Saundra

My second 10 Minute Solution workout that I did in 10 minute intervals was Target Toning with Cindy Whitemarsh. The five 10 minute workouts are: Thighs Arms & Shoulders Buns Abs Power Stretch Overall, I thought all the workouts were pretty solid except for the Power Stretch workout. I was a bit disappointed in that workout. The other workouts featured traditional sculpting moves. Many of the moves were very basic and I would classify this as a basic workout. The only segment that uses weights is the Arms & Shoulder segment. Although the name for the segment is a misnomer because it does include back and chest work as well; and that impressed me that in 10 minutes I hit all 5 upper body parts. The Buns section left with with DOMS the next day and a couple of the thigh exercises were intense as well. The most irritating part of the workout is Cindy. She is pleasant enough and I know she is trying to be encouraging but how many times can you say "You Can Do It." S...

Because of my less than desirable schedule of late, I have taken to doing a few 10 Minute Solution workouts in 10 minute intervals. I would do one 10 minute workout in the morning and one at night for two days straight. The fifth workout I moved to the weekend. So the first 10 Minute Solution workout I did like this was 5 Day Get Fit Mix featuring Amy Bento. Now I am a huge Amy Bento fan, although I haven't been a huge fan of her 10 Minute Solution workouts. With 5 day Get Fit Mix, I like this workout a little bit more than her other 10 Minute workouts. The five areas in this workout are: Cardio Kickboxing Fat Blasting Intervals Lean Body Sculpt Belly Fat Burner Power Yoga I think Amy pack a lot in the 10 minute segments. I did a SHAPE 12 minute workout recently where I felt the time wasn't really used well. Not so in most of these segments. 3 of the segments I give 4 stars to: Fat Blasting Intervals, Lean Body Sculpt, and Belly Fat Burner. The Cardio Kickboxing and ...

Finally, a somewhat challenging workout from the Powerfit Harmony series is Core Express . I felt the moves were slightly more advance or I probably should say slightly less beginner than the previous PowerFit workouts I have done. With Core Express, I felt that I at least got my 20 minutes worth. I think the difference with this workout was there were more reps within each set. This particular workout seemed to work the obliques and lower abs the most. Stephanie uses the band on several of the exercises to increase the intensity. The core was worked mostly in a standing and lying down position. Thus far, my favorite of the PowerFit Harmony workouts. 3 stars out of 5

Montenegro Method MM21 Endurance Burn Fat is led by Marta Montenegro. This workout DVD consist of three 21 minute circuit workouts. Each of the circuit workouts feature a series of approximately 6 exercises done three times through. As you move through the circuit, the exercise get progressively more challenging. For example the first time through you are only doing a series of side lunges, the second time through side lunges with a knee lift, the third time through, a side lunges with a leg lift. As you move from exercise to exercise, you are doing each exercise for a minimum of 30 seconds. On some exercises, you are doing a full minute. The point of the workout - hence the title - is to build endurance. ( Marta does this by doing lots of repetition .) What I didn't like about the workout - 1) There is not much of a warm up or cool down to speak of 2) And this is with any workout that has time mentioned in its title - "THE WORKOUT SHOULD BE THE TIME IT STATES IN THE TITLE...

Cathe's Cross Train Xpress Kickboxing workout is approximately at 34 minute workout if you do the cardio only which is what I did. This is probably my second time doing this workout. The first time was some time ago. In doing the workout this time around, I really didn't think there was a lot of kickboxing or rather not a lot of kickboxing combinations. There is some kickboxing in the beginning and some at the end but the middle is mostly made up of medium to high intensity drills. The kickboxing that is in the workout is mostly drill style and very repetitive. You are doing lots and lots of reps. At one point when we were doing front and back kicks, Cathe states "you are going to feel these tomorrow". It has been three days and I am just now getting over the DOMS. If you want to practice your punches and work on your "fast twitch muscles" this is a good workout to do that with. While not my favorite kickboxing workout, it was good for a short to the po...

On several of the older SHAPE workouts, there is a bonus workout called the 12-minute Total Body Blitz . This workout is led my Tracy York. I have been short on time lately and trying to fit in workouts where I can. So I decided to give this workout a try because I was wanting to do some type of sculpting workout. Tracy does give you a brief warm up and cool down. Between the warm up and cool down, Tracy take you through a series of compound exercises that work multiple body parts at the same time. She uses light, medium and heavy dumbbells to get the job done. My major complaint about the workout is that I didn't think Tracy used the 12 minutes effectively. We did about 4 to 5 exercise combinations total. With each set of exercises, Tracy starts off with a very slow rep count and then half way through the set, she picks up the tempo. The name of the workout is Total Body Blitz. Blitz -get in get out. I think Tracy was very slow in getting in; and as a result I didn...

