Saundra

June is here!!! Dare I say, the first 5 months have flown by. The rotation features lots of sculpting. I am going to try to sneak in some evening cardio work on the days I do a morning sculpt workout. I will have to see how much time I will have in the evenings to do that. June 2012 Monthly Rotation breaks down as follows: Sunday - Jari Love Aerobics & Toning workouts Monday - Christi Taylor cardio Tuesday - Upper Body Split Workout Wednesday - Legs Thursday - Upper Body Split Workout Friday - Turbo Fire cardio Saturday - Rest

Amy Bento's Drop Set Strength - well the workout is not 60 minutes long which is the approximate time listed on the back of the DVD cover. If you do the whole workout, we are talking about an almost 90 minute workout. The workout is chaptered and contains the following sections: warm up Legs Chest Back Shoulders Biceps Triceps Core Stretch. Drop sets - with the exception of the legs and core sections, you are performing one cycle for 3 sets of each exercise. The reps for set 1 is 8, set 2 is 10 and set 3 is 12. As you go up in the number of reps, you are suppose to decrease the amount of weight you are using. For some of the Leg exercises you perform two cycles (two times through) for 3 sets of each exercise or you are performing one cycle on the left leg and one cycle on the right. The core exercises are not performed in the Drop Set manner. Here you are doing 4 sets of each exercise. As you progress through the drop sets, Amy tweaks many of the exercises as you move along.

Kettlebell Kickboxing Diversit y is the fourth DVD in Dasha Libin's Scorcher Series. This workout is only about 25 minutes and doesn't contain a warm up. This workout is meant to be an add on and it is Ab/Core Focus. Along with a Kettlebell or dumbbell you will need a mat. Most of the exercises are floor exercises. I like this one - probably the best of the 4 workouts. It is short and to the point. It follows a similar format as the other workouts. You do a series of moves for one minute each and after about 4 exercises you get a break before starting the next series of workouts. 3 & 3/4 stars

Hip Hop Walk is about 55 minutes in length. It is lead by Amy Bento Ross and Amy is the only cast member. The workout contains the following sections : Warm up - ~ 6 minutes Chapter 1 - ~ 12 minutes Chapter 2 - ~ 4 minutes Chapter 3 - ~ 2 minutes Chapter 4 - ~ 6 minutes Chapter 5 - ~17 minutes Cool Down - ~ 3 minutes Stretch - ~ 5 minutes Easy easy easy workout to follow. You really are just walking for most of the workout. Amy does try to change it up by adding in variations to particular moves. There are some extremely repetitive parts to the workout. I think this is mostly because Amy does several sets of the same moves in which she leads from the right side. Even before the right side is completed, I am already getting bored with what she is doing and ready to move on. She then goes and repeats the same moves for an equal amount of sets on the left side. I was getting bored. Amy does included intensity segments. The intensity segments are drill base and it is where she does a

Kettlebell Kickboxing Longevity is DVD#3 in Dasha Libin's Scorcher Series.  This workout is approximately 43 minutes long and the pattern of the workout is very similar to the Power and Strength DVDs.  This workout starts out with a warm up and the first two minutes you are simulating a jump roping motion.  The warm up also includes alternating front and back kicks, oblique twist knee pulls and warm up exercises for the shoulder. The cool down contains bear hugs, diagonal arm extensions and static stretches for the lower and upper body. Dasha does not mirror cue (not a big deal with this type of workout) and she is still very chatty. The best thing about this work is there was only one set of squat thrusters/burpees and that was the very last exercise of the workout.  I actually thought we were going to make it through the whole workout without doing this overused moved. Another thing I notices about the workout is that when it comes to the plyo sets, Dasha doesn't switch

Lisa Rinna's fourth workout from the Dance Body Beautiful series is Hip Hop Ballroom.   Following the same pattern as the other three DBB DVDs, this workout features the following four dances : Hip Hop Bop & Ballroom Cha Cha Hey Hey Hip Hop Quick Step Hip Hop Salsa I like all the dances. I didn't necessarily like all the tempos. The tempos are slow, medium, and fast.  There were a couple of the fast tempos (Hip Hop Salsa and Hip Hop Quick Step) I thought too fast and the slow tempo in Hip Hop Bop & Ballroom, I thought too slow.  Also, the camera angles. One of my biggest pet peeves about dance workouts is when they cut off the feet. This workout does it and it's annoying.  Luckily the moves are fairly easy to follow which is good because Lisa cuing is not the best. All the workouts have moves where you do a single, another single and then a double. Lisa has a habit of calling this out. She will say "single, single, double on the same side".  I g

