Lifetiquing Reviews

Equipment needed: several sets of dumbbells (mine ranged from 5-12 pounds; you probably need at least one light and one heavy pair)

Level: Intermediate/advanced depending on the dumbbells used

Bottom line: This unusual functional training workout primarily uses dumbbells swung with momentum to simulate kettlebell training as well as several other types of full-body exercises, but while it recruits muscles in the entire body, I felt a little shortchanged on the upper body work.

Let me begin by saying that Atletica is not my usual cup of tea. Although I do quite a bit of functional training, I do not use kettlebells, and the idea of swinging a weight around definitely had me raising my eyebrows when I first heard of it. That said, I've been practicing kettlebell-type and sandbag techniques using online video and article instruction for a while, so I felt prepared to try this workout. And while I found the workout moderately challenging and not too tiring, boy, oh boy, did I feel it in my thighs and glutes afterward. I did the workout on Saturday night, and writing this on Monday, I have been hobbling around all day.

The workout contains four intervals, two of which are repeated twice on each side, one of which is repeated a second time only, and one that is not repeated. Note, as the original attention-deficit exerciser, I did not find the format repetitive or boring. The unique exercises do require the whole body to perform, and the better your form, the more work you end up doing. This makes it appropriate for a wider range of exercisers, in my opinion, than advanced only. In addition, the pace is excellent; the exercises are performed quickly and smoothly, but Ilaria provides mini breaks, keeping the heart rate up without causing the workout to be unpleasant.

The reason why I don't plan to integrate this into my routine regularly is that Atletica doesn't seem to provide a thorough upper body workout. Yes, the exercises are functional and recruit the entire body, and I love that the pace brings me up into my cardiovascular training zone and keeps me there, but it does not provide the level of training I expect for the upper body- the focus is definitely on the lower body and somewhat on the core, back and shoulders. Now, take my comments with a grain of salt, because I say this despite the 50 pushups, the plank rows and the burpees, as well as several other compound upper body exercises in the prior intervals, all of which would probably serve as plenty of upper body conditioning for someone less used to that type of exercise. This may mean I need to increase the weight I'm using, but I did work myself to fatigue on most of the exercises, and it was only my shoulders that gave out. Additionally, I felt pretty uncomfortable using 12 pounds because it was hard to maintain my grip on it. I may try again using workout gloves to see if that helps.

Overall: My difficulty with this workout is that I'm not really sure how much use I'll get out of it because I can't figure out how to categorize it. It couldn't replace a full-body strength training workout for me because of the lack of upper body emphasis. I think that for someone less conditioned to pushup and plank work, the upper body work would be both challenging and sufficient, but for me it was not. I thoroughly enjoy doing it, though, and it's a very efficient way to fit cardio training and strength training into one workout- not to mention a pleasant way to surprise yourself with significant DOMS if that's your thing!