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Showing posts from 2018

Jari Love Get Ripped! In 6 Minutes - Thoughts

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In 6 Minutes is a Jari Love Get Ripped workout.  This is a two DVD set. Menu Options on Disc 1 Introduction Complete Workout (1 Hour) The Unhealthy Epidemic Chapters  (There are 10 Chapters) Menu Options on Disc 2 30 Minute Workout 1 30 Minute Workout 2 20 Minute Workout 1 20 Minute Workout 2 20 Minute Workout 3 The basic concept of this workout is that each track is roughly 6 minutes long. Within each track, you are doing two compound exercise movement. There is an active recovery move after each set. Jari announces the exercise grouping at the start of each track. You will complete the first exercise for 6 sets and then you move onto the next exercise in the 6 minute track for 6 sets before moving onto the next track (song) and a new exercise grouping. Along with Jari, there are four other cast members. Jari offers modifications as she takes you through the workout.  Cast member Jill leads Chapters 8 and 9 of the workout.  See attached table for...

Jari Love Get Ripped! Express

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Jari Love's Get Ripped Express DVD menu offers the following options: Introduction Complete Workout (1 hour) 30 Minute Workout 1 30 Minute Workout 2 Chapters The Science Behind Get Ripped! The two 30 minute options are pre-design premixes of the Complete Workout. You can also select to do individual chapters. There are 13 Chapters, most of which are lead by Jari. Chapter 1 - Warmup (warm-up uses dumbells) Chapter 2 - Spiders and pushups (lead by Jill) Chapter 3 - Straight Leg deadlifts with bicep curls Chapter 4 - Wide Squats with concentration curls Chapter 5 - Squats, side lunges with triceps extensions Chapter 6 - Squat with horizontal rows Chapter 7 - Squat, Reverse lunge with hammer curl Chapter 8 - Tricep pushups, leg extensions, tricep kickback (lead by Jill) Chapter 9 - Basic Step with Shoulder Press (lead by Sandy) Chapter 10 - Side Squat with lateral raise Chapter 11 - Chest Press + Chest Fly Chapter 12 - Abdominals (lead by Sandy) Chapter 13 - Co...

Jari Love Get Ripped 1000 #3

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Get Ripped 1000 #3 is a cardio weight interval workout. The instructor for this workout is Jari Love. There are three different ways in which you can do this workout. You can do this as a complete 60-minute workout or you can do the two pre-define premixes. One premix is focused on the weight segments and one premix is focused on the cardio segments. In the 60-minute workout, there are twelve exercises.  Each exercise is followed by an active recovery move.  You repeat each exercise and active recovery for 4 sets or rounds before moving on to the next exercise grouping. The workout uses a step and heavy and light dumbbells. There are bells, subtitles,  and voiceovers that indicate where you are in the workout. The set is Jari's home (she tells us she is bringing her home into our home).  Along with Jari, there are two other cast members. Cast member Jill leads the ab section. Each of the premixes includes the warm-up and stretch. The warm-up ...

Monthly Rotation December 2018

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December 2018 Monthly Rotation  Breakdown Sunday - Walking workouts with Jessica Smith and Amy Ross Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday - Sculpting Workouts (Jari, Kelly, Essentrics, The Firm) Wednesday - MMA Kickboxing with Les Mills Combat and Fit By Tracey Saturday - Rest

Michelle Barnard Everyday Yoga Warrior - Thoughts

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Everyday Yoga Warrior is a 35-minute workout that is lead by Michelle Barnard.  The workout takes you through a series of yoga poses in a slow and methodical method.  The DVD offers you the option to play the workout with music or without music. The DVD Menu: Play All Intro Scene Selection       Warm up - 9 minutes       Sun Salutation - 5 minutes       Flowing warrior sequence - 9 minutes       Floor lengthening sequence - 9 minutes       Shavasana - 5 minutes Glossary Credits The glossary is a series of pictures that show the poses that you will do throughout the workout.  There are 12 glossary term.  Narration does come with each picture. The main workout does use voice over narration and for the most part the narration is in sync with what is happening on the screen. Michelle does tell you to move at your own pace. Also, there are many sets/scenery. Michelle is performing ...

