Saundra

February 2013 Monthly Rotation Sunday - Treadmill Monday - Sculpt/Weight Tuesday - Les Mills Combat and Turbo Fire Wednesday - Les Mills Body Pump Thursday - Les Mills Body Combat Friday - Cardio Karate Saturday - Rest

Aerobox Burn and Aer o box Express. These two workouts are definitely the best in the bunch. Aerobox Express is approximately 21 & 1/2 minutes in length. And it is a straight up boxing workout.  Michael takes you through a series of punches.  You learn the punch combination in demo mode, you practice in exercise mode, and you take it up a notch in fight mode. This is a layered workout where Michael adds combos as you move along.  I believe there is a total of 6 combinations.  So by the end of the workout you are doing them all super fast in fight mode which I found extremely challenging.  I was definitely flailing the arms in some spots.  Definitely my favorite of the bunch. The only thing I didn't like about it is you only do the workout on one side of the body.  I guess you can switch it then next time you do the workout but you will really  have to know the workout and how the combos flow especially when you move up to fight speed. ...

Aerobox Long & Lean is about 30 minutes in length.  This workout has a lot of stretching but it also contains a lot of strength moves mostly in the form of static and isometric holds. You do moves such as: squats with calf raise single leg press planks elbow down, knees in  plank obliques Aerolean push ups variation Aerolift crunch variation Triceps dips Lying Neck lift variations Single leg hamstring lift After each exercise, Michael stretches you out pretty thoroughly.  I thought this workout quite decent..  Some of the moves, like the Aerolean push ups were sort of cool.  The workout is not chaptered, which is a bummer. I would love to be able to pick and choose a particular exercise. 3 & 1/4 stars

Aerobox Abs, Core, & More is 35 minutes in length.  It contains standing and floor focus abs and core moves. The first part of the workout is standing.  During this section you are doing a lot of boxing drills, throwing punches.  I started off liking this section but didn't really care for it when it entered "fight" mode.  I think this is mostly because it felt too drill like. The floor work started off with plank work.  There were different variations of this.  It then moved on to lying ab work, first working the lower body with leg lifts and then moved on to working the obliques,  executing the moves by lying on the side.  There were also sets of full sit ups.  There is a modifier and this workout does feature the countdown timer and subtitles that detail were you are at in the workout.  While I like this feature, the workout itself, I didn't really care for. Also this workout is not chaptered. So you cannot select the diffe...

Aerobox Max is 56 minutes in length and it an interval circuit workout. This workout is similar to Aerobox Pro but the intensity is a little bit more.  The rounds (there are 4) are longer.There are more plyo sets.  You stay at fight speed a little bit longer. You jump a little bit faster. Instead of "Walking It Down", you "Bounce It Out" between sets. Again as with the other workout, the boxing sections I liked.  I also liked the lower body work in this workout.  The jump rope section was challenging because of the speed and the different tricks Michael threw in such as crossovers and double turns. I am still not a fan of the upper body sculpt exercises. In this workout, Michael does a lot of pushups. Overall, these workouts have been okay. I am mostly lukewarm on them. Parts I like and parts I don't. This workout does have modifiers, as well as the count down clock.  I do like the soundtrack. 3 stars

Aerobox  Pro is about 46 minutes in length and it is a circuit workout. After the warm up, Michael takes you through 5 rounds in which you do: Upper Body Cardio Lower Body Sculpt Upper Body Sculpt Jump Rope Upper Body Cardio consist of various boxing combinations.   Michael takes you through the various speeds, Demo, Exercise and Fight. I will say Fight speed is quite fast. Upper Body Sculpt consist of doing various upper body moves such as shoulder press, triceps dips and pec crossovers.  You do have light hand weights and Michael takes you all the way up to Fight Speed in parts of this section as well.  I didn't like the Upper Body Sculpt sections.  This section seemed chaotic and the sculpting exercises chosen felt awkward at fight speed. Lower Body Sculpt section consist mostly of squats and lunges, with some plyo and isometric moves thrown in. You do get plenty of breaks.  Michael calls it "Walking it Down".  You do this either ...

Aerobox Basics & Drills is about 42  minutes of length.  It is lead by Michael and there is a modifier. The DVD has four chapters that you can choose from allowing you to select a workout option. Each workout option has a warm up and cool down. Several of the chapters use the same footage. The chapters are : Box & Sculpt Jump & Sculpt Box & Jump Box, Sculpt, & Jump This is the DVD where Michael introduces you to Demo Speed, Exercise Speed, and Fight Speed in all of the disciplines particularly boxing and jumping.  In the box section (about 12 minutes) you have the option of using very light handweights and in the jump section (about 14 minutes), you have the option of using a jump rope. The sculpt sections (about 9 minutes)  starts off by working the core, then moves on to upper body (push ups) and then lower body (squats).  The majority of the sculpt section is core work. The set looked a bit dark.  The music was okay This...

Bodystrikes 3 is primarily a lower body workout that is 56 minutes in length.  I really like the soundtrack Ilaria uses for this workout - easy tunes to workout too. This workout is slightly longer than the other Bodystrike workouts and I wish this one was the same length too.  I like the under 50 minute format. The DVD menu breaks down as follows: Play All Intro Warm up and technique exercise 1 exercise 2 exercise 3 exercise 4 final exercise credits After the warm up (includes 3 minutes of jingas) and technique section (the technique section takes your through all the kicks), you move into the exercise combos. Exercise 1 - Alt three front push, side kick, squat front push, front push hold Exercise 2 - six out in squats, alt single roundhouse, alt double roundhouse squat roundhouse Exercise 3 - Crescent out, crescent in, two diagonal jump squats,  Front snap, corner snap, front snap, leg circle out, Exercise 4 - Burpee into side plank right, side plank...

Powerstrike 7 is approximately 57 minutes in length and like other Powerstrike workouts it is characterized by lots of reps. It starts with a warm up and the warm up features Ilaria's trademark push ups to warm up the upper body.  You then move into a series of punches, next comes kicks and then combos leading left followed by combos leading right. And then the workout pretty much ends. Not much of a cool down. The punches start off with a double jab, slit, fast punch. Ilaria layers on  a hook, cross, upper-cut, cross, fast punches.  These punches are done on both the right and left lead. When I say there are lots of reps. I am not exaggerating. For instance, once series of kicks you are doing 100 on the left  and then 100 on the right. And Ilaria hits all the kicks - front push, snap, side kick, back kick, round house and crescent in and out.  At the conclusion of the kick section you are about 30 minutes into the workout. Then the real fun starts w...

Happy New Years Everyone!!! This is my January 2013 Monthly Rotation