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Work It! Total Body Circuit. is part of Jessica Smith 2022 Strong & Centered series. This DVD has two strength based workouts. Workout 1 is 48 minutes in length and workout 2 is 38 minutes in length. In each workout, Jessica includes an extended warm up before taking you through 4 circuits of 2 to 5 exercises per circuit. Jessica uses two set of weights (light & heavy). Expect lots of reps and some mobility work. You are repeating most of the circuits twice. The second time through, Jessica speeds up the pace.   Jessica is only cast member.     3 stars

Cathe's 2020 series is Perfect 30.  The series has six 30-minutes main workouts and several bonus workouts.The workouts are spread across three DVDs if you bought the DVD option. You can also get the series as a download.  There is also a user guide that you can download from the Cathe webiste. Perfect Pump contains the following workouts: Upper Body Lower Body Upper Body Bonus Lower Body Bonus Core Bonus Extended Stretch Bonus  I did Lower Body and Lower Body Bonus first. Lower Body clocked in at 30:48 and the Lower Body Bonus clocks in at 7:39. The workout moves quickly. Cathe uses heavier weight than normal on several of the exercises.  With the exception of the calf raises, the reps for each exercise were between 10 and 12 reps.  Along with dumbbells, a high step, weighted plates and dixie cups were used.  The plates were used just to elevate your toes.  I enjoyed this workout.  I think this is going to be a favorite Cathe lower body workout...

  One on One with Michelle is a three disk strength training program that includes seven workouts.  Each workout is under 30 minutes. Disk one is Be Stronger . This DVD includes two sculpting strength workouts. The workouts are Upper Body Workout and Lower Body Workout. The Upper Body Workout clocks in at 26 minutes.  Michelle workouts the upper body in groupings. The first group is back and chest.  Second group of exercises focuses on shoulders.  The next group focuses on triceps and the last grouping is more shoulders and then it adds biceps work. The Lower Body Workout clocks in at 30 minutes.  There are two sets of the exercises and Michelle changes the lead leg for the second set. This workout contains standing and floor work. Both workouts are super east to follow but challenging. Michelle gives mini breaks throughout but for the most part you are moving from one exercise to the next. The warm up is short and the cool down even shorter....

Jessica Smith's Get Strong! DVD contains two strength inspired workout. Workout one is Stepping Strength and it is 45 minutes long.  This is a muscular endurance workout with high reps. You are performing most exercises for about 16 reps. The exercises are compound in nature and very often you are working both the upper body and lower body or you are doing an upper body move with a stepping move, hence the name of the workout. There is a  bit of a pattern to the workout and a lot of single arm work. After performing the single arm work, you perform a similar style move with both arms. Jessica throws in cardio intervals that are 45 seconds in length. The set is nice and bright and the music is decent. Two sets of dumbbells (light and heavy) are used. The warm up is around 5 minutes and the cool down is under 3 minutes.  Debbie and Beth join Jessica in this workout. Workout 2 is Strictly Strength and it clocks in just over 40 minutes.  Jessica divides thi...

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...

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

Shred Cardio and Push Day are two workouts that come with Cathe's FitSplit series. Shred Cardio is a step blast workout. The workout starts out with a brisk warm up performed using a step.  Then come the blasts. There are 12 blasts and the blasts vary in intensity. Each blast is a mini drill performed using high intensity moves. You are working on the step, off the step, over the step and around the step. The reps vary but what I found is that for the super high intensity moves you are doing 6 reps per round and most blast had two rounds. There's lots of jumping but Cathe does show how to modify some moves.  Some of the moves you will see are power 3s, power 15, plyo jacks, squat thrust, wide jumps, and swimmers. Push Day is the strength workout.  In this workout you are working chest, triceps, shoulders, calves  and quadriceps. The exercises are performed as supersets and for most exercises you are doing three sets.  Cathe reduces the number of reps ...

