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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 ...

Zero To Sixty Low Impact with Weights is close to a 70 minute workout if you do the whole workout.  Sharon alternates cardio, body weight, and sculpting (using 5lb dumbbells). Most of the impact is low, however Sharon shows high impact modifications. Plus she has a cast member showing lower impact/lower intensity modifications. Sharon teaches the combos in a break down pattern. You first start the combo by doing several sets of reps usually on both sides. Then she slowly builds a pattern by taking away reps and creating a combo by joining various moves/exercises. Expect lots of repetition. DVD Menu Intro to Play All Pre-Mixes      Zero to 40 - Light Weight Day      Zero to 40 - Heavy Weight Day      Zero to 30 - All Intervals      Zero to 26 - All Combos Chapters      Combo One      Combo Two      Combo Three    ...

Body Weight Blast is a Patrick Goudeau workout that clocks in a little bit over the hour mark. This is an interval style workouts that features some high energy throughout the workout. There are 8 interval segments that are 6 minutes each. Each 6 minute interval is broken down as follows: - 3 minutes of body weight exercises - 2 minutes of heavy weight (dumbbells) work - 1 minute of high intensity cardio. Within the 3, 2 and 1 minute sets,(in several of the segments) you are often working one side of the body and then repeating the moves on the other side of the body. Along with Patrick, there are four other cast members.  Patrick teaches this workout in his signature style.  He will start the exercise and then he often stops to coach and talk to the camera or the other cast members. Even though I know he does this, sometimes I would find it confusing because he would start the move and as he is stopping to coach, I am thinking he is going into a different varia...

Jari Love's Get Extremely Ripped 1000 . This one was not my favorite. I really didn't care for the cardio segments too much and the weight segments were just okay. This is an interval workout that alternates 3 minutes of cardio with 1 minute of sculpting. You can do the workouts as two separate thirty minute workouts or as one sixty minute workout. That time does not include the warm up and cool down. The warm up is additional 5 minutes and the cool down is about 6 minutes. The warm up uses a set of weights right from the start. Bicep curls, squats, lunges, lateral raises, shoulder press are some of the warm up exercises Jari performs with light weight. All the strength exercises are compound in nature - lower and upper body working together. Sometimes the format was 30 seconds on each side. Sometimes the format was the whole minute on one side - go to cardio - come back and do a minute on the other side. Cardio - with the exception of a couple of exercises, I tho...

Reboot Vol 1 is the first workout in a new series from Tracie Long. It is approximately 50 minutes long and is an interval style workout. The basic pattern of the intervals are : cardio recovery weight training recovery cardio I like the workout. I didn't think it all that intense, more of an intermediate workout. Also, I didn't think it all that different from the Longevity Series (Tracie's previous serious). The DVD does not contain any premixes but the following chapter points are available to select: Warm Up (5 mins) Hamstrings & Butt (8 mins) Lunges & Shoulders (8 mins) Weighted Push Ups & Rows (8 mins) Squats & Biceps (8 mins) Weighted Core (5 mins) Stretch (5 mins) Like most of Tracie's workouts, the workout is tightly choreograph with the music. The workout uses two sets of dumbbells and a mat. 3 & 3/4 stars

Lean Hot Body is a 60 minute Patrick Goudeau Workout. It is interval based - mixing cardio intervals with toning intervals. The workout follows a similar format to some other Interval Style workouts I have. You are essentially doing everything twice through. Once on the right and again on the left. I believe there are five interval blocks for a total of 10 intervals. I was going to break down each of the interval with each of the exercises perform but the workout is not chaptered - which is a big negative. So the next time I do the workout, I will try to take the time to write down what is what. It is a shame that the workout is not chaptered or the main part of the workout is not chapter. You can select the cool down and the abs as separate chapter points. Anyway, as I was doing the workout, I was thinking it would be good to mix and match the sections - to design my own workout by shortening it or repeating some sections or simply just doing the intervals I like best. This workout ...

Afterburn (I like the name of this workout) is a 54 minute interval workout. This workout is part of Cathe's Low Impact Series. And I will go ahead and say this here. Low Impact does not mean No Impact. There is some impact and like any other workout (in my opinion) the impact can be modified to be more or less. So Afterburn is an interval workout that features 10 intervals. Each interval consist of two exercises and after you complete the two exercises you repeat them again before moving on. The DVD chapter points list them a 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B and so forth. On my worksheet I listed them once and gave you a separate column for Interval A and Interval B. Typically one of the exercise in the interval is cardio based and one is weight based. Along with dumbbells, Cathe and crew also used Dixie cups and the Slide & Glide Exercise Discs. I am working out on hardwood floors and I didn't have any problem using the discs on my flooring. Now I did have a problem doing the disc Jac...

