Today was the last day of Low Impact Round 2 for me, and because a few fellow Blenders have already asked about the program, I thought I'd write a review how I liked it.
I used the FB Plus stats and trackers to give you an overview and some numbers, to show how the program is built. One of its features is that you can choose between two different workouts on some of the days, which I absolutely loved! It was usually one "high energy" and one "lower energy" workout. For the stats, I marked the first workout of each day as complete, as the second one was usually described as the alternative.
The stats pretty much show how I experienced the program to be, so it was mainly level 3 workouts (ranging from very doable to "that must have been a level 4 at least!") but also several level 4 workouts, giving you the opportunity to really push yourself. Those level 4's were mostly strength workouts, however, the program also contains some (optional) HIIT. Either way, I worked up a good sweat on basically every workout day!
The ratio of upper body/lower body/total body/core also feels very "true to size". From my point of view, the focus was definitely on the lower body, especially during the first week (4 out of 5 workouts worked the lower body in some way). So, next time, I'll replace one of the workouts in the first week with a light cardio or abs workout. Other than that, basically all four weeks follow the same structure of LB, UB, cardio (+core), UB, LB - so you can see that the upper body wasn't neglected at all. There is no "total body week" as in several other programs - which is a plus in my opinion, because I'm not a fan of total body workouts. I only had problems with soreness in the first week, but for the rest of the program, my muscles always had enough time to recover until they were worked again. I decided to take up Florian's idea of adding short core videos to the end of each day that doesn't already work the core specifically. I always had a bit of energy left for that (though not that much!) and they worked sort of as a burnout round for me.
Regarding the different workout styles, you can see that the focus - surprise - lies on low impact workouts. But to my surprise, there was more strength training/toning than pilates. If you wanted to, you could increase the pilates portion or focus even more on strength training, which is what I did. Still, the program is very balanced, incorporating HIIT and kickboxing as well as low impact cardio and pilates. It provides a good mix that doesn't get boring!
The most interesting part of a review is usually what results the program gave me. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you, as I didn't do the PFT and I didn't take any before pictures or weigh myself. However, I noticed that my performance increased significantly: doing push-ups (even 3 full ones during the second to last UB workout, which is a lot for me!) felt easier and today, during the last LB workout, I was able to lift heavier than usual and without any knee pain (which I often get from bad form). I also noticed that I was able to increase my weights for several other exercises, e.g. chest presses, shoulder presses and deadlifts. So I can say, that my strength has increased and my form got MUCH better. I would also say that my endurance has increased - I usually notice that when I'm running for the bus each morning, lol. In general, I'm super happy with my results! I want to note, that I've been eating in a calorie surplus in order to build muscle, but I would say that LI R2 is equally suited to help you lose weight.
In conclusion, LI R2 has become one of my favourite programs and I will definitely repeat it after freestyling for a week or two. I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun and I was actually looking forward to working out - and I was almost sad that it was already over. I would say it's suitable for beginners as well as more advanced Blenders, especially because it can be adjusted in so many ways. I would definitely recommend it if you like strength training but don't mind a bit of cardio, but also if you want to focus more on the basics. It's basically the love child of LI R1 and Strong!
I would love to hear from others, who finished the program - what do you think? Did you like the program? How are you going to continue? Feel free to share! :)
Low Impact Round 2 - #ProgramComplete and Review
Hey everyone!
Today was the last day of Low Impact Round 2 for me, and because a few fellow Blenders have already asked about the program, I thought I'd write a review how I liked it.
I used the FB Plus stats and trackers to give you an overview and some numbers, to show how the program is built. One of its features is that you can choose between two different workouts on some of the days, which I absolutely loved! It was usually one "high energy" and one "lower energy" workout. For the stats, I marked the first workout of each day as complete, as the second one was usually described as the alternative.
The stats pretty much show how I experienced the program to be, so it was mainly level 3 workouts (ranging from very doable to "that must have been a level 4 at least!") but also several level 4 workouts, giving you the opportunity to really push yourself. Those level 4's were mostly strength workouts, however, the program also contains some (optional) HIIT. Either way, I worked up a good sweat on basically every workout day!
The ratio of upper body/lower body/total body/core also feels very "true to size". From my point of view, the focus was definitely on the lower body, especially during the first week (4 out of 5 workouts worked the lower body in some way). So, next time, I'll replace one of the workouts in the first week with a light cardio or abs workout. Other than that, basically all four weeks follow the same structure of LB, UB, cardio (+core), UB, LB - so you can see that the upper body wasn't neglected at all. There is no "total body week" as in several other programs - which is a plus in my opinion, because I'm not a fan of total body workouts. I only had problems with soreness in the first week, but for the rest of the program, my muscles always had enough time to recover until they were worked again. I decided to take up Florian's idea of adding short core videos to the end of each day that doesn't already work the core specifically. I always had a bit of energy left for that (though not that much!) and they worked sort of as a burnout round for me.
Regarding the different workout styles, you can see that the focus - surprise - lies on low impact workouts. But to my surprise, there was more strength training/toning than pilates. If you wanted to, you could increase the pilates portion or focus even more on strength training, which is what I did. Still, the program is very balanced, incorporating HIIT and kickboxing as well as low impact cardio and pilates. It provides a good mix that doesn't get boring!
The most interesting part of a review is usually what results the program gave me. Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you, as I didn't do the PFT and I didn't take any before pictures or weigh myself. However, I noticed that my performance increased significantly: doing push-ups (even 3 full ones during the second to last UB workout, which is a lot for me!) felt easier and today, during the last LB workout, I was able to lift heavier than usual and without any knee pain (which I often get from bad form). I also noticed that I was able to increase my weights for several other exercises, e.g. chest presses, shoulder presses and deadlifts. So I can say, that my strength has increased and my form got MUCH better. I would also say that my endurance has increased - I usually notice that when I'm running for the bus each morning, lol. In general, I'm super happy with my results! I want to note, that I've been eating in a calorie surplus in order to build muscle, but I would say that LI R2 is equally suited to help you lose weight.
In conclusion, LI R2 has become one of my favourite programs and I will definitely repeat it after freestyling for a week or two. I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun and I was actually looking forward to working out - and I was almost sad that it was already over. I would say it's suitable for beginners as well as more advanced Blenders, especially because it can be adjusted in so many ways. I would definitely recommend it if you like strength training but don't mind a bit of cardio, but also if you want to focus more on the basics. It's basically the love child of LI R1 and Strong!
I would love to hear from others, who finished the program - what do you think? Did you like the program? How are you going to continue? Feel free to share! :)