Strength is Disc 4 of Jessica Smith 8 Week Program.  The workouts are: Total Body Upper Body  Lower Body Each workout clocks in at 30 minutes. Total Body features around a 4 minute warm up.  Following the warm up, there are four circuits.  The first three circuits you repeat twice through.  The last circuit is floor work. The cool down is around 2 and 1/2 minutes. Upper Body workout contains standing and floor work. In fact, part of the warm up is floor based.  Like most of Jessica's workout, this workout is performed in a circuit format and you are repeating most circuits twice through.  Jessica uses a mix tempo, depending on the exercise you will either perform the move as a single or half count move.  The Lower Body workout uses an optional step.  Jessica performs the exercises in a circuit.  She will do 3 to 4 exercises and then repeat those exercises before moving on to the next group.  Jessica include active res...

Sleek Essentials by Karen Voight focuses on the three essentials of fitness: cardio, strength, and flexibility to deliver a “fit, firm, and flexible” body.  Karen calls it her triple effect training system.  It is a 3 in 1 program. In this system you have three main workouts, Sweat Effect, Strength Effect, and Sleek Effect.  All workouts are around 22 minutes. Sweat Effect is the cardio workout. Karen uses a fitness roller to warm up the body. She then takes you through a series of athletic, kickboxing inspired moves. The majority of the cardio workout is low impact.  Karen does include some high impact modifications.  However you can always follow the modifier who keeps the moves low impact.  The workout contains minimum choreography and it is easy to follow. It is not drill base. Karen teaches the move on one side and then have you repeat on the other side.  This workout is about getting your heart rate up.  The music was very uninspiring...

 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 .

 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...

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 -...

Progressive Strength with Kimberly Spreen is a 32 minute workout that focuses on endurance strength training. The workout packs in a lot in a short time.  It is constantly moving from one exercise to the next and therefore has a bit of a cardio effect. A push ups sequence, planks, modify burpees, squats, rows, rear delt flys, bicep curl, shoulder front raise, lateral raise, french press, alternating lunges, core rotations, and v-sits are all exercises that are packed into this workout. Kimberly is a great lead.  I think she cues very well. A platform step with a set of risers and a set of dumbbells are used in this workout. I like this workout. The only problem that I had is that Kimberly moved very quickly from one exercise to the next and she never changed the weight she was using. So some exercises I found the weight too light and on some exercises, I found the weight too heavy. There was not really a chance to change out the weight. When I tried, I would lose rep...

Amy Bento's Drop Set Strength - well the workout is not 60 minutes long which is the approximate time listed on the back of the DVD cover. If you do the whole workout, we are talking about an almost 90 minute workout. The workout is chaptered and contains the following sections: warm up Legs Chest Back Shoulders Biceps Triceps Core Stretch. Drop sets - with the exception of the legs and core sections, you are performing one cycle for 3 sets of each exercise. The reps for set 1 is 8, set 2 is 10 and set 3 is 12. As you go up in the number of reps, you are suppose to decrease the amount of weight you are using. For some of the Leg exercises you perform two cycles (two times through) for 3 sets of each exercise or you are performing one cycle on the left leg and one cycle on the right. The core exercises are not performed in the Drop Set manner. Here you are doing 4 sets of each exercise. As you progress through the drop sets, Amy tweaks many of the exercises as you move along....

Cathe's STS Mesocycle 3 Strength is as its name implies about Strength. It is a 4 week program and it consist of two upper body workouts and one lower body workout per week for a total of 12 workouts. All 12 workouts come together in a DVD case that in my opinion isn't very durable. Inside the case are clear plastic holders and more than half of the plastic is cracked. However the DVD themselves are just fine. I do like the case better than some of the other workout system cases that come with multiple DVDs. The suggested rotation has you doing 3 workouts per week. The 12 workouts break down as follows. Disc 25, 28, 31, & 34 are Chest & Back workouts Disc 26, 29, 32, & 35 are Plyo Legs workouts Disc 27, 30, 33, & 36 are Shoulders, Biceps, & Triceps workouts With the exception of the Plyo Leg workouts, the exercises are the same for each week and only the rep count changes. In the Plyo workouts you are alternating plyometrics (lots of jumping) with...

