Saundra

I am pretty sure I have reviewed Hi Lo Xtreme and I will check in a minute or so to see if that is true. I think Hi Lo Xtreme might have been my second attempt at Amy Bento (2nd behind ASC2). I remember chucking these workouts to the side because they were hard to follow. I wasn't used to the sort of cuing that Amy did. But I brought them back out; and I am glad I did because I really do love Amy style cardio - be it Kickboxing, Hi Lo or Step. With that said, this would not be the workout I would start out with if I was learning Amy. Now the moves themselves aren't particularly complex and once you know the combos (there are 4) it flows nicely. The problem is Amy isn't consistent in her cuing or rather the cuing is uneven. By that I means combos and intervals aren't the same on both sides. You do one side and then go to the other side and expect to do the same thing and no that is not the case. Also all the combos don't finish the same way; for instance...

I can't believe this is the first time I have done Advanced Step Challenge , the first one. I have had this workout for quite some time and I finally got around to doing the workout this morning. I don't know the reason why I hadn't done it until now, maybe I thought it wouldn't be as fun as two and three and now four, but it was a blast. Okay the workout. A short workout for Amy - about 42 minutes but even so the workout contain a warm up, 4 step combinations and a cool down. It also contain a Power Up section but I didn't do that. The combos were fun and athletic and the workout featured traditional Amy cuing. By that I mean she throws it at you. The simpler steps are broken down and repeated more - kind of like you are using them to get your second wind - and then it is full blast into a series a moves. She does take you through each set of moves at least three times but there is no break down for them. I think Amy even states she is not breaking down the ...

Pure Strength is a 3 days split weighted workout series. The three workouts are: Pure Strength Legs & Abs , Pure Strength Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Pure Strength Back, Biceps and Abs . Legs & Abs is 64 minutes. Chest, Shoulder & Triceps about 41 minutes and Back, Bicep & Abs is about 46 minutes. I believe this is my second time doing this workouts. (Yep). I just went back and read my old review. I don't really have a whole lot to add, except to emphasize that the workout is fast past with very little rest between the sets.. I am including worksheets this time around of the exercises perform. Click on the image for a larger view. What I am noticing with working out to parts or splits. There is not a big calorie burn during the workout. This week I got up to around 265 calories burn with the leg workout but didn't even reach 200 calories burn with the two upper body workouts. I think for Chest, Shoulder, & Triceps I burned 198 calories an...

Hi Lo Dynamics - what else can I say? Well, this morning was my second time doing the workout and I like this workout a lot but I do have caveats. Last time I mentioned the camera angles - I think the problem is the editing and the way the camera cuts to that particular camera angle. It is not smooth and its jarring. It gives you the feeling that you made a mistake or missed a step when you haven't. When I knew the crappy camera angles were coming up, I stopped looking at the television and guess what - "It stopped annoying me". The music ????????? Not bad, Not great. Kind of subdued in spots, Kind of rockin in others. Memorable ????? It did fit the workout and kept the workout moving at a nice pace. So I guess it did its job. Okay - other things I notice this time around that I think escape me last time -in the main part of the workout Amy doesn't combine the first two combos (1 &2) and the last two combos (3+4) . And I thought I remembered doing t...

I took ASC4 out for another spin and yep I love it. I think this is going to be my favorite Advanced Step Challenge workout. The combos really came together for me and I found a suitable substitution for that "v step switch" that was giving me problems last week. Actually the move is not hard. I think by the time I get to it though, (it is in the 4th combination) I am tired and my feet just don't want to move that fast. In the workout Amy runs through combos 1 + 2 after she teaches them and she performs combos 3+4 after she teaches them. I would have love for her to run through all 4 back to back at the end of the workout. Although, she might have added this as a premix. I will need to check to see if that is the case. I haven't done the Power Up section of the workout so I can't comment on that, but I never do the Power Up sections in any of the workouts, so........ Lots of people have commented on the set. It's Pink. The set didn't bother me ...

I snuck these workouts in these week and overall it is not a bad series. Xtreme Cardio Dance is led by Janna Kunitz of Core Rhythms. I really enjoyed Jaana in the Core Rhythm series so I was very happy to see that she had put on more dance exercise workouts. Exercise - repetition through movement (repetitiously move your muscles). This is what Jaana says exercise is. I point this out because there is a lot of repetition in these workouts, a lot of taking it from the top. Features that all the workouts have in common. There is a clock up for each section of the workout. The clock counts down for each section and then resets itself at the beginning of the next section. There is also a progress bar at the bottom of the workouts that I guess is there to show you how much of the workout you have completed. Each workouts has a modifier and the warm up is the same in all the workouts except for Sexy Sculpt. The are four cast members in each of the workouts. The Workouts Latin -is approxi...

