Saundra

Power Up is Volume 3 in Tracie Long's Focus Series. The focus here is suppose to be "Intense Metabolic Boost". Okay. Sure. This is my second time doing Power Up and it is probably my favorite of the 4 Focus workouts. Chapter 1 - first segment - Brutal. You are doing power lunges off the step. Tracie varies the tempo by adding pulses and knee lifts. One of the features in this workout is that Tracie builds in lots of Active Recovery which after doing the lunges off the step, I needed. The active recovery move that Tracie used was alternating quad stretches. She also did a series of tempo marches. The rest of the workout went like this: 1. speed skaters 2. followed by more alternating quad stretches, 3. jog on the step with the right lead was next, 4. alternating quad stretches, 5. jogging on the step with the left lead, 6. alternating quad stretches. 7. series of squat jumps 8. an ending stretch that ended the segment. Chapter 2 did not use the step and st

Kick Back features 3 relatively self contained 10 minute chapter segments. You can do each chapter on its own or you can any two or all three. The exercises included in workout are Kickboxing inspired moves. In each of the chapters, Tracie works with the tempo to either focus on form (at a slower tempo) or focus on intensity (at a faster tempo). Chapter 1 uses light and medium dumbbells to work the upper and lower body. Using the dumbbells, you do a series of jabs, hooks, upper cups, and cross arm squats. Other exercises included are side lunges with one arm rows into a one arm sword and squat thrust front kicks. Chapter 2 is mostly a lower body focus and you are doing a series of kicks, plie lunges with calf raises and step squats. Tracie uses heavy dumbbells in the plie and squat sections. Chapter 2 concludes with a stretch. Chapter 3 is floor work. Exercises include side planks, single leg push ups. ab work, triceps extension and ribcage pullovers. Kick Back is Volume 2 in

AeroBarre is a 50 minute workout that combines ballet and boxing interval cardio and sculpting sets. It features Leila Fazel as the "demonstrator" of the moves and exercises and Michael Olajide Jr as the narrator. The set is a boxing ring, although Leila doesn't use the ring. She exercises in front of it. The workout contains 11 rounds, but the rounds are short. There is a warm up and cool down round and in between that, there are rounds that feature ballet moves, boxing moves and a combination of ballet and boxing moves. Leila uses a light set of hand weights and a body bar in various parts of the exercises. There were simple cardio burst dispersed throughout. This is a really unique workout and I felt quite challenged. I am not very good at ballet or boxing, although I like them both. Leila varied the tempo quite a bit. The faster she would go, the harder it would be for me to controls the move and it didn't matter if she was doing boxing drills or ballet drills.

Actually they have been back for awhile. Nonetheless this year I got started late. Normally I try to start the runs in April. This year because job related issues, I didn't get the runs started until June and boy did I feel the late start. Several times I had to stop and walk. The first five minutes I felt like I was going to die. It didn't help that I was carrying an extra 22lbs that I wasn't used to carrying. It has taken me a lot longer than I thought to get back to what and where I was used to. I am still not there yet. The road has been slow but there has been progress. In fact, until today I was making progress on my time each week. Today I felt as if I was running in quick sand. It was just slow going. The humidity was stifling and it was warm. And I was out the door at 640am this morning to do the run. Now why do I do these Sunday Morning Runs? It is all in preparation for the Baltimore Running Festival 5K Run . This year will be my 5th year running it. My

Target already has in stock some of the new workout that have been schedule for a fall release. The FIRM Calorie Explosion Bob Harper's Pure Burn Super Strength Rodney Yee's Ultimate Power Yoga Elle Yoga Workout Dance With Julianne - Just Dance They were all priced $12.99.

Kickbox Underground featuring Guillermo Gomez clocks in at around 40 minutes. Guillermo does a series of kickboxing moves that he layers into a combination. All the moves that he uses are very familiar and are combine in a standard way. However, with that said, he does offer more variety in this workout than he does in the previous two videos I have recently shared thoughts on. The intensity is on the lower end of medium. Guillermo does enough reps that you start to feel the muscle fatigue. The music is okay and the set is um ...... There is some funky camera effects going on - I think it is called Sepia. I was definitely liking this workout much better than the other two GG workouts I did. 3 stars.

