Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up hearing bongos and my body automatically feels sore. That’s what happens when you do the Atletica Powerstrike workout by Ilaria Montagnani. You don’t get cheesy workout music stuck in your head alongside a screaming demon witch that’s more angry than motivated. Instead, you get Ilaria, a truly challenging workout, and bongos.
Ilaria Montagnani is mostly known for her Forza sword workout. She showed it off on The Today Show a few years ago. Ilaria’s Atletica workout demonstrates her wielding another weapon that’s most deadly to the muscularly challenged: a dumbbell.
Atletica is not for the weak of heart and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is just starting out with weight loss. My wife considers it one of the more advanced workouts she’s done, and we have at least 30 workout DVDs. Of course, that meant I had to give it a shot. If my wife can do it, so can I!
Atletica Workouts. The first two rounds of Atletica put me through more beneficial DVD weight loss workout pain than my first basic training workout. There are a lot of slow, controlled exercises that move from one to the next and when you think it’s over, it ain’t. For example, in the first round, Ilaria basically has you take a dumbbell and swing it for about a minute with one arm. Once you do that, you’ll hold the dumbbell over your head and do slow squats for a minute. That’s enough to numb your hand. Then you switch hands and do it again. Then you repeat that a few more times. Your forearm, deltoid, lats, obliques, quads, hams and calves all get a workout and a nice burning sensation. And only 5 minutes have passed.
The second round isn’t any easier. One of the more challenging arm exercises involved holding the dumbbell in front of you at shoulder height, stepping back with your opposite foot and returning. It's these types of exercises that speed up weight loss and burn fat more than pills or crazy diets. Just make sure you get lean protein or a protein supplement when you're done. If your muscles are screaming, that means they need protein for repair.
Ilaria shows a little mercy in the later rounds by having you put down the weight, but Atletica doesn’t give up on a good home workout. At one point you do five push ups, rest for a few seconds, and then do 5 more. Repeat 10 times. When I was in the military I could do 60 in a little more than a minute. This was much, much harder.
Ilaria’s Exercise Motivation. The entire Atletica workout is a weight loss challenge. But even at about an hour, it’s an enjoyable one because of Ilaria’s motiviation. Believe me, she’s a well-built lady who has arms that were carved out of tungsten. Yet Ilaria’s demeanor is a very calm one and she gently prods you to work out at your best. She offers modified positions throughout the DVD and you end up challenging yourself more than she does because you almost want to do her proud. She’s like that calm sister that’s there to talk you through the tough times and when you do well, you want to send her a nice card that says “I made it!” I confess I didn’t make it the first time I did Atletica. But I was motivated to give it another shot later on in the week.
But the bongos. This is where I’m conflicted. I’ve often worked out to DVDs by turning the music down because most workout music sucks. Ilaria’s Atletica takes a different approach and has a live bongo player in the room. She ramps up when it’s time to pick up the pace. She ramps down when it’s time to cool down or concentrate hard on form. But she doesn’t stop. Ever. To many, that can be annoying. To the driven and tribal types, you can find yourself screaming and wanting to build a fire and dance around it while communing with nature after your workout. I’m somewhere in between, but I think Ilaria put them in there to reach you subliminally later on when you don’t feel like working out. I swear I heard them in my sleep one night.
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