I’ve been following the Brazil Butt Lift program for nearly 3 weeks now, and apart from constantly having sore butt muscles from all the workouts, I think I’m seeing positive results!
One of the main workouts in the Brazil Butt Lift exercise DVD series is ‘Sculpt’ – a workout designed to target your whole body and sculpt a leaner, more toned figure.
‘Sculpt’ Workout Review
Equipment: Dumbbell weights (Beginner 3-5lbs, Intermediate 5-8lbs, Advanced 8-10lbs), or Resistance Band with handles.
Areas Worked: Arms, Legs, Butt, Abs, Back – the whole body!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Style: Weight-based sculpting workout, designed to target the muscles in all areas of your whole body. The low weights and higher reps will lead to a more sculpted, slim and toned look rather than building a lot of muscle mass.
Introduction
Leandro designed the ‘Sculpt’ workout in the Brazil Butt Lift program by Beachbody to target the whole body. This is a weights-based workout designed to tone and strengthen muscles in all areas of your body, though there is also an option to use a two-handled resistance band instead of weights.
In my opinion it is an intermediate difficulty level, as the moves require a little bit of concentration and coordination to get right, and the addition of weights makes for a more challenging workout.
If you are interested in the ‘Sculpt’ workout as well as others, be sure to check out the Brazil Butt Lift program as a whole!
[amazon_link asins=’B00337MOMO’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’thebetbutcha-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’d080c26f-d40a-11e7-a97a-1f2c24cf7202′]The Moves
There are about 23 different moves in the main Sculpt workout, give or take, most being compound-type movements that target several muscles all at once.
It’s difficult to count exactly, because different variations of each move are used, for example some exercises may progress from squat, to squats with an arm scoop in front, and then again to add a knee-up at the top of the movement.
It’s quite common for Leandro to ask for the addition of the legs or arms to make moves more complex and bring another group of muscles into the equation.
The main moves that you’ll find in the Sculpt workout are:
Back extensions
Biceps curls
Biceps press -squat
Chest fly
Core rotation
Dead lift – single leg *
Front raise – squat
Mermaid (One of Leandro’s signature moves)
Oblique crunches
Oblique twist
Overhead press – curtsey
Plank – single arm
Pull over leg touch
Push ups
Rear deltoid raise
Roll ups
Row – lunge *
Seated rotations
Side bridge – dips
Squat scoop – knee
Triceps extension – hamstring
Triceps kickback
Triceps press
*Butt-targeting moves from this workout
The Sequencing
I’m not as keen on the sequencing of this workout. We start with a fun warm-up of light cardio, and then it’s right into the sculpting.
The sculpting itself is usually repeated on each side because most of the exercises only do 1 side of the body at a time. However, rather than doing one exercise then immediately repeating it on the other side, you’ll do a few different exercises on one side and then repeat the same sequence on the other.
I don’t have many problems with this except that some of the exercises are compound ones, that can fatigue other muscles in the body. So if you always work the right side first before the left, in my opinion you may end up with imbalances in some muscle groups as by the time you get to the left side, core muscles may be fatigued and not support your body in the same way as when you were doing the right side.
The easy fix to this is to alternate which side you follow with each time you do the workout. So if you do the workout on Tuesday, follow the models exactly, but next time you do the workout on Thursday then follow the models by doing the mirror image of them.
The workout makes use of dumbbells or a resistance band (as a variation). While I have not tried using a band, weights do make the workout more challenging and you can really feel the burn in your muscles.
The Sculpt DVD makes the following weight recommendations for dumbbells:
- Beginner 3-5lbs
- Intermediate 5-8lbs
- Advanced 8-10lbs
One part I didn’t like about the workout is that the same set of weights is used throughout. While only dealing with one set of dumbbells was convenient, it doesn’t always work well, because some muscles are naturally stronger than others.
I found this to be especially apparent when doing the deadlifts (the weights were so light it didn’t work out the muscles as much as I would have liked), versus the rear deltoid raises (the same weights were now way too heavy to do the raises properly!).