Target Toning Zero-in-Ten is a FIRM workout(s) and it is led by Rebekah Sturkie and Emily Welsh. It consist of five 10-minute workouts. The workouts are Lean Legs (Rebekah), Fearless Arms (Rebekah), Bikini Body Blaze (Emily), ABS-olute Core (Rebekah) and Bun Burn (Emily). Each of the 10 minutes consist of a brief warm up in the beginning and a cool down/stretch at the end. Rebekah uses weights in her three workouts and her three workouts are interval based (cardio burst and strength training). The workouts include the standards interval style exercises (including the burpee - appears in Abs-solute Core). Emily does not use weights in her workouts. Bikini Body Blaze is basically a multi-level cardio workouts. By multi-level, Emily starts at level one (easiest) and goes up to level three (hardest) by adding more intense moves. Bun Burn works the lower body using your own body resistance. You can use each 10 minute workout on its own or you can choose to do all 5 sections in the P...

Oh IMAX 3 was a killer of a workout. I think this was due to the recovery periods being almost nonexistent. Like its predecessors, IMAX3 features 10 intervals. The 10 intervals include a mini step routine repeated 6 times, a blast and a very brief recovery period. Cathe even states "You might have notice, we tightened up the recovery period". Yes I noticed, but I didn't like it. I enjoyed the recovery period in IMAX 1 and IMAX 2. What I liked about IMAX 3 were the mini step routines. I thought they flowed extremely well. Although, now that I think about it, it could be I just wasn't ready to go into the next blast - that could be why I liked them so much, I was still in recovery. If the recovery periods were shorter, I have to assume the blast were longer; at least that's how it seemed. Some of the blast seemed like they were going on and on and on. Most of the moves in the blast and step routines were athletic in nature. There might have been one or t...

IMAX 2 . I really like this workout. Following the first IMAX, it contains a thorough warm up, 10 intervals, a cool down and a stretch. The 10 intervals are broken up into a mini step routine repeated 6 times, a blast and a recovery period. I think it's the music that gives this workout its extra oomph! From the start of the workout, there is a vibe that flows through the whole workout and the energy is super high. You just feel like you are grooving and in the zone. The only thing that I didn't like about this workout is in one of the blast you are hopping on one foot for several sets. I ended up modifying that so it wasn't a big deal, just something I didn't care to do. Between intervals 5 and 6, Cathe gives you extra rest time - about 30 seconds. You can check your heart rate or grab water or.... Rest. IMAX 2 is just fun to me. And, oh. It clocks in at 55 minutes. 5 stars.

Interval Max is Cathe's first IMAX workout and it is approximately 60 minutes in length. It features the club step. Cathe uses a 8 inch step. I used a 6 inch step height. Interval Max is a step interval(hi-low, aerobic-anaerobic) workout. It contains a rather long warm up (about 13 minutes). The core part of the workout features 10 intervals that includes a mini step routine repeated six times, an intensity blast, and a recovery period. This is followed by a cool down and a stretch. Now while this is the first Cathe IMAX workout produce, I actually did this workout last after first doing IMAX 3 and then IMAX 2. So I think this is only my second time doing this workout. Of the three, I do think Interval Max is the easiest to do, but I will confirm that as I have both IMAX 2 and IMAX 3 coming up later in the month. What I like about this workout is that all the moves are really simple - which is what I want in this type of workout. You don't have to think a lot with this...

Hardwork Conditioning 24/7 is about 62 minutes workout if you do all the sections. It is a strength and cardio interval workout. Each circuit is about 6 minutes and it starts with 2 minutes of cardio and then 4 minutes of strength. Typically the 4 minutes of strength is broken down into 2 minutes on the right and then 2 minutes on the left or vice versa. Patrick and his cast use an 8 inch step in the vertical position, a mat is sometimes used and dumbbells. There is a lot of getting up and down onto the floor. There are one and even maybe two too many sets of burpees/squat thrust. A lot of the moves were multi-joint exercises. I did feel as if I was working hard. When you first put in the DVD, the menu is a bit confusing. I bought my copy of this workout from Collagevideo and the workout came with a sheet of scrap paper breaking down the menu options which are as follows: Wake Up Call (warm-up) - 6 minutes Monday (7 circuits) - 42 minutes Tuesday (3 circuits) - 18 minutes Wednes...

