Saundra

From the website:  FIRE AND FLOW alternates strength and cardio days with low-impact body-shaping recovery days to help you achieve the results you want, while helping you relax and reduce stress. This program is offered through BeachBodyondemand.com.  The program comes with: Step-By-Step Guide Workout Calendar Fire and Flow 4-week journal Twenty-four 30-minute workouts.  12 of which are Fire workouts. 12 are Flow workouts. Eight 15-minute bonus workouts.  Four are Fire Bonuses and Four are Flow Bonuses. Quick Start Nutrition Guide How 2B Mindset works .... How Portion Fix works...... How Gut Protocol works..... The instructors are Jericho McMatthews and Elise Joan.  Jericho leads the Fire workouts and Elise leads the Flow workouts.  Jericho and Elise are not in each other workouts. There are four additional cast members and these cast members appear in all the workouts. One cast member shows advanced progression and there is a cast member that shows begin...

December 2022 I have a 5K race plan for the 10th.  Sundays continue to be treadmill followed by a stretch. For December, I will just be doing 2.5 miles. I will be doing BeachBody Fire & Flow workouts. They just release this series from VIP Early Access. I actually thought they would hold it until January to release it but was glad to see I could do the workouts for my December rotation. I will be starting the month off with a couple of Michelle Dozois workout.  

I AM Meditations Series with Elise Joans is part of Elise's BarreBlend workout program.  Elise includes sixty 4-minute meditation sessions that start with the words I AM.  The program also comes with daily motivational I AM cards that you can buy from BeachBody or download and print as a PDF.  I love the mini-meditations sessions.  Mostly because they are not very long. Just enough time to set the tone for your day with words of inspiration, encouragement, and affirmations to enjoy your day and go after your goals.  I find the I AM program to be up lifting. I AM Meditations Segments I AM adaptable I AM adventurous I AM aligned I AM ambitious I AM authentic I AM awesome I AM balance I AM centered I AM committed I AM compassionate I AM confident I AM courageous I AM creative I AM driven I AM elevated I AM empowered I AM evolving I AM extraordinary I AM fearless I AM focused I AM forgiving I AM free I AM fulfilled I AM graceful I AM grateful I AM grounded I AM hap...

3 Week Yoga Retreat is a workout program by Beach Body. It features 21 days worth of workouts.  You can get the digital version of the program or buy the program on DVD. I have the DVD version. The DVD version comes with four DVDs, a workout calendar, a pose tracker, a 96 page eating guide and a quick start guide, Each DVD is lead by a different instructor.  The instructors are Vytas Baskauskas, Faith Hunter, Elise Joan, and Ted McDonald.  The workouts are 30 minutes or less and throughout each of the routines, there is a beginner modifier that will show the less intense version of the move.  For each workout, you have the option of having music normal or music off. Also, each workout features a countdown timer and subtitles that tell you which exercise you are performing.  The DVDs Week 1 DVD is Foundation.   It is lead by Vytas and it contain the following workouts: Core - ~30 min Stretch - ~ 30 min Balance - ~ 30 min Flow - ~ 30 min Fl...

Country Heat Deluxe Workout DVD is lead by Autumn Calabrese and it includes extra Country Heat workouts. The DVD Menu Wild Goose Chase Cardio Round-Up Saddle Up All three workouts have a breakdown option and a routine option.  You also have the option to select a Normal music level or a Turn It Up music level. All three workouts have subtitles that show the move you are performing. Saddle Up is a 3-minute bonus line dancing workout that is also included with the main Country Heat program. Wild Goose Chase and Cardio Round-Up follow the same pattern.  Autumn shows two moves for which you do for 8 reps each. She then combines the two moves and you do the combination of both moves for 4 reps before moving on to the next two groupings.  Both Wild Goose Chase and Cardio Round-Up clock in at under 27 minutes. There is a modifier that shows the moves with no or limited impact. Wild Goose Chase - 3 & 1/2 stars Cardio Round-Up - 3 & 3/4 stars

The Fix Challenge is a bodyweight only workout that clocks in at 28:54. There's a lot of up and down movement where you are standing and going down to the floor. This is a layered workout.  There are a total of 13 exercises and when performed, each exercise is executed four times. For example, Autumn teaches the first move, you do it for 4 reps.  She introduces the second move, you do that for 4 reps and then before adding the third move, you go back to the top and repeat the first and second moves for 4 reps each. Then, we learn the third exercise which you do for four reps and then start at the top again repeating the pattern. This workout builds upon itself.  There are no breaks. However,  I did feel the pace of the workout slow down a bit - probably after we incorporated the 10th exercise which would have been the lunge jumps. You are well into the workout at this point and I could appreciate her moving through the exercises a bit slower.  At the 6:54 ...

