Thursday, March 25, 2010

Amy Bento's A Team Bootcamp Review


A Team Bootcamp
Amy Bento, 2006 

This is a 50/50 cardio strength workout led by Amy Bento. She is working out in a nice pale yellow room with 3 background exercisers. The workout is divided up into six "drills" each drill has 2 minutes of TOUGH cardio followed by a short recovery period, and then 2 one minute strenght moves. For this workout you will need various dumbbells, a step bench, a stability ball, resistance tubing (could easily sub dumbbells), and they use a barbell (I just used heavy dumbbells).


The cardio is TOUGH and its a nonstop two minutes. She does flying cutsey lunges -touching the floor w/ your hand, a "river dance" move (jumping up and criscrossing your legs), jumping onto and off of the step, and other explosive anaerobic cardio moves. The good news is she gives you a recovery phase after the 2 minutes of cardio-side steps usually.

The cardio moves were UNIQUE, fun, and did I mention tough. There is nothing dancy or hard to follow. They are straight forward athletic (bootcamp-esque) cardio moves.

The strength work was also unique and effective! She thoroughly hits the legs & buns with a squat while kindof bouncing on the ball, a 1 legged deadlift, a unique lunge move while moving the dumbbell around your knee, etc., She does a side plank with your feet on the step, and nice standing ab work in addition to some upper work. I enjoyed the strength moves as well. She does incorporate stretching throughout the dvd after each strength segment.

This workout is clearly advanced in cardio and stregth work but like I said there is recovery & stretching time so I didnt feel like I was going to die or anything. LOVE this workout!!!! I would say this a must have for an Amy fan or a bootcamp fan. AWESOME and unique. Tough but still fun! Her cueing is spot on, I was never left wondering what to do and she has poundage rec's throughout. (happy to say I matched her poundage!)

7 comments:

  1. I steam artichokes for 45 minutes in a steamer or you can put them in water and boil them for the same time. Then after they are cooled off, you take each leaf off and dip it in your favorite dip and eat the soft end part of the artichoke. Kind of pull it through your bottom teeth. Weird description..but its really yummy. Once you get to the artichoke heart, take off the hairs 0r furry part..lol and smother with the last bit of your dip and eat it. This is the best part. I'm going to make one tonight with some baked yams. Yummy!

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  2. thanks for the tip! I will def try that :) Looking forward to them...

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  3. I used to cook artichokes in the oven in a baking dish with about an inch of water in the bottom. I even bought some special artichoke holders to keep them upright. Haven't had them in years. Hmmm... maybe I should dust off the recipe.

    That LOLcat of poor Harry in his tuxedo is hilarious!

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  4. http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=2012

    This sounded good to me - haven't tried it yet though!!

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  5. thank you ladies for the artichoke ideas! I will do some experimenting this weekend :)

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  6. Brad loves artichokes. He does something similar to what everyone said here. I think he adds some spices, bakes it in the over and dips it in like garlic butter or something along those lines.

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  7. I steam them to soften them up, then stuff the 'leaves' with homemade breadcrumbs, and bake them. Breadcumbs are made with grated white and wheat bread, chopped fresh parsley, chopped fresh garlic (lot's of garlic!)freshly grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and a splash of EVOO. YUMMO!!!!! (Yes, I am a huge Rachael Ray fan!) :)

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