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FITNESS ZONE

RevABS – The Dysfunctional Review

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Today we take a look back to the Jurassic period of 2009 and another “oldie” from Beachbody, RevAbs by Brett Hoebel. Trying to find a review of this online that was not tainted with the sweat of a million Beachbody Coaches was all but futile.  That’s where I come in kids.  So gird your loins and let’s see what this program can do.

revabs_boxWhat you get:

8 disks, food guide, calendar and a measuring tape you can use to adjust that infernal table leg your wife has been bothering you about.

The Good

The entry level of fitness required for RevAbs is open to just about all levels.  That’s pretty sweet for the average North American Couch Matinee who requires a starting platform that isn’t Insanity.

Most workouts are 30-45 minutes long with a few 15 minute routines which are ab specific.  The program as a whole is wisely constructed around core fitness and is a combination of high-intensity cardio and weight training.  This is a well accepted method that Beachbody has used with many programs to get the results they so often advertise.  For example, in much the same way you could buy Chalean Extreme and get pretty much the same results.  Given a choice though, I would take RevAbs any day as Chalene’s workouts are almost exclusively targeted to women.  Thankfully RevAbs has a universal appeal.

RevAbs is broken into 2 Phases, each 45 days long.  As expected the first phase might come off a bit easy for experienced fitness enthusiasts, but the second phase can be quite challenging as cardio is often combined with good old-fashioned weights to give better results.  If you want to get results and decide to try RevAbs, I believe you will be happy with your purchase.

The style of the trainer is something that is hard to describe and that is true of all of them.  Even Tony Horton can be hyper annoying at times with odd impressions.  Shaun T speaks in triple negatives and in the third person.  Brett is motivating and is obviously a nice guy…but well…let’s discuss that later.

The Bad

RevAbs is one of those Beachbody programs that I get the impression, didn’t quite make it into orbit.  It has a hard time advertising itself as an extreme program as it can be relatively easy for P90X/Insanity graduates.  Plus, something like P90X can be modifiable to include the beginner so unfortunately RevAbs gets the Malachi Crunch.

Production values are a mixed bag.  The intro music to each workout sounds like a malfunctioning Nintendo and the rest is only mildly better.  Brett can also be a strange cat at times.  During each intro he kind of…what the Hell is he doing?  Acrobatics?  He then smugly looks at the camera like, “Hey, did you see that?  Wasn’t I cool just now?”

smug_revabs
Congratulations Brett, you did a half-ass cartwheel. Don't act like you split the atom.

I get it, we all do quirky things.  Like when I inexplicably greet strangers with an English accent.  But perhaps backing off the machismo a few levels would help.

This was also created around the time when Beachbody was somewhat of a two man show with Tony Horton and Shaun T.  That meant if Mr. P90X and Mr. Hip Hop got hit by a stray meteorite, the company would probably have had to fold up shop.

bbl
Either that or rely on Brazil Butt Lift to carry the company mantle.

The “Cheese”

And then there’s “The Badge”.  If you work at Wal-Mart or Home Depot and are into the prep rally thing, then maybe this will be second nature.  The rest of us will stare at the screen in awkward silence like we stumbled onto the home video of your cousin’s home birth.  “The Badge” is placing your hands to your shoulder to salute and saying the phrase, “Rev it HIGH, rev it LOW, I’m strong committed and ready to go” while avoiding your compulsion to flee.

revabs_pledge
Your pledge is complete. Beachbody now owns your immortal soul.

I really wish I could have captured a picture of my wife’s face when Brett did the V-symbol and the Water-buffalo Lodge dedication at the end. Her eyes went wide like Bambi, clearly concerned that we about to be drafted into a sadistic murder-pact.

CONCLUSION

Brett has gone on to greater things such as being a trainer on The Biggest Loser, so there is no denying the man’s skills.  And while RevAbs is a decent entry/intermediate level workout program, I feel it suffers from a lack of commitment in it’s production values from Beachbody.  In many ways, Brett did the best with what has handed to him but it’s really hard to get noticed when behemoths like P90X or Insanity eclipse you with better music and far better stages.  For the current asking price of $89.95, it would be hard to want this over something more refined like Focus T25.

I do recommend RevAbs, but with a caution.  You have to have a fairly high cheese-tolerance with some of the goofy rituals.  If trainers like Tony Horton give you a migraine, Brett is probably not your guy for pain relief.

3feathers3 FEATHERS out of 5

John Paul Parrot ( aka. The Dysfunctional Parrot ) is a disgruntled Systems Analyst who wanders the Canadian wastelands saving small villages with the power of Kung Fu.  His chair is also a little too close to the twenty year old microwave.  As you can well imagine, this has had certain side effects.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. andy dean

    February 19, 2017 at

    @dysfunctionalparrot, I just finished this workout and I liked the mix of cardio and strength, and especially the focus on core (I am mainly focused on toning and sliming, mostly core and upper body work), I could have done without the extra cheesiness (I mean what adult says to other adults “drinkiepoo?!?!?) and the music was meh, but the type and length of the workouts worked for me. What would you recommend I do next? I need something in the same time frame slots and preferably one that doesn’t require equipment outside of weights or bands and I belong to Beachbody On Demand. I’ve done T25 (became too easy) after finishing Insanity (which I don’t think I could do again at this point) and I tried 21 Day Fix Extreme (was ok, but saw somewhat better results with RevAbs). Thanks, love your reviews!

  2. holyguy7

    July 7, 2015 at

    It looks like Brett left Beachbody and started his own fitness company. His latest workout system is called, “20 Minute Body.” This workout was produced just recently in 2014. Fortunately, he is doing what Beachbody should be doing. His workouts are available on DVD or Digital Download. I purchased the digital download (in HD) and it looks great. Each workout is 20 minutes but if you add the warm up and cool down, it is about 30 minutes.

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