Davina McCall has a new fitness DVD, and we were eager to review it. Davina – 30 Day Fat Burn is the 16th of the TV presenter’s on sale. Healthista’s Vanessa Chalmers breaks down what you can expect…
Working out at home is my favourite kind of working out because it’s where I’ve always got the best results. With two million copies of Davina McCall’s DVDs sold in the last decade, it appears a large group of you are in the same boat.
This time round, Davina and her personal trainer Ed Lumsden have created a DVD designed to maximise fat burn after listening to customer’s pleas. The common New Year resolution to lose weight is easier said than done; but the DVD aims to get you toned up fast – as fast as 30 days.
The plan
There are six workouts to choose from. The three fat burning workouts are boxfit, HIIT fat burner, and ULTIMATE fat burner, and then there is a strength and tone workout, abs, and a new feature ‘Buddy Workout’, for working out with a friend or partner. There is also a warm up and stretching included separately.
Four days of 20-40 mins exercise and three days’ rest seems achievable for anyone
Each workout is just 10 minutes, and Ed Lumsden has made sure they are the as efficient as they can be for burning the fat. He has also made a 30 day calendar, which shows which combined workouts you should do each day for the best results. Four days of either 20-40 minutes of exercise, and three days’ rest per week, seems achievable for anyone. Davina, being like a best friend to Britain, clearly wants to make sure it is in everyone’s capabilities, especially those who are new to regular exercise.
The workouts
With my workout gear on, yoga mat out, and family evacuated from the living room, I was ready to give Davina’s Fat Burn a blast.
I started with the ULTIMATE fat burner, to get the worst out the way first and make sure I was warmed up for what else was to come (a warm up is included but I rarely go into toning exercises without cardio first). This is the constant calorie burner, without any breaks in the 10 minutes. Ed and Davina start of with curtsy lunges, walkouts, criss cross jumps, triple pulse squats, side steps, sprinting on the spot, and other various dance-type moves. It’s all cardio, but nothing too intense. I’d say the hardest move was a burpee into a plank, and with the short groups, it’s over pretty quickly anyway. For difficulty, I’d give it a 3/5. Of course, I was sweaty and out of breath, but I wasn’t crying, which I sort of expected for the ‘ultimate’ fat burner. I’m not complaining though – it was a Sunday morning after all.
MORE: 20 best weight loss tips EVER
I then did the HIIT fat burner, which I was looking forward to. 10 minutes of HIIT, I had a feeling I was going to be worked hard considering it was such a short burst of exercise. 45 seconds on and 15 off, with 5 different exercises, twice through. Sometimes the break is 3 minutes because you’re laptop dies. Again, this is mostly cardio, but some are incredibly easy. Almost as easy as a light jog on the spot. I do love how natural Davina is throughout this DVD. Ed says ‘next up we have squats into burpees’, and she pulls this face below, along with grumbling quietly and giving sidelooks to the camera. It makes it feel more light-hearted and that she is on the journey with you.
Next up was Boxfit. Sadly, I didn’t get as much boxing as I was hoping. It’s cardio with a few punches thrown in, but I understand people wanted a workout more fat-burning focused. However, with a little more jab and cut, perhaps the arms would have felt more worked than they did by the end. This one begins easy, and gets harder towards the end. The last exercise is a squat hold of 20 seconds (3 times in total between other exercises). So as you can see, it’s rather a mish-mash of a workout. You can also go at your own speed during the jab moves, so if you give it your all, you can still get a decent (ish) arm cardio session in.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BO2jB3vB3oQ/?taken-by=davinalpmccall&hl=en
The beginning of Boxfit
I then did Strength and Tone, which is a lot calmer. You use dumbells in this, and it’s not hard to get hold of some of them. Davina uses 2kg throughtout, but I used 3kg, could have used 4, seeing as it was only 10 minutes. It includes deadlifts, bicep curls, and tricep extensions. You then have squats and push ups without a full extension when you come up for extra work. With more reps, my muscles certainly would have felt more worked, but I am deviating from the point here that it’s meant to be just 10 minutes!
The Abs workout was next, and they manage to fit in quite a lot of exercises. It jumps straight into it, so make sure you are suitably warmed up.The 10 minutes goes quite slowly, considering there are no breaks in between sets. You can certainly feel it working, probably the most of all the workouts. This is the only workout without cardio, so be prepared. There are about 10 reps of 8 different exercises (roughly because I simply can’t count whilst in slight agony), all of which are small slow movements, with a plank thrown in for good measure. What is an abs workout without a plank? Hopefully after 30 days you’ll have abs like Davina’s, but that is being very optimistic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPCW1gyBtvs/?taken-by=davinalpmccall&hl=en
How insane is Davina’s body? Ab goals.
The Buddy Workout is recommended to be done with someone else at least once a week. It is designed to encourage a little competition, and of course, for some, exercising with a pal takes your mind of things. It’s hard to describe a workout between two people, but they have managed to get squats in there, plank, mountain climbers, crunches, bicycle crunches, all whilst using each other for resistance or motivation. It’s 5 exercises twice round, and if you aren’t able to persuade someone to roll around on the floor with you, it’s still perfectly manageable to do by yourself.
Davina’s DVD is an enjoyable cardio-based DVD plan with a friendly face and hunky personal trainer.
Vanessa’s verdict:
The 30 Day Fat Burn is a quick and fun DVD with little intensity or difficulty. It does depend on your abilities, but with a minimum of 20 minutes per workout, it’s not going to leave your legs trembling and your arms limp everyday. I did however, feel a little sore doing 5 sessions in one go, which takes just under an hour. It would have taken a little longer had I had a buddy to do the Buddy Workout with. My dog doesn’t really suffice.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOlxKRHhvYx/?taken-by=davinalpmccall&hl=en
Davina’s Instagram will have you inspired
The plan suggests to build up to doing more of the workouts each day, with the most amount being all 5 in the last week of the 30 days. I think this is where you are able to adjust to your preferences, as I would personally start on around 3-4 of the workouts per day, and end with around 6. I don’t think 5 would challenge me, or just 2 per day in the first week.
I would say the difficulty is 2.5 out of 5, or probably less for a gym junkie
Davina’s DVD is an enjoyable cardio-based DVD plan with a friendly face and hunky personal trainer. As a 30 day fat burner, it certainly would be able to get someone of the couch and back into their lycra. But it wouldn’t hold my interest for much longer than that, considering it is the same workouts over and over (and jokes) – that is the problem with DVD workouts. I would say the difficulty is 2.5/5, or probably less for a gym junkie, so this is really for those who would like to kickstart an exercise regime, with the added bonus of no gym fee.
BUY Davina – 30 Day Fat Burn (New for 2017) [DVD]
£12.99
MORE: Healthista’s 30 day HIIT training workout Challenge
MORE: 6 weight loss smoothies that won’t leave you hungry
Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.
