It’s here!  It’s here!

I am an at-home fitness junkie.  I lost 60 pounds without EVER stepping foot in a gym thanks to a variety of at-home fitness programs that I can do in the small living room of my condo in the city, practicing clean eating, and drinking Shakeology.  But before Insanity, the 21-Day Fix, and PiYo, I was doing Tae Bo.  I begged my mom to buy it for me in high school, and it was my very FIRST at-home fitness program that got me hooked on exercising at home.

So, when I heard that Beachbody – the creators of things like P90X, Body Beast, and Focus T25 – were coming out with a mixed martial arts program, I was ecstatic!  It’s called Core De Force, which it is so named because it is actually designed to work my #1 trouble area – the core.

According to Beachbody, each move, whether it’s a jab, a kick, or an uppercut, works your core from every angle.  The trainers and co-creators of Core De Force – Joel Freeman and Jericho McMatthews – call this 360-Degree Core Training, and I hear it’s more effective than traditional abdominal training to help you tighten up your entire midsection and carve a more defined waist.  Sounds like exactly like what I need!

Core de Force is a 30-day program, and it came with 8 different workouts on 3 DVDs that alternate Boxing, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai combinations, cardio spikes, and bodyweight training.  These’s also an Active Recovery workout for your rest day and a 5-minute relief workout full of stretches to help you prepare for the following day.  You don’t need any equipment for the program either, which is also appealing.  Perfect if you have to travel for the holidays or life in general.  The program also comes with a nutrition plan that uses the portion fix containers of the 21-Day Fix program, but I opted not to follow the nutrition plan.  I found my groove drinking Shakeology and being a clean-eating vegan Mondays through Fridays with decadent cheat meals on the weekends.  So, right now, I’m generally happy with where I am, and I’m in maintenance mode.

Anyway, enough background.  Let’s talk about my experience with Day 1.  Day 1 includes one workout – MMA Speed.

MMA Speed

• Length:  27 minutes.
• Number of Rounds: 6.
• Equipment:  None.
• Description:  Upper body- and core-focused, this Boxing-influenced workout is short – but packs a serious punch.

Learn It:  The first things I notice about this workout is that you are given the option to select either to do the workout or something called “Learn It & Work It,” which is 7 minutes long.  I opted not to learn it and work it because I’ve done both Tae Bo, Les Mills Combat, and some self defense in the past, so I had a feeling I could catch on quickly.  Plus, I’m short on time in the mornings, so the less I have to do, the better!  For the less coordinated, or people who are unfamiliar with basic MMA moves (like uppercuts and hooks), then I’d recommend starting with Learn It & Work It before jumping into MMA Speed.

Music:  Second thing I notice is that I am given the option to play the music that comes with the program or turn it off.  I normally listen to the music that comes with the program the first time I do it, and then if it’s generic music, I’ll opt to play my own workout playlist in the future.

Format:  There are six rounds.  A “round” is 3 minutes long, like a boxing round.  A round includes a one-minute MMA combination, then a 30-second cardio spike, repeat both the one-minute and the 30-second moves, then a 30-second break, during which the next move is explained.  Here is the format of the workout:

• Warm Up:  A short warm-up of the following moves:  jog in place, pulse side-to-side with a chest opener, pulse side-to-side with shoulder rolls, alternating toe taps to warm up the hamstrings, hip openers, and a torso rotation.
• Round 1:  Jab, cross, roll back, roll front for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of high-knee jump rope; repeat.  Here’s a video of the MMA conditioning move for this round:

• Round 2:  Rear knee, switch knee for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of up/down jab cross; repeat.
• Round 3:  Cross, hook, rear knee, switch knee for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of up/down hooks; repeat.
• Round 4:  Front uppercut, rear uppercut, hook, roll front, roll back for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of rotating uppercuts; repeat.
• Round 5:  Cross, hook, rear knee, double jab, cross for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of roll jumps.  Roll jumps always manage to get my heart rate up!

• Round 6:  Rear uppercut, hook, cross, switch knee for 1 minute, with a 30-second cardio spike of ground-to-fighter stance.  Ground-to-fighter stance is one of my favorite cardio spikes!  You get knocked down? Get yourself up!

• Cooldown:  A short cooldown of the following moves:  hip flexor stretch, calf stretch with a shoulder stretch, quad stretch, hamstring stretch, upper back stretch, and a chest opener stretch.

The verdict?  Day 1 has me HOOKED (no pun intended).  I love that this workout not only works the body, but the mind too.  It doesn’t feel like it’s choreographed, like Cize or Les Mills Combat does, but, similarly, you are learning some combinations, which requires some muscle memory, coordination, and agility.  I workout first thing in the morning, when my brain isn’t totally awake yet, so I feel like this workout helps me wake up my brain in addition to my body.

The workout also includes one person who is modifying the workout, so if you need to decrease the range of motion or take out some of the high impact for your joints, you can follow the modifier and still get a great workout.

Interested in Core De Force?  You have a couple of options to buy it.  You can get a challenge pack that comes with Shakeology, or a performance pack that comes with two of my favorite performance supplements – Energize and Recover.  You can also check out the base kit or deluxe kit.

Need support?  It just so happens that I coach people through at-home fitness programs, like Core De Force!  So, if you order the program through one of the links on this site, I’ll be happy to work with you to help you stay on track and plug you into one of my online accountability groups!

Have questions?  Comment below or send me an email at distilledjill@gmail.com!