Turbo Fire. Also, this was more a steady state cardio than a HIIT style such as Insanity or Zuzka.

I was planning to do two T25 cardio workouts back to back, but didn't want to push it with my feet. I am hoping I'll get more used to not having breaks and for my endurance to improve. I just did a high intensity but low impact move when I felt I needed a break from jumping. The modifier really demonstrated more beginner moves; a more experienced home exerciser can just sub for more intense moves while still keeping it low impact, if need be. I could see how this workout would be well adapted to a rebounder since it relies heavily on hopping and not so much on plyometrics for cardio.