Saundra

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

Essentrics Full Body Toning is a 57 minute workout that is divided into two segments. There is a standing segment and a floor segment.  In this workout, Sahra, who is the only cast members, offer lots of form tips throughout the workout. At times I felt there were too many tips because she would stop the movement as she was giving the tip and that would interrupt my flow.  Other than that, this is a typical Essentrics workout with shoulder blast, plies, arm series and windmills for the standing segment and in the floor segment abs and quad series.  Both workouts include a nice extended stretch.  Sahra states this workout is a favorite of all students and it is the first workout instructors learn.  There is a great soundtrack in this one and the set is big and bright with lots of windows. 4 stars

Pure & Simple Stretch is a 40-minute stretch workout lead by Karen Voight.  In this total body stretch workout, Karen takes you through a series of static stretches.  Karen eases you into each new position and she gives you time to work the stretch by holding each position for several beats. Karen uses a towel and a cushion as props and to help with certain stretches.   There are three other cast members and sometimes they show variations on the stretch that Karen is doing. The music is ho-hum. There is a narrator at the beginning of the floor segment but the rest of the workout, it is Karen cuing.  This workout was filmed in 1991, so the set is a bit dated but the stretch workout is very good. The DVD does give you the option of dividing the workout into two segments.  You can choose to do a standing 10 minute stretch or a floor-based 30 minute stretch. 3 & 3/4 stars

I think Essentrics Workout was the first Essentrics DVD produce.  It features Sahra Esmonde-White as the lead. This particular DVD contains two 30-minute workouts and it is a bit more advance and a good workout to do after becoming comfortable with the beginner DVD even though this workout was produced first.  First instance, it has almost the exact same exercises as the Beginner DVD but in the workouts that are on this DVD, you are doing many more reps.  The first workout is Arms, Abs, & Waist Toner.    There is a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segment includes a brief warm up and a challenging arm session. It is approximately 22 minutes in length. The floor segments contains traditional abs work, uses a mat and it is a little over 9 minutes in length. Sahra intermixes toning with stretching.  The second workout is Legs, Butt & Thigh Thinner . This workout contains three segments. The standing segments is 6 minutes...

Essentrics Toning for Beginners features two 30 minute workouts that are lead by Sahra Esmonde White.  Sahra is the only one in both workouts. Both workouts contain full body toning in that you are working your arms, abs (waist) and legs. Sahra methodically teaches you the basic moves used throughout many of the Essentrics workouts.  You get little snippets of the moves used in the other workouts. In most cases, you are only doing four reps per side and Sahra switches sides quite frequently. In some spots, the workout felt like it moved very slowly. And Sahra does tell you it is a "slow paced" workout. The difference between workout 1 and workout 2 is that workout 1 features a floor segment that uses a mat and block and workout 2 features a barre segment that uses a chair.  The DVD offers the following options: 1) Instructions & How To's  (10 Minutes) 2) Floor Toning (30 Minutes) 3) Barre Toning (30 Minutes) In the Instruction/How To's, Sahra goes ...