21 Day Fix Extreme Ultimate workouts DVD contains two workouts.  Both workouts have the same warm up which is the same warm up used in many of the base workouts. This DVD is an add-on and not part of the base system. The first workout is Power Strength Extreme.  This workout clocks in at 31:18 and no equipment is required.  In Power Strength Extreme there are 10 bodyweight exercises performed back to back.  You do each exercise for about a minute and the rest varies.  After you do all 10 exercises, you go back to the top and repeat for a second round. The warm-up is 1:34 in time, the cooldown is 2:44 in time. There are some jumping and explosive movements. Some exercises are floor based. The second workout is ABC Extreme .  ABC Extreme is an abs (core) and butt (legs) workout. This workout does use two sets of dumbbells.  There are 11 exercises performed for about a minute.  After you do all 11 exercises, you circle b...

21 Day Fix Extreme Disc 1. This DVD contains five Fix Extreme workouts. The workouts on disc 1 are: Plyo Fix Extreme Upper Fix Extreme Pilates Fix Extreme Lower Fix Extreme 10 Min Hardcore This is a review of the first four workouts.  Most of the workouts feature the same warm-up moves.  The warm is roughly around a minute and a half.  This is Beach Body, so the countdown clock and subtitles are present in each of the workouts.  Autumn talks to the camera offering tips and motivation.  There is a beginner modifier in each of the workouts.  Plyo Fix Extreme clocks in at just over 30 minutes. In this workout, Autumn takes you through 5 rounds that are repeated twice. There are two exercises in each round.  Each exercise is performed for  30 seconds and then Autumn gives you a 30-second break.  During the rest, Autumn demonstrates the next move.  The last exercise is performed for a minute.  The cooldown is just ove...

Saturday Special clocks in just under 25 minutes.  It is a cardio core workout that takes you through a series of body weight moves. There are a total of 16 moves that are timed based. Tony did not preview any of the moves (like he did in the sculpt workouts) and I wish he had for this particular workouts because some of the names of the moves you had no idea what you were doing until you saw Tony and the team perform one or two reps. There is a lot of going down to the floor and getting up because there are a lot of floor based moves. Tony gives you a 30 second break 1/2 way through.  3 & 1/4 stars

P90 A are your beginner workouts.  On this DVD, you will find a 6 minute intro to the program and your "A" level workouts which are: Sculpt A Sweat A Ab Ripper A In the Intro: How to Hit It segment, Tony introduces you to the program and to the "H".; which is a marker he has you place on the floor and use it for some of the exercises Sculpt A is a 28 minute workout. Tony takes you through a series of weighted and non-weighted (body weight) exercises.  You will do around 10 exercises. You get a 30 second  break before starting on a next  set of exercises. Each exercise is demonstrated prior to the beginning the exercise. There is a clock that comes up for each exercise. The times of each exercise vary. Sweat A clocks in at under 25 minutes.   After the warm up, Tony takes your through a series of moves. Many of the moves are martial arts inspired.  With the MMA moves you switch leads and  repeat on the other side.  Half way thro...

This month I am going to be doing workouts from the P90 workout system.  P90 is a Tony Horton system and it is suppose to be an easier verison (introduction if you will) to his P90X series of workouts.  The version of the system I got includes 14 workouts on five DVDs.  I will review each workout disc as I do them. The system comes with two 90 Day rotations .  One rotation emphasizes sculpt and the other emphasizes cardio. There is a 6 day Shred booklet (around 14 pages) that you can use "to start your program off on the right foot". It includes a meal plan. There is a 4 Step Power Plan pamphlet that gives you more information on how to use the P90 system.  Also included is Simple Kitchen , a 64 page booklet that focuses your attention on nutrition and a resistance tube style band with a door attachment.

MMA Mashup is the bonus workout that comes with the Core de Force (CdF) workout system.  It clocks in at 25:40. MMA Mashup takes rounds from the other Core de Force workouts. So throughout this workout you are doing a mix of body weight, power, plyo and MMA training. You can think of it as a compilation style workout. There are six rounds but the rounds in MMA Mashup do not follow the same pattern throughout as they take on the characteristics of the CdF workout it was based on. All rounds are 3-minutes in length. The workout does include a warm up and cool down.  Joel and Jericho alternate teaching the different rounds. 4 stars

There are four workouts included on disc 3.  MMA Power clocks in at 46:58. There is a Learn It and Work It segment that is about 4 minutes.  This segment teaches you the moves in MMA Power. MMA Power consist of  the standard 2-minute warm up, twelve 3-minute rounds, and a 3-minute cool down.  In each round you are doing two sets of moves that you repeat twice through.  The first set of moves is a MMA combo featuring strikes, punches, knees, kicks etc.  The second set of moves is a spike to get the heart rate up. This is a similar format to some of the other Core de Force workout. MMA Plyo also has a Learn It & Work It segment that is 3 & 1/2 minutes long.  The main workout clocks in at 46:58.  There is a warm up, 12 rounds, and a cool down.  Each of the rounds are 3-minutes.  You are doing a combo move for 60 seconds, a spike move for 30-seconds and then you repeat both moves before you move to the next round.  In t...

