She’s known as a celebrity trainer and creator of the 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme fitness and portion control programs, but Autumn Calabrese is gearing up for a new project, teaming with country singer Jo Dee Messina to bring you Country Heat.
“We are releasing Country Heat, which is my newest fitness program with Beachbody,” Autumn tells Nash Country Daily. “It’s a cardio dance fitness program but [set] to country music. It’s the best of the best country songs. All the songs made famous by artists you love. Jo Dee’s got her original vocals on [the DVD], which we love. We’ve also got ‘A Woman’s Rant’ [from Jo Dee’s fifth studio album, Me] and she wrote a song specifically for Country Heat called ‘Night Crawl,’ which is amazing. But we also have music made famous by Luke Bryan, Big & Rich, Cole Swindell, Reba McEntire and The Dixie Chicks, so we’ve got a little of everyone on there—just fun songs that you love and want to dance to.
“Country Heat consists of five dance workouts that are 30 minutes each,” Autumn continues. “Then it’s one dance conditioning workout, also 30 min, still with a little bit of dancing in there. You get a little bit of your ab work and your squats and your lunges in that one.”
As a part of Country Heat, Jo Dee lent her song “A Woman’s Rant” to the program as well as writing an original song for the project, “Night Crawl.”
“It’s about leaving your crazy behind,” says Jo Dee. “[Singing] leave your cell phone join your friends on the dance floor come on let’s do the Nightcrawl. It’s just about—instead of going out and getting drunk, it’s for Beachbody so I can’t say go get drunk—I had to keep it clean and motivated and fun and danceable. They sent over beats and snips of songs they had already so I thought what grooves don’t they have. It’s kind of like writing for a movie, they send you the script, they send you certain scenes and it’s like ‘OK, write.’
10 of 40 songs heard on Country Heat
“5-1-5-0” – Dierks Bentley
“A Woman’s Rant” – Jo Dee Messina
“All About Tonight” – Blake Shelton
“Born to Boogie” – Hank Williams Jr.
“Chattahoochee” – Alan Jackson
“Dibs” – Kelsea Ballerini
“Hell of a Night” – Dustin Lynch
“I Like It, I Love It” – Tim McGraw
“I’m Here for the Party” – Gretchen Wilson
“Kick the Dust Up” – Luke Bryan
*Songs are rerecorded and do NOT feature original artists
“So I came up with the idea for a ‘Night Crawl,’ which is just about getting out there and dancing and forgetting the world.”
After meeting through Twitter and hooking up for the project, Jo Dee and Autumn have become fast friends. The two will be launching the product on July 28 at the Beachbody Nashville Summit taking place at Nissan Stadium in downtown Nashville, where more than 30,000 fitness professionals will descend. Jo Dee will take the stage to perform her original song, “Night Crawl,” at the Opening General Session where Autumn will lead a Country Heat choreographed dance.
“It isn’t line dancing,” said Jo Dee. “It’s dancing in groups. We’re thinking do-si-do, real stiff movements, but it’s fun. It’s like you’re out with Justin Bieber doing uh-uh yeah [claps]. It’s cool! It’s fun dancing. And it’s all done to country music.”
“It’s a sexy dance,” Autumn explains. “It’s got two parts. It’s the fun and then it’s the sexy. So it’s like entice [claps to beat] and then rock it out. So it’s slow slow, quick quick quick.”
Country Heat will be available on Thursday, July 28, at teambeachbody.com for $59.85. You can find more information on Autumn and the workout at countryheat.com.