Strong By Zumba 20 Min Demo - Thoughts

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Bonus 20 Minute Strong By Zumba workout is a bonus workout included on the Strong by Zumba DVD.  Strong by Zumba is  High-Intensity Cardio & Tone workout that is set (choreograph) to the beat of the music.  The instructor is Ai Lee Syarief. The 20-Minute Demo is just a brief version of the 60-minute class. It includes its own warm up and cool down. The warm up was about 2 minutes and 15 seconds in length and the cool down is around 3 minutes. The 20-Minute Demo workout is chaptered. It also contains the Fired Up and Push Your Limits quadrants. Between the quadrants you get a recovery period. Each segments features two additional cast members but as the workout progresses, the cast members change in and out. There is NOT a modifier for the bonus workout. The moves are similar to the moves in the longer version of the workout.  I like the shorter version just a little bit better than the longer version. Oh I forgot to mentioned when I reviewed the 60 m...

Michelle Dozois Volume 1 On the Go Workouts - Thoughts

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On the Go Workouts  is a DVD containing workouts featuring Michelle Dozois. Michelle takes you through six 10-minute workouts. The workouts do not come with their own warm up, however Michelle does do some brief stretching at the end of a few of the segments. The DVD Menu: Play All Intro Warm Up Guide 01 Cardio HiiT #1 02 Cardio HiiT #2 03 Upper Body Blast 04 Lower Body Blast 05 Core on the Floor 06 Flow & Release The Warm Up Guide presents you with six different movements in the form of pictures. Michelle tells you to perform each of the moves in order for 30 seconds.  Once you feel warm, you can start any one of the workouts. There is also a Mix it Up Guide that comes with the DVD. This guide shows you how to create premixes out of the six workouts. The mixes range in time from 20 minutes to 60 minutes. During the HiiT workouts and Upper Body Blast, you are performing each exercise for about 45 seconds and then Michelle gives you a rest. She is usually ex...

Michelle Dozois Bodyfit 360 Energize Vol4 - Thoughts

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Michelle Dozois's  Bodyfit 360 Energize is a 53-minute body conditioning workout inspired by dance and Pilates.  The first half of the workout is your Dance Conditioning segment. In this part of the workout, you are doing four dance combinations.  Michelle teaches the combo all at once. She has you repeat the combo with the opposite lead.  You then repeat the combo on both leads before moving on to the next combo. The Sculpt and Release segment is about 28 minutes of the workout. This segment starts with some standing toning for the legs before moving to the floor to work the upper body. Upper body moves include push ups, planks, super mans, triceps push ups.  After the upper body is the core segment. This is followed by an extended stretch segment and then cool down. DVD Menu Intro Movement Review Full Workout Dance Conditioning Sculpt and Release I wish Michelle had further chaptered this DVD. As it is, you can only select the segments that are...

Strong by Zumba - Thoughts

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Zumba Strong is a 60-minute high-intensity cardio and toning workout. The toning exercises are bodyweight only - no equipment is used. The entire workout is set to the beat of the music. Often the instructor, Ai Lee Syarief will introduce you to a move at a slower tempo and then she increases the pace at which you perform the move. You are doing all moves at least twice through per lead. There is a warm up and cool down. Between the warm up and cool down the workout is broken up into four quadrants. The quadrants are: Ignite Fire Up Push Your Limits Floor Play Within each quadrant, there are tracks, Each track is a song.  Prior to the start of a track, subtitle bar appears on the left to tell you what exercises you will be performing for that track. Between each quadrant, there is a mini recharge segment that serves as your recovery.  Along with bodyweight moves, many of the moves performed are inspired by mixed martial arts.  The choreography i...

Kelly Coffey-Meyer Sculpting Rx - Review

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Sculpting Rx by Kelly Coffey-Meyer is a 30-Minutes To Fitness DVD that contain two 30-minute sculpting workouts.  The DVD Menu Intro Workout 1 Workout 2 Premixes     Workout 1 & Workout 2 (60:35)     Workout 1: One Set of All Exercises (21:44)     Workout 2: No Cardio Core (26:57)     Workout 1 & 2: Intervaled Body Parts (38:46)     Cardio Core and Floor Finisher (18:45) Credits I did the Workout 1 & Workout 2 Premix and really I didn't care for combining the two. On their own, I think both are good sculpting workouts.  If you do the workouts separately, workout 1 clocks in at 35:55 and workout two at 30:44. Workout 1 is a sculpting workout with the emphasis on heavy lifting.  Essentially, you are doing three circuits. Each circuit consist of two body parts and you are doing three exercises per body part for 10 reps each.  First circuit you are working biceps and legs.  Second circui...