It has been forever since I have done Cardio Dance Slim Down (CDSD); and in that time I forgot that I actually like this workout. CDSD is a 40 minute workout led my FIRM Master Instructor Allie Del Rio. The workout features a warm-up, 10 minute club/pop section, 10 minute Latin section , 10 minute disco section and 5 minute cool down. My favorite sections are the Latin and disco sections. This is mainly so because I was actually able to dance those two sections. With the club/pop section, some of the moves aren't conducive to doing on the type of flooring I have, plus this section didn't flow as well as the other two sections. The choreography is not particularly complex. It can be easily picked up just by watching Allie - although she does call out the steps and cues very well. There is a lot of "Taking It From the Top", except for the last 16 counts in each of the combinations. Allie doesn't go back to the beginning. It leaves the impression of the com...

The FIRM Skills, Drills, & Thrills Express Workout is a 25 minute workout lead by FIRM Master Instructor Tina Smalley. The workout features a piece of equipment called the Balance Trainer. The Balance Trainer is an round oval type disc that is unstable to step on. During the course of the workout you are stepping onto it a lot. My greatest fear was that I was going to twist my ankle. My second greatest fear was that I was going to have muscles spasm go off in my feet because if you are not used to working on the balance trainer, the feet fatigue pretty quickly. Skills, Drills & Thrills - a tongue twister of a name. The workout definitely test your balance skills. I happen to think I have very good balance but after doing this workout, I would question that. This workout has two distinct components - Balance/core and cardio. The balance sections I like the most. You really have to concentrate. One of the moves we did had us stand on the balance trainer and move our arms ...

Cathe's Total Muscle Sculpting is part of Cathe's beginner to intermediate group of workouts.It is 30 minutes in length and uses a stability ball and 3lb hand weights. Of course you can go heavier with the weight and I did, but the workout is designed for those new to Cathe and new to exercise. With that said, Cathe uses similar moves and rep counts that you will find in her more advance workouts. You work all the major muscle groups including core. There does seem to be slightly more rest time in between the exercises which Cathe uses to stretch the muscle that was just worked. The tempo of the workout is such that you can go heavier with the weight and Cathe tells you to do just that if the workout becomes easier with 3 lbs. Cathe uses the stability ball for resistance during the leg exercises. On one set I put the stability ball down and grabbed 10lbs weights to increase the intensity. I liked the duration of this workout and one of the things about sculpting or weight ...

Core - Pure Power , I think is the sixth workout in the PowerFit Harmony series. It is a 20 minute workout. It uses a resistance band and a mat throughout the workout. Stephanie works the core in a variety of position to include standing, kneeling, and lying down. This was a very easy workout. The best part of the workout was using the resistance band to stretch the muscle during the stretching exercises. I was hoping for a little bit more intensity in the core exercises. The balance exercises I would classify as slightly challenging as I was wobbling on a couple of those exercises. All in all, I was not impressed. I am giving it 2 1/2 stars. 2 stars for Core and 3 for Stretch. Stephanie as almost always gets high marks. Her cuing is impeccable.

Kickbox Yoga Fusion is a DVD that contains two workouts. The full workout is 50 minutes and it also has an express workout that is 30 minutes. I did the full workout. This workout was boring. It moved slow. I kept wanting Patricia to speed up the instruction. That is not to say her instruction wasn't good. It was very precise and gave you lots of time to practice the move. But as the workout continue to move on, I caught myself snapping my fingers trying to encourage her to move it along. I feel the workouts has more of a punching emphasis than a kicking emphasis. The punching combinations weren't the "same old same old" but they were repetitive. There was also a lot of standing around. So I would classify this kickbox workout as more drill base than cardio base. Patricia is an excellent instructor. She is encouraging and precise in her cuing. She delivers her instruction in a very knowledgeable way. The music was okay. My first though...

