Here at Extreme Fitness Results we’ve been talking about RevAbs and Brett Hoebel for some time, eagerly anticipating its release and trying to compare it to other workouts like INSANITY or P90X. We’ve been asking questions like, ‘How will it compare to P90X’s Ab Ripper X’, or ‘Will the cardio be as intense as Shaun T’s?’ I’ve been reading and doing a lot of research on Brett and his workout philosophy, and have become quite impressed with his approach. His blending of his biomedical background with his 15 y ears of coaching experience along with the fact that NY Magazine named his RevAbs class in NYC the #1 class to take in Manhattan—twice—made me sit up and take notice. So two days ago I took home one of the DVD’s and put myself through the workout.
First off—first impression, right out the door—Brett Hoebel is just a plain, good guy. This impression was confirmed throughout the length of the 45 minute workout, that he’s sincere, easy going and yet has a strangely disarming and kidding sense of humor that makes it fun to listen to him. Now, all successful coaches have to be charismatic and engaging to make these at-home dvd’s work, but it struck me from the outset just how earnest Brett is about this program. This dedication when coupled with his smile and the encouragement he sends your way through the screen had me grinning goofily when others might have left me cold.
The second thing was that the workout was deceptively easy at first. After doing the jumping jack warm ups, we slid into a routine involving plank positions, double flexion crunches, lunging striders and the like, and I recall thinking that this was not going to be as challenging as I thought. Brett pauses between each exercise to explain the next step, which actually results in intermittent but constant downtime for you to recover in. The pressure wasn’t always kept in the red—you actually had time to catch your breath back, and begin to think that this was going to be relatively easy.
But by the third round, and having participated in the Rev Zone each time, having incorporated the ‘spice’ variations into my exercises to make them harder, I was slicked with sweat. Brett informed me that this was just an intro set of workouts meant to fire my abs, that this was but the first phase and things would get much harder, and as I stood there with sweat literally dripping off my nose, I realized that this workout was not going to be a walk in the park.
Especially the next day. My abs felt that slight, good burn the whole day through, by not just my six pack. My obliques were sore, my lower abs were burning, it was the whole package. And the day following, the second day after my workout? Man. I could REALLY feel it then. And that’s when I really began to appreciate Brett’s method of targeting your abs from every angle. That workout, which had felt deceptively easy at first, had worked on my entire core, revolving around each muscle group with each routine, never overloading one set to failure but bring them all up to a red hot intensity level so that by the end of the third round and the 45th minute I was wiped and my core was blasted.
Am I excited about Brett Hoebel’s RevAbs? You bet I am. Am I going to try the next workouts when they arrive? Yep. Because between Brett’s winning personality and the confidence I feel in his approach, I think good results are practically guaranteed.
Nice review, I will trying out Revabs next week. Thanks