Kelly Coffey-Meyer Step Boxing 2 - Review

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StepBoxing 2 is a 30-Minutes To Fitness workout lead by Kelly Coffey-Meyer. The DVD Menu Intro Workout 1 Workout 2 Premixes      Combined Workouts (48:27)      Workout 1 with Dumbbell moves (32:20)      Workout 2 with Dumbbell moves (29:57)      Dumbbell Drills only (17:59)      Cardio Drills only (14:33)      Workout 1 without Cardio Drills (24:58)      Workout 2 without Cardio Drills (23:10)      Workout 1 with Dumbbell Drills instead of Cardio Drills (28:26)      Workout 2 with Dumbbell Drills instead of Cardio Drills (26:42) Credits I did the Combined Workout Premix.  The workout consisted of basic boxing moves combined with basic step moves to make a step boxing combo. There were cardio drills after each of the step boxing combos.  The format was very easy to follow.  There were several high impact moves.  At t...

Monthly Rotation October 2018

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October 2018 The breakdown October 2018 will feature workouts by Kelly Coffey-Meyer, Zumba, Michelle Dozois and Tracie Long. Most of the workouts are 30 minutes or less in length. Days where I have extra time, I planned on doing 50 to 60 minute workouts. I may try to throw in some extra stretching after my treadmill workouts.

Jessica Smith Total Stretch - Thoughts

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Jessica Smith's Total Stretch DVD contains three stretch workouts. Deep Stretch clocks in at 30 minutes. It is a slow moving stretch that starts from the top of the body (head and neck) and ends with stretches for the bottom of the body (feet).  The workout starts standing and ends seated. Almost every part of the body is hit during this stretch workout.  Please see attached spreadsheet for the sequence of stretches. Dynamic Stretch is 33 minutes in length.  This workout uses range of motion exercises to increase flexibility and to work on coordination and balance. This is not really a flowing workout, but a workout where you are dynamically moving in and out of an exercise for a few reps. It is about moving in a slow methodical way for several reps with the hopes of improving the elasticity of the body part you are working. I liked this workout.  It was my favorite of the three sessions. Total Stretch clocks in at 17 minutes. It is similar to Deep Stretch ...

Jessica Smith Feel Good Fusion - Thoughts

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Jessica Smith's Feel Good Fusion is a combination of cardio, strength, Pilates, barre and yoga fitness styles.  This DVD contains two workouts. The first workout is Fusion Strength and it is 47 minutes in length. Fusion Strength is a high rep workout that uses a light set of dumbbells. Jessica states the goal is to build strength without force.  Most of the moves in this workout requires big movements - reaching movements that aid in building endurance. For most of the workout it seems as if  you were doing some type or form of a squat whether single leg or double leg.  After the weight work, Jessica takes you through a standing abs, balance and coordination segment. The workout concludes with a stretch. The second workout is Flow Cardio . This workout clocks in at 35 minutes and does not use weights.  Flow Cardio is a lower intensity steady state cardio workout. Jessica uses big range-of-motion leg-based movement in this workout. The moves flow from one ...

Essentrics Full Body Workout Volume 3 - Thoughts

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Essentrics Full Body Workout Volume  3 is lead by Miranda Esmonde White.  It is a 60-minute workout if you do the whole workout. You can also break the workout into different segments. The DVD offers the following menu: Play Full Workout - 60 minutes Standing - 30 minutes Floor - 15 minutes Barre - 15 minutes Feet Workshop Floor Workshop Barre Workshop This is a traditional Essentrics workout. Miranda takes you through the standard Essentric Classical Stretch exercises.  Please see worksheet for a breakdown. In the workshop, Miranda uses this time to explain and offer detail and tips about how to either use certain equipment or to talk posture and positioning. The Feet Workshop clocks in at 3:38.  The Floor Workshop has a run time of 5:44 and the Barre Workshop is a short minute and 1/2 (1:29). Full Body Workout Volume 3 - 3 & 1/2 stars

Jillian Michaels Killer Cardio - Thoughts

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Jillian Michaels Killer Cardio contains two 25-minute workouts.  The focus is on cardio and no equipment is required.  There is not a warm-up or rather Jillian uses the first circuit as the warm-up.  There are four circuits and four exercises per circuit. There is a stretch at the end. In this workout, you are doing 20 seconds on and 10 seconds rest.  Jillian explains the next exercise or offers tips during the rest. You repeat each circuit twice. The exercises vary. There are several floor-based exercises and some functional type exercises.  These workouts were not my favorite. Workout 1 - 3 stars Workout 2 -  2 & 3/4 stars

