Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30 DVD Review {Weekly Workout Recap}

Hello, hello!

Since I’m making sure to hold myself accountable while I’m on the east coast visiting with family and friends, I’m back with a recap of my workouts last week.  I stayed put a lot more than my crazy week prior to that – though I did have a girls’ night out in NYC (more on that to come!). Without mountains to climb and my usual fitness studios around, and with a lot of people to spend time with, it has been the Jillian Michaels’ DVD show around here.

Sunday I did a 30-minute Jillian Yoga Inferno DVD with my mom. This was the day after my best friend’s wedding festivities and I was feeling pretty sluggish, so I was happy I squeezed any movement in at all.

Monday morning I did a 20-minute workout via Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD, and in the evening I did a 30-minute FitnessGlo HIIT workout.

Tuesday I did week 4 of Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30 DVD (30 minutes), plus a 20-minute Jillian Michaels cardio kickboxing video focusing on upper body.

After working and playing with my nephews all day on Wednesday….

…Wednesday night I went to a yoga class…taught by my sister! She has earned her 200-hour yoga certification since I was last home, and it was fun to get to take one of her classes while I’m here. Being a yogi must run in the family, because my grandpa has also taught it for many years!  

Thursday I did week 3 of the Jillian Ripped in 30 workout (30 minutes), along with another one of her kickboxing workouts – this time a 20 minute lower body routine.

Friday I had a rest day, and napped instead of working out… which was much needed after I was up until 4 AM drinking cocktails and catching up with a girlfriend of mine in NYC!

Saturday I got a nice long workout in. I went on a 20-minute walk with my parents’ dog, my mom and nephew Danny, and did weeks 2 and 4 of Jillian Michaels’ Ripped in 30 DVD (60 minutes).

As you may be able to tell, the Ripped in 30 DVD has been a staple to my workouts while I’m away from home, so I thought I’d share my review of it.

Like many Jillian Michaels’ DVDs, Ripped in 30 includes workouts that follow a 3-2-1 interval system: 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio & 1 minutes of abs. Each video is 24-minutes long, and the DVD includes 4 workouts. Each workout gets progressively more challenging, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Each routine leaves me nice & sweaty!

While I burn around the same amount of calories for each routine according to my heart rate monitor watch – between 180-230 for each workout – some of the moves are definitely more challenging in the later workouts. Each workout is a total body routine, which is nice if you like getting in a quickie workout that works all the major muscles, but not beneficial if you prefer to focus on certain body parts on different days.

For example, the exercises go from being moves like jumping rope in the first few workouts, to double jump rope in the later workouts; and squat thrusts in an  earlier workout to burpees in one of week 4’s cardio intervals. As per usual, the workouts have some unique moves and sequences. I think that Jillian likes switching it up and getting creative with her workouts sometimes!

I’ve been doing all of the routines, but naturally since I like to torture myself, my favorite is the hardest one – week 4. Jillian refers to it as “the mother of all workouts” and I have to agree that it is a big booty kicker!

While a few of the moves are a little awkward to do, overall I love the Ripped in 30 DVD workouts. I own a lot of Jillian Michaels’ DVDs, and this is one of my favorites thus far!

Tell me… Have you ever done workouts from the Ripped in 30 DVD? What’s one of your go-to workouts lately?