Chalene, Chalene, Chalene…you kind of let me down with the music in Piyo Drench–but that’s my only complaint.

Be prepared to flex and stretch in challenging new ways with Piyo Drench.

Piyo Drench (just one of the routines in the Piyo series) forces you to flex and stretch places in your body that may have been dormant since the year you played Atari or put wings in your bangs.

You might be sore in areas you’d forgotten existed after you do Piyo Drench.  It’s all good.

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Here’s a preview of the Piyo program:

If you haven’t done yoga in a while then you’ll want to brush up on your yoga jargon before jumping into this routine.

Chalene calls out the moves and assumes you know what they are.  She gives you good form pointers but you need to know some basic yoga moves.

It’ll help if you’re familiar with these poses before you get started:

Down Dog

Up Dog

Chaturanga 

Warrior Pose

Triangle

Half-Moon

Child’s Pose

Here’s the rest of what you’ll want to know about Piyo Drench…

Instructor-Chalene Johnson

Category-Strength*

Equipment-mat

Length-48 minutes

HRM-264 calories

Choreography-Simple+

Remember my choreography rating refers to the complexity of the choreography in the workout—not the intensity. Read more about my choreography ratings here.

My rating- A

The Important Stuff about Piyo Drench

Piyo is not traditional strength* training.  This workout delivers on the title, Piyo.  You’ll be getting stronger through Pilates-type exercises combined with yoga moves.  It’s unique and fun.

If you’re not familiar with Pilates then follow the link to learn more.  Pilates is low-impact so it’s a nice break from all the pounding on the joints that you might usually do.

You will need to be on carpet or grab a mat for Piyo Drench.

I usually wear shoes when I do Piyo Drench but they’re optional.  I can do many of the moves much easier with bare feet but it’s harder for me to balance (with no shoes) and there are several moves that require just that (balance), so it’s hard to decide whether to wear shoes or not.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

I love that the crew are standing at different angles during the workout.  You get to see what’s happening from every side.  It’s very helpful.  Bravo, Piyo producers!

Piyo Drench is broken down into 6 sections (after the warm-up).  You’ll sweat far more than you think you will.  I rarely break a sweat when I do yoga but you’ll be drenched after this, just like it says.

Remember to read to the end of this post for links to a few places you can compare prices on this video 🙂

Warm-Up

The warm-up is about 8 minutes long.

The first 3 minutes are stretches, lunges and poses done at a fast pace all blended smoothly together.  You repeat the moves several times.  Make sure your core is always tight.  You’ll find yourself swinging and bouncing your body through the exercises if you’re not focusing on proper form.

Next you do about 5 minutes of stretching. You go slightly slower (than the first 3 minutes) but still faster than the pace you’re used to stretching.  Notice that Chalene lifts one leg up on the tricep push-ups.

I love that Mindy is in this video.  You’ll recognize her from Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire (two of my favorite kickboxing programs with Chalene Johnson).

Main Workout (The Exercises in Piyo Drench)

Legs (about 8 minutes long)

In the first section I feel like the cueing is slightly after the moves.  It’s a little annoying but not the end of the world.

Legs is the section where I bounce and wobble all over the room trying to find my balance.  It’s worse when I’m barefoot.  Of course some days I’m solid and could do this whole thing on a balance beam.  It’s weird.  It’ll be the same for you.  Don’t give up on the workout because you have one bad day.

You may be happy that you get to do a leg workout with no weights but your legs will be on fire.  I promise.  And remember what I said about your core?  Keep your core tight and make your transitions smooth.  Don’t go flopping your legs around or you’ll hurt your back.

Plank & Core (about 6 minutes long)

The ‘Piyo Push-up’ is fun.  Stay with Chalene as she counts out 1-2-3.

The cueing in this section is better.

My elbows get bruised if I don’t do this section on carpet.  If you have a hard surface under your yoga mat you may want to have a towel close by to put under your elbows on the low planks.

There’s an exercise where you lift one leg in the air from down dog and then transition into a plank with a bent knee (and eventually a straight leg), this exercise is So. Hard.  You may be as strong as an ox but I swear you’ll be challenged on this one.

Power (about 3 ½ minutes)

As before, keep your transitions smooth so you don’t tweak your back.  I’m telling you this because I have a habit of going gangbusters into some of the exercises before checking my form and I pay for it (usually with sudden back pain).

I find the jumping moves way more comfortable in shoes.  Jump as high as it feels comfortable to you.

Beast & Kick-Thrus (this section is about 2 minutes)

Holy crap Batman!  These hurt so good!  Listen to Chalene’s pointers.  You’re getting strong and sculpted.  She does the move slow enough that you have no excuse not to join in for every rep.

Flow (about 13 minutes long)

The flow section is almost all yoga.  You’re supposed to ‘flow’ from move to move.  If you’ve forgotten yoga then pay close attention to the position of her hips, feet, chest (every part of her, really).  Don’t push through pain.  It’s individual as to how deep you’ll be able to go.  Try not to lock out your knees in triangle.  You do the whole routine on one side and then repeat it on the other.

Don’t be intimidated by the Piyo Flip.  The first time I did this workout I was so nervous about that move.  I kept picturing her leaving the ground and flipping.  She doesn’t, of course.  Just do your best version of the move.  It feels good.

Stretch & Strengthen

In this part you’ll slow down and stretch for the last five minutes of the program.

Now What?

The Piyo series is a nice change of pace.

If you do a lot of high-impact exercise (like I do) some days it’s nice (and necessary) to give your joints a break and still get in a good workout.

You won’t burn that many calories but you’ll be getting sculpted and more flexible, two very good reasons to add Piyo to your exercise routine.

You can find Piyo Drench in the Piyo series by Beachbody on Amazon.

And in the library of workouts in a membership to Beachbody on Demand. (There’s a FREE TRIAL period!)

✔You can learn more about Beachbody on Demand in this post. I love it.

Thanks for reading!