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This Daily Stretch Conditioning DVD contains two 20 minutes workouts. Madeleine Lewis is your instructor. The first workout is Daily Stretch. This workout starts out with a series of standing stretches that included a bit of balance work. The next part of the workout consisted of kneeling work mostly on all floors.  This section too included balance work by working opposite limbs. Madeleine then takes you through a series of seated twisting stretches and this is followed by lying floor stretches for the hamstring. The music is blah. The set is an outdoor setting - filmed near a lake or a river.  A mat is required. I like this stretch workout. The second workout is Stretch Conditioning .  This workout is also filmed outdoors but the setting is different. This workout requires a prop which looks like a foam roller sliced in half. You can use a towel or blanket as a substitution.  This workout also requires a Yoga Strap. This workout starts from the lying po...

Essentrics Barre Workouts . This workout stars Sahra Esmonde-White.  Sahra is the only cast member. I found this workout to be really similar to the other Essentrics workout that I did: Class of 2012 Workout. I did the 60 minute workout which consisted of doing each of the segments. The segments are: Standing | Abs Waist Arms & Posture | 15 minutes Floor Toning | Thigh & Quad Thinning | 9 minutes Floor Stretch | Hips, Back & Hamstrings | 7 minutes Barre Tone | Legs, Butt, Triceps Toning | 15 minutes Barre Stretch | Complete Hip, Back & Lower Body Stretch | 15 minutes Again, not a big calorie burn but lots of great stretching and toning.  In the Standing segment, the arm work was the most challenging for me. I felt it in my shoulder joints. The floor toning segment featured some of the same super challenging outer thigh work as the Class of 2012 workout. The Floor Stretch was great for opening up my hips. There were seated and lying stretch exercis...

Essentrics Class of 2012 is lead by Sahra Esmond-White.   It is a toning and rebalancing workout that uses some techinques of pilates, yoga, dance, ballet to stretch and tone the body. The workout starts with a loose warm up to get the blood flowing. You are mostly standing static and there are lots of arm and torso movements.  The song used in the warm up left me un-inspired.  I thought this was going to be a long workout if I had to listen to this tempo throughout but after the first song, I quite like the rest of the music selection. After the warm up, you went into a standing segment which is about 24 minutes in length,.  I really felt the arm work in this part of the work. I kept having to take breaks during this part and relax my arms. Sahra stops to explains as she goes through or starts a different move. This slows the workout down quite a bit. You are holding a position while she is talking about it which is a bit challenging and awkward. Usuall...

Fit Body Yoga is a Giaim workout that is led by Gwen Lawrence. It features three 20-minute workouts. Workout 1 focuses on the Upper Body and it is called Upper Body Blast .  Most upper body yoga workouts contains lots of shoulder work and this is no different. The second workout is called Lower Body Tone . This was my favorite of the three workouts because I really felt stretch out in the hips and thighs after this workout. The third workout is named Core Definition.   Along with ab work, there is work for the back.  Also the length of this workout is actually 17 minutes and not 20. For the most part, throughout the workout, you are doing each sequence twice per side.  The first time through, the sequence is performed at a slower pace and then the second time through, the pace sped up just a little bit. Every one in awhile Gwen would deviate from this pattern, which was annoying because I thought I knew what was coming next and I turned out to be wrong. T...

Tonique's Addicted to Movement .  Okay. On the back of the DVD cover it said the workout is a "bit" more than hour. Someone needs to tell Sylvia, that 18 minutes past an hour is not a bit. Yes, the workout clocks in at almost 79 minutes. And I did last for the whole workout. Mostly because I kept expecting it to end.  This was like the never ending workout. Not counting the exercise used in the warm up, the main part of the workout contained over 55 different exercises. I tried capturing them all to put in a spreadsheet but I might have miss some. The workout is NOT chapter which to me is unacceptable for a workout that is so long. Also Sylvia didn't tell us how many reps we were doing and she didn't always cue when she change the emphasis to the move she was performing. So you felt you always had to watch the TV. Now with all that said, I did like the workout although, I was still super sore from Premiere.  The workout is mostly standing but Sylvia doe...

Country Line Dance Party! features Amy Blackburn as the lead and the workout clocks in at 41 minutes. Like other DOTI workouts it has a step guide that gives you a preview of some of the more challenging steps. The step guide is chaptered. So, you can move from step to step more easily. Along with a warm up and cool down, there are three dances. The dances are: Scoot Those Boots Ride 'Em Cowboy Brand New Boyfriend Boogie I liked the dances in  Country Line Dance Party slightly more than the dances in Country Line Dance  even though in "Party" the steps seemed more repetitive.  This was an okay workout. Not to strenuous. Amy kept talking about how she had drop a pound and/or size here and there, but she was pleasant. 3 stars

My first Tonique workout and boy did I get a serious case of DOMS from this workout.  I could barely walk and I didn't even do all the reps. Premier clocks in at about 64 minutes.  The workout primarily is lower body focus with tons of squats and lunges.  Sylwia (the instructor) starts off with a series of Drills to warm up the body. The drills are jumping jacks, jogging in place, and jump rope. The warm up drills are about 5 minutes. Then the work begins with the Squat section. What I liked about this workout is that Sylwia included subtitles that told you the name of each exercise. She would also tell you verbally as well as tell you how many reps you were doing. Verbally - the workout is narrated or voice-over.  Sylwia does a good job with the narration as it is in sync with what she is doing in the workout.  She also offers various motivation tips and encouragement throughout the workout. Sylwia is the only cast members.  The music is decent. Th...

Dance Off the Inches Country Line Dance is lead by Amy Blackburn. The workout clocks in just pass 36 minutes. Like other DOTI workouts it contains a step guide that takes you through some of the steps you will perform in the three mini routines. For the most part the choreography was easy to follow and the dances are very doable. I did refer back to the step guide for one of the steps that appear in routine #3.  That move was called the "chicken legs". The DVD does break the workout into chapter points. The chapters are: Warm Up Round' Em Up Party Boots Barnyard Boogie Cool  Down My favorite dance was Round Em Up. This was a nice workout. Felt more like an "active recovery" type workout. My heart rate didn't really get up and at times I felt the workout moved too slow.  Overall, though, it was okay. 3 stars

Core Rhythms Swing Sensation stars Jaana Kunitz and Julia Powers as your instructor.  This workout clocks in at around 46 minutes and features some intense core action in the various segments. Jaana and Julia takes you through three basic tempos: Half time  -  At Tempo   - Double Time. They show basic versions of the moves as well as its high impact version. You perform all moves first on the left and then on the right. This workout requires a lot of arm/shoulder endurance. I was really feeling it in the shoulders trying to hold the arm positions. The workout also contains intensifiers that really get the heart rate up. Jaana and Julia calls them "sprints".  Sometimes Jaana and Julia will get a little spastic in this part of the workout. Love the music. Love the vibe of the workout.  The workout is choreograph tightly to the rhythms of the music.  The sections of the workout are: Warm Up Merengue Swing Cool Down. The cool ...

May 2014 Good Morning and Happy May 1st to you all. Breakdown for May Sunday - Cardio Karate Monday - Barre Style Workouts Tuesday - Dancing Off The Inches Wednesday - Barre Style Workouts Thursday - Ilaria Powerstrike Friday - Core Rhythms Saturday - Yoga and Stretching I hope you all have a prosperous and successful May.