Jillian Michaels Lift and Shred - Thoughts

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Jillian Michaels Lift and Shred contains two 30 minute strength workouts.  Jillian emphasizes that this is a strength workout and it is about lifting heavy. So unlike most of her workouts, most of the moves in Lift and Shred are single component moves.  Well, that is true for Workout 1 but Workout 2, does feature multiple compound moves. Both workouts start with a warm-up.  Then, you move onto the circuits. There are 4 circuits and each circuit features 4 exercises.  You repeat the exercises twice before moving on to the next circuit.  The workouts conclude with a stretch. Besides Jillian, there are two other cast members.  Jillian is really coaching and offering tips. She doesn't do much of the workout.  I found Jillian's interaction with the cast member a bit annoying but the workouts themselves I thought okay. Lift and Shred Workout 1 -  3 & 1/2 stars Lift and Shred Workout 2  - 3 stars

Jessica Smith Gentle Yoga - Thoughts

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Gentle Yoga for Back Pain Relief and Prevention is Jessica Smith's newest yoga DVD.  This DVD contains two 30-minute workouts. Workout 1 called Session 1: Yoga for Back Pain Relief is a slow moving workout that uses several fitness tools to assist with the various poses included in this workout. Jessica performs the stretches in a variety of positions such as standing, kneeling, seated and lying.  Several postures are perform using a chair.  Jessica introduces modifications that are gentle to the back.  Other equipment used include a towel, yoga block, yoga strap and of course yoga mat. Workout 2 is Session 2:  Yoga for Back Pain Prevention. The postures used in this workout are slightly more dynamic than in the first workout.  There are more strength and flowing moves in this workout than the first. There is also an emphasis on balance. This workout uses the strap, a towel and a mat. Both workouts are filmed outdoors with a poolside setting. The ...

Essentrics Stretch Series Vol. 1 - Thoughts

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Essentrics Stretch Series Vol. 1 DVD includes three 30-minute workouts. Each of these workouts are slow moving workouts. Super slow. My biggest gripe about them is that the music in each of them is very faint. I could hear each of the instructors just fine but to hear the music I had to really increase the volume which in turn made the instructor super loud. The first workout is Tension Release and it is lead by Meg Feeney.  Meg does a lot of upper body full body range of motion movement.  She also does windmills, lunges, and plies that included shin and ankle work.  This workout uses a chair and in the chair segment, you are doing heel and calf work, as well as hamstring, quads, outer and inner thigh stretches.  This workout clocks in at 31:17. Joint Pain Relief clocks in just over 30 minutes and is lead by Gail Garceau.  In this workout, we do quite a bit of work for the back that includes standing back stretches and spine rotations.  Gail also i...

Essentrics Body Sculpting Series Vol. 2 - Thoughts

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Essentrics Body Sculpting Series Vol. 2 DVD contains three total body Essentric workouts that are approximately 30 minutes each. Ultimate Inner-Thigh is lead by Gail Garceau and has a run time just over 31 minutes.  This workout contains a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segments features side lunges and plies.  The floor segments includes exercises for the waist, inner thigh, outer thigh and back of the leg.  The workout concludes with a stretch release. Full Body Strengthening is lead by Amanda Cyr and this workout clocks in at over 35 minutes.  This workout also contains a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segment includes single leg work, an arm sequence and stability work along with the lunges and plies.  The floor work features inner and out thigh work plus an extended stretch in both the seated and lying positions. Total Core, Leg, & Butt clocks in at 31:23. This workout is lead by Meg Feeney....

Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat#72

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Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat #72 clocks in at just under 58 minutes.  The presenters for this workout are Dan Cohen, Rachael Newsham, Erin Maw, Bettina Keller, and Tau Siolo. Same format as other BC workouts.  I like the flow of this one a lot. Times are approximate. BodyCombat #72 - 4 stars

Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat#73

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Les Mills On-Demand Body Combat #73 clock in at around 57 minutes. The presenters are Erin Maw, Caley Jack, Reagan Kang, Eduard Zalar, Rachael Newsham and Dan Cohen. Please see spreadsheet for breakdown. Workout format is similar to other body combat workouts.  This particular workout included a really long Power Training 2 segment that contains floor base strength and core moves. Another solid workout Body Combat #73 - 3 & 1/2 stars

Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat#74

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Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat #74 clocks in at just over 53 minutes.  The presenters are Dan and Rachael.  They are joined by Erin Maw and Marlon Woods. Track 5 Power Training 2 is floor based.  There are plank jacks, mountain climbers, and sprawls. Track 9 is also floor based. It is your core track. This was fun. I had not done a BodyCombat workout it awhile. I like most of the music tracks and the presenters were excellent. BC#74 - 3 & 3/4 stars