of new and upcoming workouts. I am just giddy with excitement. Both Collage and Total Fitness are showing a plethora of soon to be release workouts. Mmmmm, must keep my pre-orders in check. Already ordered and waiting for their arrival : Kelly Coffey Meyer -30 Minutes to Fitness: Lift Kelly Coffey Meyer -30 Minutes to Fitness: Circuit Burn Amy Bento - Advance Step Challenge 4 Amy Benot - Hi Lo Dynamics The FIRM - Calorie Explosion Dance With Julianne - Just Dance That is quite a list I have so far. Haven't ordered but seriously thinking about : 10 Minute Solution Pilates For Beginners - Lara Hudson (I like Lara) ELLE Cardio Body - Brooklyn Decker ELLE Workout Yoga - Brooklyn Decker A little bit interested in : Pure Barre Lowry Lifts Dvds 1 & 2 - Carrie Rezebak There are also new workouts coming out by : Bob Harper Jillian Michaels Rodney Yee Dance Off Inches Billy Blanks WillPower & Grace Leslie Sansone Like I said.....TIS the season

Cardio & Flexibility is a 30 minute workout. The first 10 minutes is the warm up, the next 10 minutes features a MMA combo, and the last 10 minutes is stretching. Mmmmmm. I don't know what to say about this workout. The workout felt very very basic to me. I was almost bored with it. The workout felt longer than what is was. It was repetitive without being interesting. Some positives of the workout are you do get a decent stretch and Guillermo cues well. The workout is also very easy to follow. Even so, I don't think I am going to be doing this workout too much in the future. I give it 2 stars out of 5 stars.

I found a new 100 Calorie snack that I like. It's a new cheese item from Kraft called Cheese Bites . It comes in 4 different flavors but the the only two I have tried mostly because they are the only two flavors I can find are Cheddar and Cheddar and Monterey Jack . Each bag comes with 5 individual wrap cheese packs. Each pack has little squares (bites) of cheese. This is a nice 100 calorie snack to have around. Be warn that if you a doing Weight Watchers, the bites clock in at a whopping 3 points. I say whopping because the majority of my 100 calorie snacks are only 2 points. Nutrition Information is: 100 Calories, 8 Fat grams, 0 Fiber The other flavors are Three Cheese Blend and Mozzarella and Garlic & Herb . Kraft is giving out coupons for $1.00 off on their website. 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would have given it 5 stars if it was 2 WW points.

Aerospace Serene is a 30 minute stretch program lead by Leila Fazel and narrated by Michael Olajide. First let me say Michael is very easy to listen to. For the most part, I do not like narrated workouts, but his workouts I do not mind. With this 30 minute program you are getting a pretty thorough stretch for the upper and lower body. Each pose is held sufficiently to stretch the muscles and most poses are doable. The workout features traditional stretches and yoga postures. There is a pretty good flow to the exercises as you move from one stretch position to the next. All in all an incredibly solid workout that does its job. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Martial Fusion Cardio Blast . If you like the jab cross punch, if you want to perfect your jab cross punch then this is the workout for you, because with the exception of a side block, these were the only two punches we did in the whole entire 46 minute workout. This workout, led by Guillermo Gomez, features 4 combinations and quite frankly I hesistate to call them combinations, I think a better turn would be add-ons. Yes. 4 add-ons for one complete combination. Within the whole combination, you do a triple punch, one side kick, 2 knee smashes and some inner arm circles. What does all this add up to - repetition galore. That is not to say that it was a bad workout and that it wasn't enjoyable but you do find yourself wondering "Is this all we are going to do?" The workout was okay for me because I like Guillermo Gomez. Anybody else and I am sure I would have been thinking "What the heck is this?" Now you do get some good stretching in the workout. Guil

This program Yoga Groove comes on a two DVD set. One DVD features Yoga and the other DVD features Dance. Each DVD comes with several workout options. The workout that I did was "The Poses" workout. "The Poses" is on the Yoga DVD and is approximately 48 minutes in length. I chose this workout for one of my active recovery days. My active recovery day is a day that I like to take it easy and get in some stretching. With this workout, I actually felt like I was working out. Many of the poses seem un-usually hard for me. I don't know whether that was because I was stiff from my Thursday sculpting workout or because the poses were held for longer than I am used to. I don't workout to Yoga a lot but I thought this workout was nice although it took me about 15 minutes into the workout to warm up to it. The program is narrated with voice over. The set is on a beach. The music is serene and pleasant enough - mostly background. And there is no mirror cuing.