Pure Strength 2 is approximately 50 minutes in length. It follows the same format as Pure Strength 1. Which is: Warm up Back Chest Back Chest Legs Arm/Shoulders Legs Arms/Shoulders Stretch During the warm up, Michelle first starts off without weights. After about 2 minutes, she grabs a set of light weights and takes you through a series of moves that show up later in the various sections. While the various sections target a specific muscle group, Michelle does end each section with some type of full body exercise move. Michelle coaches quite a bit - stopping to point out form. Also I notice that I need to pay attention to the television more, because along with coaching, Michelle chats a lot. Several times I thought she was still setting up the move and I look up at the TV and she had already started doing the exercise. I was waiting for a verbal start cue that did not come. You are moving from exercise to exercise at a quick but steady pace. So while I include...

Pure Strength 1 clocks in at around 50 minutes. It consist of a warm up, 8 cycles or rounds and a cool down. Each round including the warm up and cool down are about 5 minutes each. Michelle uses light weight during the warm up and the warm up includes several of the exercises you will see in later rounds. Each round focuses on a particular body part or muscle group. At the end of each muscle group, Michelle includes a total body exercise to round out the 5 minutes. As with the Fit Test and all the workouts in this series, bells go off letting you know when the round is almost finish. The flow of the workout (the core part) goes like this: back, chest, back, chest, legs, arms/shoulders, legs and arms/shoulders. Now while Michelle is essentially performing the exact same exercise from one set to the next, she does vary the tempo and rep count. Also each plank pushup combination is different. Dumbbells (light and heavy) are used as well as the a band This band comes with the Peak Fit S...

My next monthly rotation is 6 weeks long and it features both Morning and Evening workouts. I am doing a modified STS program in the morning and the evening rotation will feature my mostly new Zumba workouts. For the morning : Sunday: Cardio Coach Workouts Monday: STS Upper Body Tuesday: STS Lower Body Wednesday: Cathe Cardio Step Thursday: STS Upper Body Friday: 1st 4 weeks - STS Plyo Legs, last two weeks will be other Cathe Lower Body Workouts Saturday: Rest Evening : Sunday: not really evening but following Cardio Coach will be STS Ab Circuit workouts Monday: Dance Tuesday: Zumba Exhilarate System Wednesday: Evening Off Thursday: Treadmill Friday: Zumba Toning workouts Saturday: Rest

STS Total Body is phase 4 in Cathe's Shock Training System which is a system about building strength, muscular endurance, and muscle definition. Where the other phases in the system work the various muscle groups across three (or four if you are counting abs) different workouts, STS Total Body aims to work the entire body in one workout. The main part of the workout clocks in at 66 minutes long. It features a warm up, a series of trisets, an abdominal section, and a stretch. The warm up uses a barbell to warm the muscles. I forgot about this. I don't like warming up this way - starting off with weight right away. Cathe does caution that the barbell should be light in weight. During the warm up you are doing dead lifts, barbell rows, squats, lunges, shoulder press, upright rows, and some bicep curls. The reps are maybe around 8 to 10. The main part of the workout features tri-sets done for two sets each. A tri-set is when you do three exercises back to back before you rest. Th...

Pure Strength is a 3 days split weighted workout series. The three workouts are: Pure Strength Legs & Abs , Pure Strength Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Pure Strength Back, Biceps and Abs . Legs & Abs is 64 minutes. Chest, Shoulder & Triceps about 41 minutes and Back, Bicep & Abs is about 46 minutes. I believe this is my second time doing this workouts. (Yep). I just went back and read my old review. I don't really have a whole lot to add, except to emphasize that the workout is fast past with very little rest between the sets.. I am including worksheets this time around of the exercises perform. Click on the image for a larger view. What I am noticing with working out to parts or splits. There is not a big calorie burn during the workout. This week I got up to around 265 calories burn with the leg workout but didn't even reach 200 calories burn with the two upper body workouts. I think for Chest, Shoulder, & Triceps I burned 198 calories an...