Black Fire is celebrity trainer Bob Harper’s well-branded and edgy workout series. I’m testing it out.
Here’s the Black Fire Review
This is one of the programs that I was most excited about when I came across Dailyburn. I’m a fan of Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser. His attitude was always positive with tons of tough love for the participants. He epitomizes the trainer that is part psychologist and part coach.
What I love most is Black Fire’s simplicity and intensity.
Black Fire workouts are meant to be 20 minutes, which I am a fan of . . . short and sweet.
The idea is based on high-intensity interval training where hard, intense bursts of work over shorter periods of time have been found in studies to be superior in outcomes to moderate continuous exercise.
Now, technically speaking this is not HIIT as it was studied. I can tell you, however, that the workouts are intense and will get your heart rate up to max and build up lactic acid in your muscles, which is what HIIT is about.
The workouts don’t end up being 20 minutes with warm up and cool down, but in general they run about 30 minutes, which I can handle.
Black Fire is intense and will push you to the max. The workouts combine high-intensity movements from weightlifting, plyometrics, and even gymnastics. You’ll train five days a week, and have two days for rest and recovery.
The goal of Black Fire is to build strength, cardioaerobic fitness, and muscle tone.
Bob Harper is positive and motivational throughout. My initial impression is that this is a program for the advanced, meaning you should have some cardiorespiratory fitness to start with. If you are willing to take it easy and modify a bit, the program could potentially be done by beginners and intermediates as well.
What equipment will you need for Black Fire?
You’ll need a medicine ball, some dumbbells, a box, mat and a dowel or broom.
That’s it. Pretty simple.
Related: Full, detailed Dailyburn Review
Who’s your trainers for Black Fire?
Ok, so you likely know Bob Harper from the TV show the Biggest Looser. He’s a popular celebrity trainer and known well across the United States at least. Bob’s a #1 New York Times Bestseller as well. He’s written extensively on weight loss and training.
In addition, Anja Garcia also trains for the Black Fire program. She’s a former gymnast and tends to specialize in kicking your butt with high-intensity interval training.
The Black Fire workouts are like a game.
Black Fire is unique in that the workouts are meant to be scored. You count your moves in each workout and tally them up.
This allows you to compete with yourself and I suppose others, throughout the program.
This effectively gamifies the workout, which I found to be quite motivating. The focus on a number helped me get through the workout and made it fun despite getting my keister kicked.
How many workouts are there in Black Fire?
There are 12 core workouts in the program along with 7 recovery workouts that are either Yoga or mobility workouts from other programs.
So, in all reality there are 12 Black Fire workouts.
Related: Full, detailed Dailyburn Review
What are the Black Fire Workouts?
- Bodyweight Tabata: Four body-weight moves, eight rounds per move.
- Weighted Tabata: Four moves, eight rounds each for 20 seconds on, and 10 seconds rest. Utilizes dumbbells for resistance training.
- Sweet 16: Two moves, 16 reps each minute. 16 minutes only utilizing a medicine ball.
- OTM Air Force Style: Complete all 12 reps in one minute. The faster you complete a rep, the more rest you get.
- Cyclone 15: Three exercises in one round.
- Strategic Endurance: Three rounds, three exercises, two minutes each. Run, dip, sit up, and burpee your way a round.
- Triplet Ladder: 15 minutes with three exercises in each round.
- Power 10: Sprint through four rounds of 10 exercises, for 30 seconds each – no rest.
- ABC 1: Four moves, five rounds of each, 30 seconds of exertion, & 15 seconds of rest.
- ABC 2: Jump, tuck, squat, sweat. Five moves, for one minute, repeating twice.
- Gymnastics Strength 1: Utilizing techniques from gymnastics, six exercises each for one minute – two full rounds.
- Gymnastics Strength 2: More gymnastic-inspired moves, one minute per move.
Here’s a sample of some of my initial impressions of a couple of the workouts.
Black Fire Strategic Endurance
I just completed my first Black Fire workout from Daily burn and my heart rate is up.
“Strategic Endurance” was a “tuff” workout – not a workout for sissies.
Strategic Endurance Workout
3 sets, 3 exercises, 3 minutes each
- Burpees
- Dips
- Sit ups
I hate Burpees. Despise them.
I remembered this acutely while I was stepping over the box to do Burpees for 2 minutes straight. This was the first set after the warm-up. Nonetheless I survived and am better for having completed it. The workout was very simple, but highly effective.
By the end my heart raced and I was exhausted.
My first impression was that the videos are terribly clean and well produced. Bob Harper was in good form. He was encouraging throughout and not at all annoying.
I loved the score keeping of the workouts. Bob has you count your reps throughout and write them down.
If you are at all competitive, than you’ll love to compete with fit model young men and women on the videos.
If you can beat them – your in good shape.
If you are interested my first score for strategic endurance was a 356. See if you can beat me.
I didn’t beat the video models.
I was impressed. Simple workout with good results.
Bodyweight Tabata
This workout was fierce.
Simple, but brutal.
Here’s the workout:
- Air Squats
- Hand Release Push up
- Up and Over
- Burpees
Each maneuver is repeated 8 times. 20 seconds as fast and hard as you can muster, 10 seconds rest and repeat for 8 reps.
Next move.
Damn it. More Burpees. I hate ‘em. But I love ‘em.
You count your reps each time and get to only count your worse set for each workout.
My total score was 33. I plan to build on this.
ABC 1
ABC 1 is a full body, interval workout from Anja Garcia. This was intense, and as expected got my heart racing.
The workout consisted of 4 exercise, repeated 5 times. 30 seconds with 15 seconds of rest. No equipment required. The exercises were and X-squat, Fence jump, Surfer Get Ups and Diamond Push Ups.
This workout was terribly effective at getting my heart rate up and maxing out. However, the Surfer Get Ups are essentially Burpees and as you can tell I hate Burpees, though they are effective and I should just suck it up.
The Fence Jump is a side to side jump that I found challenging to keep proper technique, because of my exhaustion. Definitely a more advanced move. I modified this a bit and did fine, however, I think these larger jumps are not always worth it and for some can risk injury.
Overall ABC 1 did the job, which is to wipe me out.
Check out Black Fire on Amazon.
Related: Full, detailed Dailyburn Review