Saundra

June 2014 I am working out with some of my favorite girls this month; Amy Bento Ross, Kelly Coffee Meyer and Tracie Long. And for flexibility - I have been trying to add more stretch or yoga workouts this year - I am doing Discount Workouts Extra Stretch Series. I do have some 10 Minute Solution Add-ons planned as well.

 Discount Workouts Advanced Strength Training Volume 2 workouts come with two 60 minute strength workouts.  The first workout is led by Ashlyn and the second workout is led by Ashley. Both workouts are similar to volume one.  You will do a barbell warm up and then you will hit each muscle group for about 5 minutes.  The exercises are the same for the most part with only the rep count being the only real variation within each set of workouts. Ashlyn and Ashley are okay as instructors. They demonstrated the moves and gave form pointers and encouragement as the workouts went on.  I thought Ashley (she led workout 2) could have cued better. Overall, I have liked the Discount Workouts Strength Training DVDs both the Beginner and Advance series. I give these two workout 3 & 1/2 stars .

The second workout on Discounts Workouts Advanced Strength Training Volume 1 Workout 2 clocks in at just under 60 minutes. It is lead by Jen and follows a similar pattern as workout 1. Many of the exercises are the same and Jen may very the rep pattern and number of sets as you proceed through the workout. This workouts uses mostly the barbell, but a pair of dumbbells, a step, and mat are also used. A little bit more about the DVD. You can select either workout 1 or workout 2.  That's it for your selection. The workouts themselves have 5 minute chapter points built in.  So you can jump around within the workout. However, doing so may land you right in the middle of a track. In other words each chapter point doesn't necessarily start at the beginning of each exercise. I like these workouts.  Solid sculpting, decent background music and Jen is pretty good. 3 & 3/4 stars

 Discount Workouts Advanced Strength Training Volume 1 Workout 1 is a 60 minute total body sculpting workout and it is led by an instructor name Jen.  Jen doesn't say what her last name is and she is the only cast member. Jen also lead one of the Discount Workouts Beginner Strength Training workouts. The only real difference that I can see between the beginner and advanced workouts are that the beginner workouts are 30 minutes and the advance workouts are 60 minutes. The workout is really decent.  It starts with a barbell warm up which I typically don't like. I don't like warming up with weights. Each muscle group is set to a particular track. Often the music to the track would end and Jen would still be doing reps.  Speaking of reps; expect a lot of them. You have a decent rest period as you move from one muscle group to the next.  During this time Jen is  setting up the equipment and explaining the next exercise.   Jen uses a barbell wi...

Discount Workouts - B eginner Strength Training Vol 2 contains two 30 minute strength training workouts. Workout 1 is led by Jennie and is a total body workout.  Workout 2 is led by Jodi and is an upper body workout. As in the other Beginner Strength workouts, there are no background exercisers. Jennie and Jodi take you through a series of exercises, varying the rep count, as they work the major muscle groups. Both the workouts uses the same or very similar music selection. I like these two workouts much better than I did the Vol 1 workouts. Equipment used - dumbbell, barbell, step, and a mat. Workout 1 - 3 & 3/4 stars Workout 2 - 3 & 3/4 stars

Beginner Strength Training Vol 1 is a Gymbox Discount Workouts. This DVD contains two 30 minute Strength workouts. Both workouts are led by an instructor name Chrissie and while they  call the workout beginner, I don't necessarily think they are beginner so much as they are shorter in length than their "Advance" workouts. Both workouts are similar in that there are not any background exercisers.  It is just Chrissie. I am assuming this is how she spells her name as their are no credits.  I thought both workouts were decent workouts. I like that they gave you a complete total body workout - hitting all the major muscle groups - in just 30 minutes.  I did find Chrissie a bit annoying in the second weight workout because she would say we were "done" but she would tack on several more reps.  When she kept doing this, I was like "just don't say anything". In all the exercises, Chrissie plays with the rep count, 2-2, single, pulses, 4-4, 3-1 -...