Some of the exercises are quite fun, although with the number of compound movements and the pace they are carried out, it can be difficult to get form correct.
Especially if you are using an ‘advanced’ weight range of 8-10lbs, you’ll need to really focus on controlling the movements rather than letting momentum do the work and swinging your dumbbells around haphazardly – you’re just asking for injury if you do this.
Finally, if you wanted butt exercises, you’re not so much in luck this time around. Some of the exercises will use the butt muscles, but personally I didn’t find it to really target the butt in any great detail.
This is probably a good thing though if you’re following the Brazil Butt Lift workout list, as your butt muscles will no doubt need a bit of break in order to grow stronger.
The Good and the Bad
The Good
- The workout targets muscles in all the main areas of the body, which will ensure you get a whole-body noticeable effect from following the Brazil Butt Lift program.
- You can scale up the difficulty of the workout by using heavier weights as you get stronger (though I wouldn’t recommend going too far above 10lb unless you can control your movements really well).
- The music in this workout is tops. I’m still humming it now.
The Bad
- Not so much emphasis on the butt in this workout. On the plus side, if you’ve been working the butt hard over the previous days, a little rest to allow for muscle growth could do you good.
- Moves can be difficult to perform with weights – there’s a real potential for injury if your movements are not controlled.
- Using the same weights for all the exercise is a bad idea in my opinion. If you can, use a few different sets of dumbbells of different weights and choose a weight level suitable for the muscle group that you’re working.
Effectiveness
After doing this workout a few times, I really think it is designed for more of a whole-body toning effect rather than to build muscle or shape. Of course, there will be weight-loss benefits to completing this workout and the use of weights means you’ll be burning calories faster, but keep in mind that there is not much cardio involved in this workout either.
I like the idea of keeping other muscles in shape, so this one is a good one if you want to sculpt your way to more toned arms and a tighter waist, but in terms of it’s focus on building a better butt, I was a bit disappointed. If you really want to target the butt, and get the burn in your glutes, try the High & Tight workout instead.
I also don’t think it will do you much good when it comes to drastically changing the size of your body, but rather will get you to a certain point and then keep you at that level. That being said, t is definitely not a bad one to keep doing regularly.
Doing a Sculpt workout a few times a week just to keep everything in shape and looking good is definitely not going to disadvantage you!
Overall Impression
I’m a little less impressed with the Sculpt workout compared to the other Brazil Butt Lift workout DVDs, but I still enjoyed it and it’s a great way to get a full-body workout. In my opinion this one isn’t going to cause drastic changes to the way your body looks, but it will get you to a point of looking a bit more toned and keep you there, if you keep doing this workout regularly.
If you enjoyed my review of the Sculpt workout, you might also like my review of the Bum Bum workout.
Let me know what you thought of this review by leaving a comment below! Do you think that it’s a good idea to workout with weights in order to sculpt your body?
Also, go and check out my Brazil Butt Lift workout review if you want to find out more about this program. It’s one that I can recommend because I know I got positive results from it.
Thank you for this review.
I’m doing this exercise for the first time this evening so it’s good to know what to expect.
You’re most welcome Jane! I hope you enjoyed it, my favorite is ‘high and tight’ if you’ve got the whole set – I find it to be more butt-focused. But I really enjoy ‘Sculpt’ as well because it’s more of a whole-body workout (that of course, doesn’t forget the glutes)!
Yes, working out with weights is the only way to sculpt your body. (Yes, you could use body weight, a 25 lb. bag of beans, cans of soup, etc.) Using weights is the best and easiest though.
I did bbl before for 8 weeks and had great results. Most people need a well rounded workout routine to make their bodies look good. I wasn’t so fortunate to just want to work on my butt! ? My whole body shrank, was toned, and my bottom was lifted and filled out better! I’m getting ready to do it again.
Thanks for your great reviews and site ?
Thanks for the comment Amy! Love to hear that you got great results from BBL. It’s still one of my favorite workouts and the one that got me into ‘butt-building’ in the first place!