Saundra

 Heather C Fitness presents Moxie 1 and Moxie 2 . Both are cardio strength workouts that require no equipment. The strength portion comes in the form of body weight exercises often done in the plank position but there are some squats, lunges, dips, crouching tigers, and handstands. Throughout the workouts, Heather gives you options showing you how to make the moves advance as  well as how to make the moves easier. The workouts include balance moves as well as  jumping, running, hopping and some kickbox moves too. Each workout clocks in at just over 21 minutes and probably could have been included on one DVD. What I didn't like is there is no DVD menu. The workout just start to play as soon as you put it in your DVD player.  The DVDs are also DVD-R. I like both workouts well enough but I didn't like one workout more that the other.  I felt they were both good 20 minute workouts. I love Heather's motto, "Love What Your Body Can Do Today". Heather's

Get Bent is advertised as "circus style flexibility training" and there is a bit of that but overall I thought this was a solid stretching and flexibility workout especially for the hips and shoulder. The workout clocks in a around 55 minutes.  The DVD menu contains the following: Play Fit & Bendy Splits Tutorial Intro Warmup Splits Prep Splits Shoulders Backbends Cool Down Kristina uses yoga blocks to help with modifying the stretch and she used a wall for increase or deeper stretching.  There is some tough stretching going on here.   The back bend section was particularly tough for me.  As were the splits.  I particularly like the deep stretching for the shoulder which uses a wall to increase the stretch. The split prep section is a series of hamstring, inner thigh and hip stretches. Most stretches you are doing at least twice.  Kristina will have you do a particular stretch, come out of it and go back and repeat the sequence. The set is a bit funky. Th

Ilyse Baker Your Sexy Everything is a lower body inspired workout.   The workout is composed of mini routines from 5 to 8 minutes. Each routine has a particular focus. Ilyse incorporates total body moves in each mini workout that gives the routine a cardio effect. There are two participants along with Ilyse.  One person is showing more basic beginner moves.  The other person is showing intermediate moves. Ilyse is the one doing the advance moves. The workouts are short but challenging. The Tabata workout comes with a picture in picture (PIP) that demos the move during the 10 second rest. The Thighs workout runs through a series of squats and lunges. There are also some plank jacks in this workout. The Calves workout consists of calve raises, hops and rock and roll calves done in a plank position. Glutes is where you get down on all fours working hydrants and donkey kicks. There is also a series of single leg squats and balance work. The Dancer's Floor Stretch is jus

Ilyse Baker's Dancinerate Sazzy Jazz and Hip Hop Fusion is Ilyse's second Dancinerate workout.  This workout has two dances, one is jazz base and on is hop hop base.  Each has its own warm up and cool down and both routines clock in at around 26 minutes. Ilyse follows a definite pattern in teaching the routines. She introduces the move with slow counts that she runs through three times.  Ilyse then has you rehearse the move at tempo for three times through.  The move is added to the routine and you take it from the top three times. The whole routine is around eight 8 counts. So its not a long routine.  At the end of the workout, Ilyse takes you through the routine for several runs giving you the opportunity for more calorie burn. The music changes as the routine moves along. So you are performing the same moves to different music and different parts of the music. I like this workout. I think I like this slightly better than the first workout. My favorite routine was

Tangoflex Method is a workout method designed to increase flexibility. The Tangoflex system consist of four workouts across two DVDs and has been created by Victoria Sarquisse.  DVD one contains the following : Introduction 50 Minute Full Body Workout Play All The workout starts lying down and finishes standing up.  You are taken through a series of exercises.  Victoria works the body in a variety of positions and levels.  Multiple levels are demonstrated. Victoria will show the advance version and at the same time and picture in picture (PIP) box will pop up that will show how the move can be modified. I like this feature. By the end of the workout, I did feel as if I stretch the whole body. The pace of the workout is slow. The music is methodical and a bit melancholy.  Parts of it made me want to go to sleep.  I like the full body workout but did feel it was about 10 minutes to long. DVD Two contains: Introduction 5 Minute Lower Back Stretch 10 Minute Balance Routine

Zumba 101 Can't Dance stars Beto Perez as  the lead instructor.  Along with Beto, there is Julianna Sartori and Priscilla Sartori who are the background exercises. This DVD contains two programs. The first program is Step By Step.  In this workout Beto takes you through four core dances of Zumba. The dances are Merengue, Reggaeton, Cumbia and Salsa.  Beto breaks down each of these dances teaching them each to a song. After Beto demonstrates the four dances, he takes you through a mini workout that is about 15 minutes long.   Step By Step breaks out as follows: Fiesta - Merengue Lo Que Ellas Quieren - Reggaeton Nena - Cumbia Pachanga - Salsa Tiempo De Bailar - Merengue Pop Baila Mi Soca - Soca Pam Pam - Merengue Baracundera - Cooldown The second program is Dance, Dance, Dance. The order of the workout is very similar to the Zumba 101 Step by Step Class. The only difference in the songs is that Beto adds a warm up song:  24 hours. When the the warm up song starte

Method Express contains six workouts that are all around the 10 minute mark.  Tracy has you use your own body weight,  ankle weights, and hand weights to train the muscles. She uses a variety of positions such as standing, kneeling, prone, supine, all-fours, and lying side to work various areas of the body.  Most of the exercises had a rep count of either five reps or 10 reps.  There were a couple of exercises in the leg workouts that contain more reps.  For the most part, Tracy counts out the reps as she performs each rep. The cuing was pretty decent. Throughout the workouts, when Tracy would complete an exercise, she will tell you "good job".  She does this quite a bit. The music is mostly background music. In Upper Body Express, the music goes completely off three times.  So you just hear Tracy's voice.  Overall, I really like the individual workouts.    There is an option to Play All and if you do that, the workout is 60 minutes. The six workouts are: Sculp

Abs & Stretch is part of the first group of workouts that Amy Bento put out.   It consist of two ab workouts and 2 stretch workouts.  Stretch Section 1 is around 11 minutes in length. The other three segments are around 15 minutes each. Abs section 1 is a high rep workout and features standing and seated abs work.  Ab section 1 has a short warm up  Ab section 2 focuses on planks and working your abs using the stability ball. If you are doing abs 2 as its on workout, there is not a warm up for it.  Both workouts use dumbbells. Both stretch workouts use a resistance band and a mat.  Stretch section 2 is a standing stretch workout and Stretch section 2 is a floor based workout.  The DVD menu: Introduction Play Program Chapters    Back to Main Menu    Abs Section 1    Abs Section 2    Stretch Section 1    Stretch Section 2 Credits These workouts were okay.  You can play all the sections as one workout by hitting Play Program . Although,  I like to use them as add

Tracy Anderson Slim + Sculpt Cardio DVD contains three 20-minute workouts. Two workouts are cardio based and one workout is sculpt based. The sculpt base workout uses a band. The band comes with the DVD. Cardio 1 is the first workout.  Tracy states this is an easier choreograph workout and one in which you should follow along.  It is a mixture of low and high impact moves.  So expect some jumping.  The moves are relatively simple to follow. The problem is that you do not know what is coming next.  The note I put next to workout was "that was a mess". At one point Tracy states that "you are not doing the same move over and over and that you have to focus". Well it would kind help to know what is coming next so that you are able to keep it.  The music was decent.  2 & 3/4 stars Cardio 2 is the second workout. .  Like the first workout it contain both high and low impact moves but Cardio 2 is more of a routine.  There is a lot of  "taking from the top