TravelFit is approximately 51 minutes long and the only piece of equipment it uses is a resistance band. Cathe promotes this workout as one that you can take with you and do while on travel. My only thought about that was some of the cardio burst moves require jumping and the majority of hotel rooms I have been have paper thin walls and you can always hear not only the people next to you but also those above you. There is not a lot of jumping and by the time that you hotel neighbor would get truly annoyed the workout will be over. I like this workout. It is not a super intense workout but it is significantly challenging that you work up a sweat. Also you can always use a band with more intensity if you want the workout to be harder. Cathe hits all the major muscle groups with this workouts. With a majority of the exercises, you can substitute dumbbells in place of the band if you really want to. Cathe used lifting gloves while performing the exercises. I didn't and didn'...

Total Cardio Kick is part of the QuickFix series of workouts and it features three 10n minute workouts plus a bonus 4 th workout that is also 10 minutes in length. Total Cardio Kick is led by Janis Saffell . Janis Saffell was a lead in several of her own workouts and also she was in earlier CIA workouts. My biggest complaint about Janis's older workouts was the quality of the video production. No complaint with this workout. The production quality is excellent and so is the workout. Each of the 10 minute sections focus on a different section. The first workout was upper body, the second workout lower body, and the third section core. Each section feature simple to follow drill base kickboxing moves with cardio burst thrown in to keep the cardio up. I think this is more of a beginner workout than intermediate workout; and it's a great workout when you don't want to think a lot. My favorite part of the workout was the clock that appears in the lower right corner of th...

Burn & Shape is a 40 minute cardio sculpt workout led by Emily Welsh. It uses the same plain, uninspiring and disappointing set as Total Body Time-Crunch. This is another workout that I haven't done in quite some time. I would consider this workout to be low intermediate in terms of intensity but you do need to pay attention because the choreography is at the medium intermediate level in terms of complexity and it moves fast. I liked the moves in this workout. The choreography, especially in the cardio sets, has attitude. There is a dance feel to the choreography. My only beef was that the steps in the later combinations tended to repeat themselves a lot. The sculpting sets were okay. They were compound in nature so choosing an appropriate weight became the challenge there. Emily is fun and encouraging. Equipment used is dumbbells. I went and found an old review that I did of this workout. Here is what I said on 2/27/2008. " This is a workout that you need to be m...

Total Body Time-Crunch is a 45 minute workout lead by FIRM Master Instructor Rebekah Sturkie. I remember when I first did these series of workouts that came out with or around the same time as the Cardio Weight Series of workouts, I was so disappointed in the set. It was just - so not The FIRM. The set is plain, barren. I have since gotten over that but the set is still uninspiring. It has been a very long timee since I have done this workout. The workout is a cardio sculpt workout. It alternates sculpting sets with cardio sets. I preferred the sculpting sets to the cardio sets. Cardio sets didn't seem to flow very well and they lacked intensity. The sculpting sets were compound in nature. Some of the sets even added three or four components to the exercise. This makes it difficult in trying to select an appropriate weight because while back can take a lot of weight, triceps and shoulders can't take as much or not the same weight. Rebekah is fantastic and excellent ...

Core Fusion is 1 of 5 20 minute workouts on Stephanie Huckbee's PowerFit 5 day workout system. I bought this set, sold it because I felt the workouts were too "beginner" , and just recently purchase it again because of the core workout it included. I don't know if that was such a good idea. I was looking for an intermediate core workout. I wanted a dedicated core/ab workout that wasn't advanced (i.e. Cathe) but I didn't want one that was very beginner. I felt that Core Fusion was very beginner. Core Fusion combined very basic abdominal core exercises with very basic stretching. It lack intensity on all levels. What was nice about the workout was Stephanie. Her cuing is superb. Although it is a very easy workout to follow. It does use the stretchy band that comes with the DVDs on some exercises. I will say that the band was very good for stretching. A nice workout but not what I was look for. 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Wow, I feel like I have been away forever. My schedule in April got really crazy and it is still going to be that way for May. So, I will fit workouts in where I can. I am excited. I went almost four months without buying a new workout and now there are all kinds of new workouts I am interested in buying. On the short list of workouts to buy are: Amy Bento's Advance Step Challenge 4 and Hi Lo Dynamics . Amy is set to film these workouts June 4th. So, that probably means a late August/early September delivery. Tracey Staehle FitbyTracey is filming three workouts under the heading of Fight Circuit. These workouts are supposed to be film this month. Tracey's forum is currently down so I don't know the status on these workouts. Kelly Coffey-Meyer is filming two new workouts this month under her 30 Minutes to Fitness Series. If you want to offer name suggestion for the two new workouts, you can checkout her website at www.coffeyfit.com . Chalene Johnson Turbo Fire . Thi...