I recently completed the GSP Rushfit workout and thought I would share my thoughts. I did finish late because I injured some cartilage near my ribs and needed to rest it up for a few weeks before I could continue. With that said, GSP Rushfit was a hell of a program and a lot of fun.
What is it?
GSP Rushfit is a home workout starring the one and only Georges St. Pierre and designed and guided by his trainer Eric Owings. GSP goes through the workouts with you and adds some hilarious colour commentary every once in a while, but most of the narration and coaching is done by Eric. I found the Eric/GSP combo to be quite refreshing as they complemented each other well. Each week consists of 6 days on, and 1 day off (rest day).
GSP Rushfit is an 8 week program with calendars for beginners, intermediate, and advanced. They do have a fit test assessment that you should do prior to choosing which calendar to go with but I wasn’t able to find it in the guides what numbers you should be shooting for to determine what program you should choose. I ended up going with the advanced program because when I did the fit test I was toe to toe with the champ with my numbers. Yeah!
As far as I can tell, the only difference between the beginner and advanced program is that in advanced you just do more workouts in the 8 week period. In the last half of the advanced calendar there are doubles (two workouts a day) almost everyday. On the calendar they have “Cardio” which is something you are supposed to do on your own. I thought this was a tad lame and lazy on the part of the designers but most of my days I was going to jiu jitsu training so figured that would do. There are 7 workouts to do over the 8 weeks:
Stretch for Flexibility, Balance and Agility (these were on the “Bonus” DVD), Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning, Explosive Power Training, Full Body Strength and Conditioning, Strength and Endurance, and The Fight Conditioning Workout. The workouts all start with the same warmup and end with the same cool down. The warmup did an average job at warming up the appropriate joints. It should have focused more on the ankles and shoulders because those are used a lot in the programs. I did feel on a number of days that my shoulders and ankles weren’t sufficiently warm and felt some discomfort. The cool down is also way too long. It is only 7 minutes, but when you are doing doubles you really just want to get the heck out of there because you are so pooped. The workouts themselves are all 5 rounds to simulate a championship UFC fight except for the Flexibility and Balance and Agility workouts.
All of the workouts were great and varied to keep things interesting. What was really cool for me to see was watching GSP do his thing. You could tell he was really great at explosive stuff but really sucked at isometrics and flexibility movements. He cheated like most people do and Eric would call him out on it. It was rather entertaining. I found Full Body Strength and Conditioning to be the most challenging and by round 4 was pretty tired. Strength and Endurance was also pretty tough and had me gasping for air by the end of it. The Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning workout was ok until round 5 when they had you doing bridges, which I couldn’t hold for the entire time until I was near week 7. My favourite workout was The Fight Conditioning Workout because it involved a lot of coordination involving striking, grappling, wrestling and judo components.
Pros of GSP Rushfit
- Eric Owings is an excellent instructor. Very detail oriented, clear and concise
- GSP cracks me up with his French Canadian accent and quirky sense of humour
- Very good workouts that will leave you pooped but feeling alive
- Good variety of movements and different body parts being worked that aren’t seen in other home workouts
- Minimum equipment required. You only really need dumbbells.
Cons of GSP Rushfit
- Complex movements such as the Turkish get up should not be in a home study course, in my opinion, because if done improperly could result in injury
- Workouts are too long and there is too much chit chat between the warmup and the workout and the workout and cool down. Again, 6 days a week for 8 weeks is a big commitment for most people, at least make that time working out as efficient as possible.
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If you liked this review, you may also like my P90X2, Rip:60, P90X+, Insanity, RevAbs, or RMAX BER reviews