Saundra

Wow, this year has flown by. I can't believe that December starts tomorrow. For December's rotation, about a 1/3 of the workouts will be my first outing with them. Although, I have had some of them for almost a year, if not longer. The breakdown: Sunday - Circuit of some sort (mostly FIRM new workouts). Monday - Dance Tuesday - Cardio Sculpt - The FIRM Wednesday - Step Thursday - FitPrime Originals Friday - rest day Saturday - Amy Bento cardio weight workouts. On Sunday the 5th, I have three 20 minute workouts listed. They are all FIRM workouts: Power Sculpt, Core & Lower Body Toner , and Weighted Gloves Cardio Workout. I might replace Wednesday the 29th workout with the FIRM Cardio Step Mix . I will see when I get there. Right now I have Cathe's Intensity listed. It will be one or the other. It was my intention to take 2 rest days in December, but I decided to just go for one. Usually in December I like to take it easy and go with less intense or shor...

November is coming to an end and so is my Turbo Fire rotation. The last of the workouts are Fire Class 30 and Stretch 40 Class. Fire 30 Class clocks in at 30:57. It features one drill done twice but the drill is not done back to back. Chalene does the drill once at about the 20 minute mark or so and again at about the 12 minute mark. This is a fun workout. I thought the combinations flowed really well. This is probably my second favorite behind the Fire 45 EZ class. You get in, work real hard and then get out. Stretch 40 Class is basically a yoga class or a stretch class done with yoga poses. It was just okay. I actually thought it was a bit long and boring. Chalene coaches throughout - constantly providing motivational tips. I like listening to Chalene but Stretch 40 is probably my least favorite out of all the Turbo Fire workouts. Fire 30 Class - 4 1/2 stars Stretch 40 Class - 2 1/2 stars Summary of series: I really like the series especially the cardio. At the same ...

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...

Turbo Fire 45 EZ Class is my favorite Turbo Fire Workout. I just really like how the combos and music come together in this one. The workout clock in at 43:40. It has one finale but no drills. A drill wasn't necessary. I burnt almost as many calories in the 45 EZ Class as I did in the 45 Class. Just super high energy and motivating fun from Chalene. Tone 30 Class clock in at 30:17 and it features a standing and floor section. The standing sections contains compound upper body and lower body moves that are followed by upper body only moves. The floor section are all compound exercise type moves that work multiple body parts. The workout uses both the band (tube style) and a lower body band. I did use the bands for the whole workout, although I am sure you can substitute dumbbells. A solid toning workout. HiiT 25 Class length is 24:32. It features 4 drills that are repeated twice. The first drill is 69 seconds, the second - 67 seconds, the third - 69 seconds and the ...

Another blast from the past. I have been pulling out all of the first group of workouts that I have ever owned - well the ones I still have. In that pile is Technifunk 2:The Dance Attack!. It is a 30 minute cardio workout that features a warm up, a dance routine and a cool down. This workout is fun fun fun and a real calorie burner. Although, the workout does starts off slow. The warm up is mostly isometric movements, shoulder roles and ribcage isolation with some stretching. Once it gets past that point, the workout picks up with some cool dance moves that Victoria breaks down in 1/2 counts and then she picks up the tempo with double count. You are doing a little bit of ballet, some jazz and some hip hop funk type moves. There is a lot of repetition but it didn't get on my nerves like it did with Cher's Hot Dance. In fact, a couple of times, I even said to myself - "We need to do that part again". Victoria is fun, and hip and motivating in her enthusiasm and...

I will be offering additional thoughts on this workout at a later date, but for now I want to give my initial impression of Intensity . I did the download version of this workout and from the download it is hard to see how things breakdown chapter wise. The workout itself clocks in at 57:38. It is roughly broken down into the following parts: warm up - about 6 minutes Step (high and low intensity) - 14 minutes IMAX (step mini routine with blast) - 10 minutes HiiT - 10 minutes Lower HiiT - 10 minutes Stretch - 7 minutes. The HiiT portion does contain a clock count down but there is no set pattern as there is with 40/20 and 30/30. The HiiT pattern is random depending on the exercise. The workout features all old or reused Cathe choreography. Therefore, if you are use to Cathe choreography you will have absolutely no problem in picking up the routines or moves - which is good because the workout does move. You are not resting much. With the exception of Lower HiiT portion, much o...

This week's Turbo Fire workouts started off with Turbo Fire 45 Class . Fire 45 Class clocks in at 44:39. It contains 2 drills. The first drill is only done once and it is 70 seconds in length. I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't repeated twice. The second drill is also 70 seconds in length but it is performed twice. There is one finale. I like the individual moves in this workout but I didn't think the moves flowed well together. Sculpt 30 Class clock in at 28:18. I like this workout much better than the first time I did it. That could be because I used dumbbells for most of the exercises. Chalene does use a band - the tube style. The exercises in Sculpt 30 are mostly compound in nature. You are working both the upper and lower body at the same time. A few of the exercises just work the upper body. It is an okay sculpting workout. HiiT 30 Class contains 5 drills and clocks in at 30:35. Each drill is repeated twice except for the last drill which is repeated three ...