Much to Manly Man Husband’s chagrin, I am putting another Beachbody fitness DVD to the test: Hip Hop Abs.
Since I don’t like the P90X “Ab Ripper” work out, I wanted to try something that would target the midsection. Bonus: Hip Hop Abs is also a cardio workout. As much as I love Tony Horton and Co, the cardio is getting monotonous.
Actually, in true As-Seen-On-TV fashion, Hip Hop Abs is loads of things. You get the Cardio Blast, the Ab Sculpt, and Last Minute Abs (a 5 minute workout) along with a few extra workouts like a Bun and Thigh Sculpt and what I call Last Minute Ass (really a 5 Minute Bun and Thigh workout).
Now I don’t necessarily believe that Hip Hop Abs is able to target the midsection completely. The charismatic Shaun T (who reminds me of a young Will Smith, circa Fresh Price of Bel Air) leads you through a series of choreographed moves that are supposed to incorporate his “tilt, tuck, tighten” method to strengthen the core. And for those kind of uncoordinated (like me!), it’s complicated enough just getting jiggy. Tucking, tilting and tightening may have to wait until my coordination improves.
What I did find, however, was that for a pure cardio workout, Hip Hop Abs was the better performer than P90Xs Kempo X. I really enjoy Kempo X, and it’s a mother of a workout. But, a (unscientific) heart rate monitor test showed that doing two Hip Hop Abs workouts (the 30 minute Cardio Blast and the 25 minute Ab Sculpt) performed better than the 55 minute Kempo routine.
My average heart rate was slightly higher with Kempo, as was the approximate number of calories burned. But the Kempo workout is so intense that it often pushes me above my anaerobic threshold. I am only in my target heart rate zone for 17 minutes on Kempo, whereas I remain in the zone for over 30 minutes on the Hip Hop Abs combo. When I am out of my zone, I am often over, not under, the target heart rate, which means that my training moves from aerobic to anaerobic (so rather than burning fat, I burn glucose stores).
For those in peak physical condition, anaerobic training is actually very good. But for fat loss, pushing past the anaerobic threshold isn’t terribly helpful. In fact, my estimated fat loss on calories burned was 30% with Kempo, but 50% on Hip Hop Abs.
There have been recently studies that debunk this training methodology, along with a new push in the fitness industry on High Intensity Training (essentially short bursts of hard training with short periods of rest). But I haven’t looked closely enough at that yet to make a determination.
While I haven’t been doing Hip Hop Abs long enough to see if the results differ from what I was seeing on the P90X cardio, my initial test has me curious enough to continue to substitute it on the P90X cardio days.
And the next time you see me at a party, I may just bust a move.
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