Hard Work Conditioning 2 is another workout that surprised me. I didn't expect to like the workouts as much as I did. I have had this work practically since it first came out and I am just now getting around to doing it. It's a interval workout. I thought the blend of aerobics and toning were more even than in the first Hard Work Conditioning workout. The toning segments featured mostly compound exercise and the layering technique. Many of the toning segments had a cardio and/or a balance aspect to it. The cardio segments were burst of simple sometimes intense movement. Patrick uses the step and 2 sets of dumbbells. This workout is long but can be broken down into Lower Body and Upper Body segments. In my opinion, however because of the compound nature of the moves, you are almost always working both body sections together. I give this workout 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

This is my second time doing Staying Power . Before I go and read what I wrote before I am going to say this is a 3 1/2 star workout. My biggest gripe was that I really couldn't hear the music. I could hear Tracie just fine. This is an interval style workout that used light to medium weights and the medicine ball. I like the intervals and the exercises that Tracie selected. Tracie is always so precise to me. Each move is distinct and identifiable. Going to go and check out my last review...... In my last review I gave it 3 1/2 stars. So that is very consistent. This is a solid workout.

PlayBall in 4 . I like this workout. The workout gets its inspiration from Basketball or so Patrick states and it is divided into 4 quarters. Each quarter is roughly 12 - 15 minutes in length. The whole workout is just over an hour long. Patrick takes you through a series of interval, functional type moves using a medicine ball. Some of the med ball moves are shoulder press, figure 8's, squat press, weaving the ball etc. The ball is used as a prop and also for resistance and stabilization work. I am extremely happy to report that we did not have to bounce the ball. Within each quarter, Patrick incorporates moves that get the heart rate up and then he brings your heart rate down with more static/concentration type exercises. In all 4 segments you are doing some type of floor work with the longest floor work segment coming in the 4 quarter which has a nice ab/core set. Also Patrick uses a left and right pattern meaning you do the combination on the right and then repeat it on the le...

Patrick Goudeau's Hard Work Conditioning is 60 a minute workout that I thought was more toning than aerobics. The toning segments featured exercises that were compound in nature and many of the moves had a balance component as well. The aerobic segments contain power moves done in burst. With the exception of the plank jacks on the steps, I really didn't feel that I was working that hard. However, I got a major case of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) as a result of this workout. At first I couldn't place why I was so sore in my lat area and inner and outer thighs until I started thinking about the moves I had done in the workout. Patrick does a good job of keeping the workout moving. 3 out of 5 stars

Interval training is the buzz word for April. I am not a big fan of interval training. I put together this rotation because there are several workouts I have that I have had going on a year now that I haven't done or have only done once. The workouts that you see listed for Sunday are ab/core workouts that I will be doing after a 3 mile run. The featured instructors/systems are Patrick Goudeau, Kelly Coffey-Meyer, Tracie Long, The FIRM, and Cathe. Click on the Image for a Larger View

Hi Lo Xtreme might have been my first Amy Bento purchase. When I first did this workout several years ago now, I found myself fumbling all over the place. I thought to myself, I know people say Amy is advance but I thought they meant as far as intensity go. I didn't think I would have too difficult time picking up the choreography. Well I stuck with it - not without chucking the DVD in the corner first - and I am glad I did. If you really want a super fun workout, this is it, but you need to give yourself time and patience to pick up the routines. Now of course I don't think the choreography in the routines is tough at all. Part of it was learning what Amy calls things. I remember when I first heard her say heel lift. So I was only lifting my heel, because that it was I was used too. However, when Amy says heel lift, she means what I think of as a hamstring curl. Semantics. I like this workout very much. It is a classic Amy Hi Lo with combos and intervals. Like her kic...

HiiT 40/20 (approximately 29 minutes). I had read the reviews and comments on this workout. The consensus seemed to be that this workout was much tougher than 30/30. All I can say is - YES IT WAS!. Oh my Gosh. Gasping for breath was I. Even the three minute breaks we were given didn't seem long enough. I will admit there were several intervals that I treated as a 30/30. I definitely need to work up my endurance and recovery time for this workout. It is a good workout and I love the length. Equipment used - Club Step 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.

Coming in at around 52 minutes, Staying Power , the second workout from Tracie Long's Longevity series is an interval style workout. That is the first 30 minutes, after the warm up, is interval style. Then Tracie takes you to the floor for the last 15 minutes of the workout. This workout reminded me of TLT (Tracie Long Training) workouts. Although, I will say it didn't have as much functional fitness exercises as the previous series. This interval workout alternated cardio sets with sculpting sets. Many of the cardio sets used a medicine ball and the sculpting sets used light to medium weights. The only time you really needed to grab a heavy weight was during the one arm row exercise. My least favorite sections was the floor work section. This section was loosely divided into three sections, push ups/core, hips and stretch. In the push up section, Tracie takes you through a series of push up/plank exercises. The hip section consisted of doing long lever side hip raises...