Video Fitness Forum  

Go Back   Video Fitness Forum > Video Fitness Reader Forum > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 09-21-14, 10:33 AM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Hamelin D'abell Method - The 10-Week Online Course I and II

This is Hamelin's latest delivery method for his workouts. Starting September 1st. he is going to be filming one weekly workout, for ten weeks. He films the classes on Monday and sends out the recording Tuesday evening. The classes are being filmed at Egoist Body in London, which is a very cute and cozy space that he uses to film some of his toning workouts - both webisodes and customs. All of them will be around the one-hour mark.

The idea is to start with class 1 and move hour way up doing the toning workout 3 to 6 times a week with cardio as needed. All classes will be full-body workouts, sometimes with a body part emphasis.

Hamelin was kind enough to send me the links to the first five classes and I will write reviews/breakdowns of these as I do them. I'm starting with Class 3 today.

I did preview the classes and these are different than all other Hamelin toning workouts. He's there live with a group of three ladies and you get to see his personality a lot. They laugh a bit, the atmosphere is quite candid and you feel "there" taking the class too. He's much more "all business" in all his other workouts - I do like that and I appreciate it, but it's also great to have the taste of the in-studio class experience, virtually at least.

The classes have no music, as he's not mic'ed and he's cueing live.

He will be posting previews for all the classes on YT, these are the videos for the first three classes:

preview of class 1 http://youtu.be/VCmSn7WQJrE
preview of class 2 http://youtu.be/zWBtygQMS9c
preview of class 3 http://youtu.be/eW9Z15cmQcA


For more details about the classes visit http://hamelindabellmethod.tictail.c...m-class-course / hamelindabellmethod.tictail.com/product/10-week-hdm-class-course-ii-preorder

ETA - I wrote the reviews and breakdowns for the first five classes, and fuzzie is writing the next five for course I. I'll be adding the next 10 classes for course II downthread
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 10:33 AM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Class 1 - A little under 54 min.

Equipment needed: weights, mat, pilates circle, chair/barre (a regular chair is fine for this one)

Breakdown:

1. Short stretch for the waist, some plies
2. Arm moves in runner's lunge with knee on floor/stretch/set of push-ups (repeat on the other side)
3. Standing moves for the arms with weights (many reps! burns good). Set of side to side moves for the waist.
4. Two moves at the barre, facing sideways
5. Back to the arms (two Callanetics-inspired moves)/lunge series - all with weights
6. Side-lying series for the side hips (large+short ROM)
7. Set for the abs and inner thighs with/without the pilates circle
8. Side plank moves
9. Reverse bridge set / bow pose to finish
10. Kundalini yoga inspired set (I'm quite new to KY, but I've seen these moves in Kundalini Yoga workouts) + final stretch

The preview shows moves from parts 7, 8 and 9.

This was my PM workout yesterday. I started sweating buckets by the time I started the second part of the arm exercises. This one felt less hard than workout 3. The arm portion flows great and no part of the upper body feels left out. Today I have DOMS in my arms, waist, lats - that "corset" area Terri Walsh talks about. For section 3, make sure you grab and hold a dumbbell with the opposite hand, as you'll be doing a pulsing move with the weight in your hand and, sadly, Hamelin will not be there to hand it to you.

I thought this was an upper-body focused workout, until I hit the pilates circle part - it's all lower abs and inner thighs. My legs were shaking and I had to bend my knees a bit to get through the moves. The way he fatigues all the leg before getting to that part is quite clever. And yes, I have some soreness all the way up to my groin today - good times!! LOL!

I'm sorry I'm unable to describe the last part of the workout in a more precise manner, but it's definitely KY inspired. It felt great, and it was a surprise since I didn't preview the workout beforehad.

Again, I experienced a nice cardio effect with this one.
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 10:34 AM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Class 2 A little under 65 min.

Equipment needed: Mat, weights, pilates circle

Breakdown:

1. Stretching - nice and deep
2. Series for the lower body - Hamelin starts with a wicked hard low tabletop position move lifting the leg in a diagonal, then he does a series of exercises on all fours for the back of the leg and the glutes (short/larger ROM). He finishes with a superman type move with a hamstring curl.
3. Second series in all-fours. This one is very thutt-targeted. You will feel the burn distinctively in the "apple" part of your glute, the lower portion and where the hamstring meets the glutes. With and without weights/Short and large ROM again.
4. Bridge sequence - pulses and hip circles
5. Plank holds, moving side to side + push ups
6. Side hips and saddlebag set - Lying on our side.
7. Arms series with weights
8. Abs - with and without the pilates circle
9. Final and longer stretch.