Core de Force Disc 2 contains 4 workouts.  Workout 1 is MMA Shred . This workout clocks in at just under 37 minutes. It is Muay Thai inspired.  It features nine 3-minute rounds, with a 30 second rest between rounds.  Like the other workouts, Joel and Jericho alternate teaching a round. Before each exercise Joel or Jericho explains what you are doing.  For MMA Shred, you do a combo for about 60-seconds and then you will do what they call a "spike" for about 30 seconds. And then you repeat both exercises before moving on. I didn't mention this before, but for most of the Core de Force workouts, you work was is called dominant side.  There are a few exercise where they will have you work both your dominant side and non-dominate side, but for the most part you are working just the dominant side. Because of the way the workouts are organize (you are almost always doing each combo twice) I would switch sides even though Joel and Jericho did not. Power Sculpt ...

Disc 1 Core de Force contains four workouts.  During each of the workouts Jericho and Joel alternating teaching a part - usually a round -of the workouts.  The first workout is MMA Speed . It contains six rounds and is around 26 minutes long.   Each round is 3-minutes in length.  There are two exercises per round that you repeat once before moving on to the next round.  In MMA Speed one of the exercises in each round is consider a "spike" that is designed to get your heart rate up. MMA Speed has a "Learn It & Work It" option that breaks down the moves. The second workout is Dynamic Strength.   This workout is your body weight functional strength workout.  The workout includes upper and lower body moves. There is also a lot of going down to floor and getting up.  There are 12 rounds that are 3 minutes each.  There are three exercises per round. Starting with round 7, Joel and Jericho make the moves harder by adding an extra c...

Dance Mash-Up is the bonus workout that came with the base Country Heat system.  Dance Mash-Up clocks in at just over 19 minutes.  This workout includes Autumns favorite moves from the previous routines. The format is the same. Autumn teaches two moves and then combines those moves before moving on to the next group of moves. The workout concludes with a 2-minute cool down. I think I forgot to mentioned in the other workouts is that the Country Heat series does include a modifier in all the workouts. Dance Mash Up  - 3 stars Overall opinion of the whole series.  All the routines were very easy to follow and do.  I like the fact that all the workouts were around 30 minutes or less.  It makes the system a great way to get 30 minutes of cardio in or to get your steps in for the day. There is not much variety.  The routines seemed pretty much the same across the board and there is a good bit of repetition within each routine. Autumn and the...

Country Heat Disc 3 contains:      Dance Routine 5 - Trail Ride      Dance Conditioning Workout      Bonus: Night Crawl      Bonus:  21 Day Fix - Dirty 30 Dance Routine 5, Trail Ride, clocks in at under 26 minutes.  The tempo has picked up in this routine.  I believe Autumn introduces 3 or 4 new moves in this workout, otherwise, the  moves are repeats from the other dance routines.  Autumn uses the same format in this routine as her other dance routines. Dance Conditioning workout is a 24-minute workout that combines the dance cardio moves that Autumn has introduce in the other Country Heat workouts with  body toning moves.  In this workout, you are simply "following along" with Autumn. She will call out a move, You did it for a few counts and then you move on. Night Crawl is just under 3 minutes. And really, in my opinion, it is the only routine where I felt...

Country Heat Disc 2 features the routines Down and Dirty and Bring The Heat. Down and Dirty clocks in at just over 27 minutes.  This workout follows the same pattern as the first two workout but about half way through, the tempo increases and you are performing the moves at a faster paste. Some moves that were in routines 1 and 2, show up here. There is a cool down. The cool down occurs at the 2:35 mark of the workout. Bring the Heat clocks in at under 28 minutes.  The same teaching pattern is used in this workout to teach the routine. Autumn introduces one move - she will tell you to watch her and after she shows you the move, you perform the move 8 times through. She then tells you to watch her perform the second move and then you perform this move 8 times. Autumn will then demonstrate how she wants you to combine both moves and then you will do the combine move 4 times before moving on to the next group of moves.  Bring the Heat's cool down occurs at the 2:12...