Burlesque by Jazzercise is a 48 minute workout and it features Shanna Misset Nelson as the lead.  It has a real showgirl aspect and so of course the term "sexy" was used quite often during the workout. There is a warm up and a cool down.  In between those two, there are 8 dances.  Dance 7 focuses on the Abs. Dance 8 focuses on the lower body (squats, lunges, plies). Each dance is choreograph to its own song.  Speaking of song, the music is awesome. The music in this workout rivals some of my Pump It Up workouts.  All are current danceable tunes. They are lots of fun and have lots of energy. Shanna. I really enjoyed her.  This is my first time working out with her and I thought she was awesome. Great clear cuing. My only issue with the workout was the repetitiveness.  Each dance contain about 4, maybe 5 moves and you repeated those moves throughout the whole song.  So I was wishing for a little bit more variety because on the longer songs it can become boring. The m

Kettlebell Kickboxing Strength clocks in at just over 39 minutes.  This workout is part of Dasha Libin Scorcher Series.  The workout mixes kettlebell moves with kickboxing moves. Strength is the second DVD of the series and it is characterized as Total Body Fat Loss. I thought  it was really similar to the first DVD in tempo and style although the exercises are different. There are two clocks. One counts down the overall workout and one counts down the time for each exercise. Dasha tells you the exercise and if you know it, she tells you to get going. If you don't know it, she demonstrates the moves for one or two reps before stopping to check on the cast members and offer tips. The cast member do not work in unison. Everyone is going at their own pace. With workouts like these, once I see the exercise, I will turn away from the TV and work at my own pace.   Love the length of the workout. There is music but it really doesn't enhance the workout.  3 stars

Ballroom Body Blast is disc 3 of Lisa Rinna's Dance Body Beautiful workouts. The workout is about 67 minutes in length and the format is the same as the other Dance Body Beautiful workouts. Each dance contains four sections. The breakdown Slow tempo Medium tempo Fast tempo In between the warm up and cool down are four different dance routines. They are : Jive, Jam, and Kick Hot Salsa Burn Samba Blast Disco Dream Body I really did like all the dances and thought all four were cute.  I skipped the breakdown section of each dance and I started with the Slow Tempo section and then move on to the other tempos.  By the end of the slow tempo I had all the moves down.  Although I was a bit irritated with the camera angles.  Some of the camera angles made the dances difficult to pick up the moves the first couple of times through. Lisa, still not crazy about her cuing.  I wouldn't have mind if the workout had a music only option.  There is a bonus workout section on

Kettlebell Kickboxing Powe r is part of the Kettlebell Kickboxing Scorcher Series with Dasha Libin.  There are four workouts in the series. These are my first workouts with Dasha and the one thing that I can say about her is she is chatty.  Non stop chatter. Non stop talking.  However, you can tell she is well trained.  Her form and execution are both excellent. Power is the first DVD. The DVD describes this workout as Arms, Glutes, Inner Thighs and Obliques. It is divided into a series of 5 minute circuits. You do about 4 exercises back to back for about a minute each. You then get about a minute break before moving on to the next circuit. Dasha integrates Kickboxing with Kettlebells, sometimes alternating the two. I actually thought the workout was light on Kickboxing. You are working at your own pace. Dasha has four cast members in the workout with her and each of the ladies are working at their own pace. There is a person doing beginner modifications using a dumbbell.

The Dance Body Beautiful series features Lisa Rinna. Lisa is a past contestant on Dancing With The Stars.  I believe she did quite well on the show. Listed  as Disc 1 in the series is Jive, Jump, Ballroom Bump .  This dance workout showcases four different dances.  The dances are : Jive, Jump, Ballroom Bump Cha Cha Crazy Super Sexy Salsa Sizzle Fat Free Disco  Fever You can select each dance individually.  Each of the dances further breaks down according to tempo.  You have Breakdown Slow Medium Fast That tells you right there, that there is lots of repetition.  Lisa starts each dance by breaking down the moves without music. Sometimes she uses her hands to clap out the beat during this section.  I hated this section. I found it hard to follow Lisa breaks down.  I suffered through this section in Jive, Jump Ballroom Bump, but only made it a couple of 8 counts into Cha Cha Crazy before nixing it.   With the last two dances I went straight to the slow section and learn th

CIA 2205 Stepped-Up Step is a 57 minute step workout.  It features Ann Saldi as the lead.  Two cast members join Ann. This is a workout that I have had forever but never did until today.  The workout contains a warm up (about 7 minutes) 5 step combo sections, cool down, abdominals and a stretch. Not a bad step workout.  Ann combines dance  and athletic moves into some pretty fun combos.  The combos aren't long or overly complicated.  Only one of the combos, I found kind of tricky and that was combo two. The fifth combo is actually the combo Ann taught in the warm up.  So once you get to that point in the workout, she pretty much throws it at you.  Ann takes you through all the combos about 4 times, two times each on the left and right. She also splices the combos for an added challenge. I thought Ann did a good job in cuing the workout. She did changed the way she cued 1/2 way through the workout. At the beginning she would have you hold at step knees and she would show you