Not loving the sides of your hips and thutt is an issue? This is the class to do! The upper body and abs get nicely worked too, but the emphasis is very much in the side hips, thutt, hamstring and butt. You'll be stretching quite a bit during the workout, which is great because it keeps it from feeling grueling. The day after doing it I felt some nice DOMS in all those areas, and very deep into my glutes. I could tell I moved my muscles (or parts of them) in ways I haven't recently or even before. In terms of difficulty, this feels above class 1 and a tad under class 3.

I'm loving the vibe of the classes. As they've progressed the camaraderie is so much there. I find myself laughing along them. I sometimes play Pandora or one of the many podcasts Hamelin has shared over time. I also enjoy doing the class as is, with no music at all.

I did preview this one, and I decided to use my 1# DBs for the all-fours series. By the time I got to the bridge moves my legs were shaking like a leaf. When they started doing the circular moves I was barely able to follow along. My already heavy butt felt a ton heavier... I just couldn't get my bottom off the floor! :P
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 10:35 AM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Class 3 58 min.

Equipment needed - mat, dumbbells, pilates circle, barre or sturdy piece of furniture*

The class breaks down like this:

1. Short stretch/warm-up
2. Leg series on your knees by the barre/holding the barre - 40 reps per move / finishes with pigeon pose stretch
3. Plank series - two moves, one includes a small jump that really gets your heart going
4. Ab moves - crunch-based, c-curve, some using a pilates ring or dumbbells
5. Arms series - He does several different moves with weights, one after the other. Shorter ROM, Larger ROM, pulses. I used 2# dumbbells and I had to lower my arms a couple of times
6. Pushup/plank series - Alternating between push-ups and static planks, you do 50 of each for the series. Planks with knee to chest straight and diagonal.
7. Moves for the side and front hips at the barre - He does those evil hip circles that Callan does for five reps... but for 30 reps each side in this case, along with moves facing sideways holding the barre for the saddlebags.
8. Short parallel plie section
9. Stretch

I have to say I did sweat a lot with this one. When Hamelin mentioned that these classes were done "at a cardiovascular level" he meant it! My face is red and I'm sweating as if I just did a long brisk walk. Time flew by. I was quite surprised to see my TV and realize I was about halfway into the workout.

Hamelin counts and cues each move, so you can pretty much follow along without having to look at the TV. There's no music, so you can use your own.

The section that is seen in the preview is the two plank moves and some of the ab series.

The arm series is hard. He does the moves without much transition, for 30-40 reps each, so I found it challenging... and then you go to the floor and do all those push ups and plank holds, so even though this is a solid full-body workout I think the emphasis is in the arms and chest.

One day later, I have soreness in my chest, arms, and surprisingly my glutes are quite sore too. I'm a bit surprised, because only now that I'm doing customs I've had DOMS while doing HDM.

* There's a slight amount of "pulling away from the barre" with these moves, so a chair might not work


Class 4 56 min.

Equipment needed: weights, mat, barre or sturdy piece of furniture (I used my chair with a heavy kettlebell to keep it stable)

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pevw...iDkf5OCcmCVsjw

Breakdown:

1. Short dynamic/static stretch
2. Barre sequences (large/short ROM - plies, lunges, leg lifts, knee lifts, hip circles) - About 20 min
3. Wall squats with arms extended - 2 moves
4. Kickboxing inspired moves with weights (roundhouse kicks/punches)
5. Arms and waist sequences with weights
6. Ab moves with and without weights - very lower ab/transverse focused
7. Final stretch

In the preview you can see moves from sections 3, 4 and 5.

This is the hardest HDM toning workout I've tried so far, and I've been doing Hamelin's workouts for about a year now, so it took me by surprise how hard this was. I had a bit of a frustrating time yesterday when I did it because power went out in my house for a couple of hours and I had to split the workout. I did about 45 min of cardiotone and then I went until my laptop shut down - right after the wall squats. I don't know how good I would have fared during the second part if I hadn't had to stop and restart

I haven't done that many plies in a good while, so my calves were shaking after the first two moves. And don't get me started with those hip circles while you hold a plie halfway down... I quickly develop a unibrow doing those. The wall squats just finished me off. My knees weren't responding! LOL!! I had a bad newborn Bambi kind of moment.