July 2018 Monthly Rotation

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July 2018 Monthly Rotation This month consists of Les Mills workouts (Body Combat and Sh'Bam), Jessica Smith and Essentrics Workouts. The Breakdown Sunday - Les Mills Body Combat On-Demand Monday - Jessica Smith Tuesday - Jessica Smith Wednesday - Jessica Smith Thursday - Essentrics Friday - Les Mills Sh'Bam Saturday - Essentics

Simone De La Rue Body By Simone Trampoline Cardio - Thoughts

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Trampoline Cardio clocks in at 59:07. Along with Simone, there are four other cast members. The workout starts with a floor warm-up. It is the same warm-up sequence that has been in all of her workouts. Workout Breakdown: Floor warm up Freestyle on the trampoline - to warm up the feet Dance Cardio 1 - 16 Candles Dance Cardio 2 - Hurl Upper Body using toning band wrist weights Dance Cardio 3 - Rave continue to use toning band Mega Mix - Join dances 1, 2, & 3 Lower Body Strength and Stability Planks Abs Sprints and Jumps Stretch The set is a warehouse, not the same as the other workouts. This warehouse is a bit dingy.  The casts are outfitted all in white I thought that was a pretty cool look. Great soundtrack. Many of the dance routines in the workout also appear in Simone's traditional dance workout as does some of the music selections. This is a high energy fast past workout and again you are basically following along. Although as state...

Simone De La Rue Body By Simone Hips, Thigh and Buns - Thoughts

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Simone's Hip, Thighs, and Buns workout is a 55-minute lower body focused workout. The workout breakdown : (59:50) Warm up Cardio 1 Standing Leg Sequence Standing Stability using the bbs Band Cardio 2 - The towel Epic leg series - floor based side 1 (optional bbs Band) Epic leg series - floor based side 2 (optional bbs Band) Band Cardio Plank series - use bbs Band Abs - use the towel Cool down Equipment list includes bbs band (this comes with the DVD), towel, mat, This workout was very challenging, especially the epic leg series.  Expect lots of reps as you are working each side for about 10-minutes during that series.  A couple of the cast members do show modifications for some exercises. The choreography in the cardio segments is really basic so you are able to just follow along.  In the toning segments, Simone does do a good job telling you what is coming next. The set in this workout is the industrial looking warehouse with the huge windows. The s...

Simone De La Rue Body By Simone Dance Cardio - Thoughts

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Dance Cardio is a new DVD workout by Simone De La Rue of Body By Simone. Dance Cardio is a 55-minute workout. The basic break down of this workout is: Warm up Freestyle section to warm up your feet Dance Cardio 1 - 16 Candles Dance Cardio 2 - Airplane Interlude - Stability and Balance Dance Cardio 3 - Stomp Dance Cardio 4 - Bootie Bounce Mega Mix Arms Abs Stretch During the dance segments, there is minimum cueing. Most of the cuing consist of her telling us "one more time" and "from the top". You are watching and following along with Simone and the cast.  The choreography is not that hard and she repeats the moves quite a few times so I found the moves fairly easy to pick up.  Some moves she does demonstrate at half speed before doing the sequence at full tempo. There appear to be two sets used in the workout. For the dance routines, you are dancing in an industrial warehouse looking space with huge windows and the other set is just a white ba...

Simone De La Rue - The Signature Classes - Thoughts

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Simone's De La Rue The Signature Classes workout DVD contains two 55 minute workouts. DVD Menu offers the following options: Workout 1 - Full Body Workout 2 - Dance Cardio Workout 1 Full Body contains the following segments (57:25) 1.  Warm up - about 3 minutes 2.  Dance Cardio Routine 1- about 3 minutes 3.  Upper Body 1 - uses a pair of 3 to 5 lbs dumbbells, ~ 5 minutes 4.  Upper Body 2 - this is floor based, pushups, dips, ~ 5 minutes 5.  Dance Cardio Routine 2 - about 3 minutes 6.  Lower Body  - table top, donkey kicks, leg lifts, hamstring pulses. -lying side outer hip, shootouts,  about 20 minutes 7.  Dance Cardio Routine 3 -  about 3 minutes 8.  Core work 1 - plank work - about 5 minutes 9.  Core work 2 - situps, lower leg lifts - about 3 minutes 10.  Cool down - stretch, about 4 minutes Workout 2 Dance Cardio contains the following segments  (52:47) 1.  Warm up - about 3 minutes 2...