My Basement Gym

Today I tried out Jari Love’s newest workout – Get Extremely Ripped. Now, this isn’t my favorite type of workout, and I knew as much before I bought it. I’ll try to be fair during the review, but keep in mind that I prefer lower rep/high weight workouts vs this low weight, high rep, muscle endurance circuit workout.

I considered splitting this into two workouts, and plan to do that the next time I use this one. I did the whole thing today, and it’s actually about 80 minutes, not 60 minutes like I thought it would be. Four minute warm up, two 30 minute routines, and 15 minutes for abs and stretch! It was doable, but not what I had in mind today. I’m glad it’s done!

Jari is more relaxed in this one, smiling, laughing, and making jokes. She also walks around a few times, but I found that sort of distracting at times. But she didn’t do that very much. The set is typical industrial Jari-like and the music is what you would expect too. Some of the music had an awesome beat that I loved (circuit 2), and some of it wasn’t as catchy. Most of it though, I didn’t notice either way – as I was trying to keep the combos straight, heh.

Jari has 5 people with her (one guy), and the back 3 exercisers use the step, which I didn’t even notice until after we started. Weights used are shown, this time with the size of each dumbbell, instead of combined weight like she sometimes uses. With the tempo of this one most people will probably only need 2-3 sets of dumbbells, once you figure out a good weight to use. I started off matching Jari, but dropped down about half way through. The combination moves used here are 98% simultaneous, instead of done separately, like in her RTTC . My heart rate was through the roof during this one, making me wish I would have worn my HR monitor! I could tell just by my breathing and sweat, however. I had to march in place at the end of some of the more involved combos to catch my breath.

I wouldn’t recommend this one for beginners, or those with knee or back issues. There is little to no instruction on form, and nearly every move includes some kind of squat or lunge. Also, some of the combos could put stress on your back, given the tempo. A nice feature is that a 30 second count down timer pops up at the end of each circuit, so you know when the end is near, LOL. One thing to note is that she doesn’t have anyone showing a less intense version of each move, or alternate equipment – like she usually does. She offers substitutions from time to time, but I missed seeing a modifier, like her workouts usually have.

I didn’t love this one, but didn’t expect to – given my preferences for heavier weights, lower reps, and slower tempo. And while I did have to take a few marching breaks, I was pleased with the fact that I was able to keep up with almost everything. I did have ceiling issues several times, which was kind of a bummer. Circuit 3 & 6 were very problematic with the moving around while doing overhead stuff with my arms. I tried to modify to get it to work, but ended up off tempo from the group and kind of confused. Hopefully I’ll remember to do this one in the garage next time! But, a solid circuit workout, that kept my HR high and produced an excellent sweat.

Below is the breakdown. The first description is the one that is on the bottom of the screen at the start of each circuit – and following that is my attempt at clarifying what you do, lol.

Warm up, using light weights: ~4min

• Quarter squats, various tempo
• Reverse alternating lunges
• Reverse alternating lunges with hammer curl
• Biceps curls
• Lateral raise (bent arm)
• Shoulder press
• Upright row

Circuit 1: ~6min

• Lunge row and stiff leg dead lift
• (Reverse lunges, sometimes combined with a row, at various tempos – then ends with several reps of stiff leg dead lifts)

Circuit 2: ~6min

• Pulse quikie squats with knee lift biceps curl
• (Traveling pulse squats, knee ups combined with biceps curls, back to pulse squats, back to knee/biceps)

Circuit 3 : ~6min
Pulse wide squats/Around the world and step up pec press
(pulse sumo squats, then add a front shoulder raise, moving into lateral raise position from there – all during pulse squats. Next combo – step forward (or up), add shoulder press, into a pec fly, back into shoulder press while stepping forward and back)

Circuit 4 : ~6min

• Triceps butler and side squat/anterior raise
• (pulse lunge with rear leg lift, add triceps kickback during leg lift, into a biceps curl on the way back. Next combo – side squats, then add front raise during the descent

Circuit 5 : ~6min

• Balancing act and side squats/lateral raise
• (pulsing knee raises, into a pulsing reverse lunge, then turn the knee raise into a front leg extension (kick). Next combo – alternating side squats with lateral raise)

Clock resets (workout 2 begins here, after the warm if you start here from the menu)

Circuit 6 : ~6min

• Clean and press and step knee hammer head
• (Two count squat, clean dbs up to shoulders, then into 2 count overhead press – you also add another squat when you return from shoulder presses to the start position. Next combo – Knee up, into reverse lunge with opposite leg, with a hammer curl on both movements. Then do all this with pulses! )

Circuit 7 : ~6min

• Moving side squat lunge back with knee shoulder press
• (Traveling side squats, shoulder presses with palms facing each other, then combine by doing side squats, shoulder presses, and knee raises)

Circuit 8 : ~6min

• Horizontal rows and narrow squats
• (bend forward into sort of a dead lift start, then add sort of a back row while you stand up, using two different palm positions. Next combo – pulsing narrow squats, then add an alternating knee up in between each squat)

Circuit 9 : ~6min

• Reverse flies and overhead triceps extensions
• (Bent over reverse fly, standing up at the end, then add a rear leg lift during the fly. Next combo – overhead triceps extensions, then alternate with traveling reverse lunges (these two moves aren’t done simultaneously))

Circuit 10 : ~6min

• Pushups and plank/abs
• (push ups (12), plank (~25 sec), stretch (~10 sec), push ups (16), plank (~40 sec), push ups (~14), stretch (~10 sec)

Clock resets for bonus abs

Circuit 11 : ~15min
Additional 8 minute abs bonus (full stretch is after this segment, too)
(Crunches standard and with pulses, triceps push ups, planks, bicycles, then some kind of crab move where you are on you elbows and feet, chest up, glutes off the ground – then alternate holding out one leg, while doing sort of a pelvic tilt, finish with oblique crunches with legs flat on floor. Stretch starts at around the 10min, 30 sec mark and is about ~5min)