Took today off from running to rest my knee.

The Slow & Heavy series is a three day split workout series. The workouts are Slow & Heavy Legs & Shoulders , Slow & Heavy Chest & Back , and Slow & Heavy Triceps & Biceps. . Each workout clocks in around the hour mark with the Legs & Shoulder workout being a little over an hour. . The Chest & Back workouts features plank core work and the Triceps & Bicep workouts features more traditional ab type work. . This is my second time doing these workouts and I have to say I like them much better the second time around. Cathe states in her introduction that these workouts require a lot of focus and should only be done in short durations. I agree. I was starting to loose focus by the end of the workout and certainly by the time I got to workout three which for me was Triceps & Biceps which I did Friday. . Most of the exercises feature 3 sets of 8 reps each. The rep count is an 8 count move with 2 counts done in one direction and 6 counts done ...

Hi Lo Dynamics is approximately 55 minute workout that includes 4 combinations with 4 intervals and a core/ab section, plus warm up, cool down, and a stretch. . While this probably won't be my favorite Hi Lo of Amy's, I do like the workout nonetheless and I am very happy to have another Amy Bento Hi Lo workout. For the most part, I found the choreography very easy to pick up. I do not think there is any complex choreography at all. What trouble I had in picking up the routine really came from the camera angles used and I will talk more about that below. . Uchenna did most of the modifications and from time to time Amy joined her in modifying the workout. With that said, there wasn't much modification. I did a lot of my own modifications just because my knee has been bothering me lately. Angela did the advance high impact stuff. I really like the set up of when it is just Amy, Angela, and Uchenna. Amy is full of energy and the overall vibe is cool and fun. . Two things both...

Advance Step Challenge 4 is the newest step workout by Amy Bento and I love it. I especially love that fact that the whole workout is under an hour long. This step workout features 4 step combinations executed to a pretty good soundtrack. Like the last two Amy step workouts, Amy includes a preview chapter where she breaks down some of the more trickier combinations. I ran through the preview chapter twice and it was a help. Not that I thought the routines were particularly difficult to pick up; in fact out ASC2, 3 and 4, I found ASC4 the easiest for me to learn. I thought combo 4 was the trickiest to get. Amy has this "v step switch" move where I kept missing the "switch". The set or rather the walls or surrounding area is pink. There are a total of 6 cast members including Amy. Amy actually does the beginner or basic modifications and the ladies behind her are doing the more advance higher intensity moves. I felt the energy flowing. I plan to do this workou...

Rainy day. Lots of drizzle. 36:46:17

This was another week of Amy Bento workouts. I had to do some substitutions. I was expecting to be doing Amy's two new cardio workouts, but they didn't arrive so I did Advanced Step Challenge 2 and Hi Lo Challenge instead. I absolutely love these two workouts. Both of these workouts are tops in their categories of Step and Hi Lo Aerobics. The music has so much energy that it drives you to keep going even when you are exhausted. I don't do either one of these workouts enough. I am sure that I have reviewed both of these workouts but here is a recap of what they consist of . ASC2 contains 5 step combinations. (Due to time, I only made it through combos 1 -4). Each of the combos are done with the step in the horizontal positions. The combos are athletic but intricate. I remember when I was first learning the routine, I would put the DVD player is slow playback so that I could walk through the moves. Once you get the moves down, that is when the fun really b...

36:58:87 It was a chilly morning. I may start running later now that it is becoming cooler. My runs are still harder than I think they should be. Slow going in the progress department.

I love Amy. I think she is so innovative in the way she creates her workouts. I cannot say enough good things about Amy's cardio. This week's cardio workouts featured Advanced Step Challenge 3 which I did on Tuesday and CIA 2805 Hi Lo Knockout which I did on Thursday. Now if I do have one beef with Amy's workouts is that they can be so long and I can never fit the whole workout in my allotted workout time which is usually an hour. For ASC3 I did the first four combinations before I ran out of time and with Hi Lo Knockout I did Premix number 4 which consist of the warm up, combos 3, knockout 3, combo 4, knockout 4 and the cool down. Both workout are super fun and full of energy. Now one of the things that I did notice with Hi Lo Knockout and starting with combo 3 as oppose to combo 1 is that the energy wasn't as high or maybe it was the beat in the music at that particular point didn't seem as driving. That, however, didn't last long. I got a super calorie...