As with the other workouts in this series, the arm portion is go, go, go non-stop but controlled moves with the weights. He even throws in that evil corkscrew move that he does in Classic Arms, but holding weights!! At that point everybody in the class laughs and cries a bit! For the abs, he does weighted reverse ab curls, so you really feel it in the lower abs, which are already pre-fatigued with all the barre work.

This is the perfect workout for someone that doesn't like floorwork, as all the moves are done standing until the ab sequence. Again very cardiovascular. Even when I did the second part of it I was sweating from the second set of kicks.

Needless to say I'm super sore today


Class 5 58 min.

Equipment needed: Chair without arms, weights, mat, pilates circle

Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ3s...ature=youtu.be

Breakdown:

1. Warm-up with plies, side extensions, arm moves
2. Series for the whole body using the chair - about 22 minutes (tough stuff!!)
3. Plank series using the chair
4. Tricep dips (50!!!!!)
5. Sequence on all-fours
6. Abs moves with and without the pilates circle
7. Full push-up set
8. Final and longer stretch


This one is a sweat fest, with plenty of laughs and several unibrow moments. My heart rate kept high all the time, and now my endurance is quite good - I can do an hour or hi-lo cardio or a little more, so it really gets you into the cardiovascular zone, without any jumping.

All the moves with the chair are full body targeted, and then he finishes with some evil planks with leg lifts and 50 tricep dips. I had to stop a couple of times to towel myself off because sweat was blinding me. Just when I thought the hardest part was over, we got to the mat to do the all fours series. It's all high rep moves, with a play on circular moves, extensions straight back, extensions to multiple directions diagonally and pulses. The abs feel focused on the lower pooch too, much like in the other classes in this series. This one didn't leave me as sore as class 4, I did feel "worked" and the class is hard, but not remotely as brutal as class 4 - let me put it this way, I didn't feel like crying halfway through, LOL!!

This class is also the most candid of them all. Fuzzie posted a clip of the actual class down this thread. You see Hamelin encouraging the girls and laughing with them. As hard as some moves are in terms of balance and endurance, everybody seems to be enjoying the moment and happy to be there. The vibe is amazing
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 11:08 AM  
fuzzie
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Rebecca, your post is so timely! I saw these classes on Hamelin's FB page and wanted to ask our resident HDM expert (you!) about them so I will look forward to your review.
Two questions: (1) What is the VF discount on these? (2) Can you download the classes or are they strictly streaming?
Thanks!
fuzzie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 11:14 AM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Quote:
Originally Posted by fuzzie View Post
Rebecca, your post is so timely! I saw these classes on Hamelin's FB page and wanted to ask our resident HDM expert (you!) about them so I will look forward to your review.
Two questions: (1) What is the VF discount on these? (2) Can you download the classes or are they strictly streaming?
Thanks!
Awww!

The workouts are youtube videos, so you can download them with freemake or whatever other software you use for youtube videos.

I know you do Kundalini yoga - Hamelin is going to be filming Kundalini sessions soon!


ETA - I'm editing this post to add that there's no discount available.
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 01:02 PM  
olala
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
What is the level of this workouts?
More advanced than episodes?
olala is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 01:12 PM  
A-Bot
VF Supporter
 
A-Bot's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Is there currently a discount code on the rest of the store? Thanks
__________________
- Ali
"Fitness is like evolution - you walk before you run, you jump before you fly" - Michael Olajide Jr.
A-Bot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 01:14 PM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Quote:
Originally Posted by A-Bot View Post
Is there currently a discount code on the rest of the store? Thanks
Not that I know of. The webisodes and the toning workouts in the Xpress series have a lower price now.
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-14, 01:17 PM  
LaCatrina
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Puerto Rico
Quote:
Originally Posted by olala View Post
What is the level of this workouts?
More advanced than episodes?
Hmmm... it's hard for me to say. Some of the webisodes have super hard toning (at least for me) while others aren't as strenuous. The toning in webisode 4 is super hard - tons of reps, non-stop.

You can always make the toning harder by using ankle and wrist weights through the workout until the final stretch.

I just did class 3 and I'm writing my review. My arms are fried
__________________
Rebecca
LaCatrina is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
10 week course, hamelin d'abell, hdm, terri walsh, toning

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:03 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© 2009 Video Fitness