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October 2012 Monthly Rotation I have a couple of things going on in October. I am planning on attending the FIRM Believer's Trip and I am also running at 10K race.  So my rotation is designed to support both of these upcoming events. I have a mixture of FIRM workouts, Cardio Coach workouts, Cardio Karate and I am planning on doing KCM latest workout Plateau Busters. So I am not exactly doing my normal style rotation but a little change is good.

Turbo Fire Low HiiT Workouts .   Turbo Fire Low HiiT Classes are part of the Turbo Fire Starter Package.  There are two Low HiiT Classes.  They are:  Low HiiT 20 Class and Low HiiT 25 Class. Low HiiT 20 Class actually clocks in at 18:59.  In this class, Chalene Johnson takes you through three Low HiiT Drills and you do each drill twice.  The low stands for low impact.  HiiT stands for High Intensity Interval Training.  So in this workout, Chalene is doing a high intensity workout with low impact moves.   If you do not want to do high intensity, there is a modifier showing a low intensity version of the move. There is also a modifier showing super high, (high impact) version of the move. Each of the drills are about 64 seconds in length. Then you get about a 60 second break. During the break, Chalene teaches or reviews the next upcoming drill. The cast is huge. Including Chalene and the modifiers there are about 15 other...

Tone & Tighten is just over an hour in length. In this workout, Brooke leads you through a series of toning exercises (some of which has a cardio emphasis). Brooke uses light weights and/or your own body weight to provide resistance for each exercise. Each exercise is performed for one minute or 30 seconds for each side. Some of the exercises she does are: criss-cross lunge, plie punch front, arabesque, W shoulder press, biceps curl, kickbacks etc. Now the DVD menu breaks up the workout as follows : warm up lower body upper body core cool down However, I felt the lower body and upper body segments blurred together because many of the exercise in these sections consist of compound exercises that worked both the upper and lower body. Also a couple of the exercises in the lower body section only worked the upper body. The workout does moves at nice pace. Brooke takes time to stretch between several of the exercises. Brooke is pleasant. The set is decent. The music is mostly back...

Cardio Quick Fix is part of Kelly Coffey-Meyer 30-Minutes To Fitness series of workouts. With Cardio Quick Fix, Kelly gives you two (approximately 30 minute) all cardio workouts. Workout 1 is steady state and clocks in at about 25 minutes. Kelly breaks up this workout into two combos and in each combo you are doing about 4 to 5 different moves. Kelly teaches the moves in a layered approach so there is a bit of repetition. Workout 2 is a bit of an interval drill base (hi/lo) workout and clocks in at about 29 minutes. Some of the exercise are squats, into pop squats, low jacks into plyo jacks, side steps into skaters, march into high knee jog. Both workouts share the same warm up (about 4 minutes) and cool down (about 2 minutes). Although in workout two, I felt Kelly added an additional warm up set.  I like both workouts well enough. They are both very simple workouts with simple moves. You really are driving you own intensity with these workouts. With workout 1, my bodybugg ...

Brook Burke's Strengthen & Condition workout is about 60 minutes in length. It features a warm up, lower body section, upper body section, core and cool down. Brook is joined by Celebrity Trainer Greg Joujon-Roche and the two of them take you through a series of toning moves. Most of the moves are done using your own body weight and isometric contractions or holds.. A few of the exercises does utilize dumbbells. You are doing each exercise for 60 seconds or if there are sides, 30 seconds per side. This is a workout that could have utilized a clock in the corner of the workout. Many times I felt Greg's counting uneven especially when he had you do one side and then the other. The DVD is chapter and you can select any of the segments to do as a standalone workout.. The warm up and cool down are about 4 to 5 minutes. The other segments are about 15 minutes give or take a minute or two. The DVD gives you audio options. They are: Music and instruction Instruction only Musi...

Fast Cheetah is Volume 7 in the Original FitPrime series of workouts. It is a 55 minute workout and it is lead by Tracie Long. This workout was designed as a cross-trainer to Strong Bear. Where Strong Bear was "slow + heavy". Fast Cheetah is "fast + light". It uses lighter dumbbell weight and the tempo of the music if faster. This workout contains a lot more cardio than Strong Bear. A lot of the cardio is functional fitness in nature and often features a medicine ball doing sports drill type combinations. There is also a kickbox and tall box climb segment. Fast Cheetah uses the non-dominant principle of training in which you train your weaker side first. This set also features the mirror backdrop. Tracie works out on carpet that looks like it might be 5 X 8 in size. I wasn't crazy about the construction of this workout. It was just okay. I did like the music and of course Tracie is great as usual. But I am giving it a lukewarm 3 stars.

FitPrime Strong Bear is Volume 6 in the Original FitPrime workouts. This workout is lead by Tracie Long and it is 53 minutes long. There are no other cast members. Strong Bear is a muscle shaping workout that features non-dominant training (training your weaker side first). It is a total body training workout in that it hits all muscle groups using various functional fitness and traditional type exercises, but there is not much cardio. The workout uses a dowel, high step, ankle weights and dumbbells. The set is small in size but very busy. There is a mirror backdrop that lets you see how the exercise looks from the back. I like this workout. A few of the exercises were challenging. The pace is slow and methodical and was designed to allow you to go heavy with the weights. 3 & 3/4 stars

10 Minute Solution Hip Hop Dance Mix features Kristin Jacobs as the lead. Kristin takes you through 5 Hip Hop inspired 10 minute workouts. You can play all 5 sections, select only one section or created a personalized workout. You can select up to six solutions when you create a personalized workout. So if you wanted, you could double up on a segment. The dances are: Hip Hop Basics Fat Burning Funk Edgy Grooves Body Re-Mix Cardio Street Heat. I found Kristin's instruction to be clear and concise. There is just enough repetition to ensure you get the move but not so much you get bored. The steps themselves start out basic and Kristin adds rhythm as you repeat the moves. All the music tracks (although instrumental) had a real hip hop flavor to them. So they fit the dances and vibe very well. I really like this work and I like all five dances. Usually there is at least one dance or segment in the bunch that I wouldn't particularly care for but not so with this workout. 4 ...

Fire Starter Class is the prequel to the Turbo Fire workouts. It is a 37 minute workout taught by Turbo Fire creator Chalene Johnson. Chalene slows down the pace (slow compared to Turbo Fire) and breaks down the move as she teaches you the basics of Turbo Fire workouts. Fire Starter Class contains 3 long combos. Each of the three combos are made up of 2 mini combos where you go through the moves on the right and then the left. So expect some repetition. The workout is set to mostly up to date (current) music that really keeps the workout moving. Along with Chalene, there are several cast members including a low impact (beginner) modifier and there is also a person that is doing extremely advance high impact moves for those who want to go that route. Throughout the workout, Chalene offers tips and encouragement in how to get the most out of the workout. I like the workout. I think it is a great compliment to the Turbo Fire workouts. 4 stars