FitByTracey Circuit Zone - Thoughts

Circuit Zone is a 71 minutes workout featuring Tracey Staehle. I have had this workout for awhile, probably 1/2 year and am just now getting to it. It is one of those workouts that I kept meaning to add into the rotation but never found a place for it.

There is a kick box influence in this workout. I also consider it to be endurance base.

The workout starts with two warm up segments. The first warm up warms up your upper body by doing a series of punches. The second warm up warms up your lower body by doing a series of kicks.

After that we move into the circuits.

Circuit 1 - (Upper Body) Lat pullovers, chest press, push ups, rear flys,

Circuit 2 - (Lower Body) Alternating lunges, boxers stance squats, rear lunges, pulse squats,

Circuit 2 - (Bonus Lower Body) Alternating Plyo Lunges, knee jump kicks, front back lunges

Circuit 3 - (Upper Body) Bicep and Triceps Work

Circuit 3 - (Bonus Upper Body) Triceps

Circuit 4 - (Lower Body) Outer and inner thigh Leg Lifts, jacks using a band

Circuit 4 - (Bonus Lower Body) - Hamstring press using a band

Circuit 5 - (Upper Body) - Wide grip floor, shoulder lat and rotators lifts, shoulder press,

Circuit 5 - (Bonus Upper Body) - Punches using weights

Circuit 6 - (Lower Body) - one legged squat, lunge with a back row, knee thrust

Circuit 7 - (Lower Body) - Leg Isolation balance kicks

Cool Down - Just Tracey - foam roller stretch

Along with Tracey, there is Barbie who does Beginner Modifications and Jill who does the more advance moves. Most of the exercises are done for a minute or 30 seconds per side. Many of the exercises contain a cardio factor mostly during the leg circuits.

There's lots and lots of equipment being used: Dumbbells, kettlebell, step, bosu, foam roller, band and chair. The music is so so - mostly background, some tunes good and some tunes - just there. I like the set. It is a wood grain set, very earthy. The lighting was a bit funky in that one side of the set seemed to be heavily lighted, while the other side was not.

There were things that I liked about the workout but for the most part this workout bugged me. While within each circuit, I like the exercises that Tracey perform, the workout itself was just all over the place. There was absolutely no flow or the flow was stop and go, stop and go. As you move from circuit to circuit, there was definitely a stoppage and then Tracey and the other ladies would appear with all their equipment ready to go for the upcoming circuit. So translated - you need to preview the workout ahead or you are going to be pausing the DVD to get all your equipment in place.

The thing that bugged me the most about the workout was that Tracey only did about a 1/3 of the workout. She kept stopping and walking around to the other ladies to point out what they were doing; and when she joined back in with the exercise the transition was not smooth - all of it was distracting. Sometimes she was joining in as they were doing the last rep - I found myself asking "What was the point?"

I was actually wondering if maybe Tracey was hurt or ill when she filmed the workout because how much of the workout she didn't do. Most of you know I am not a fan of this coaching/trainer style of workout. However, Tracey I do like. Her Cardio Kickbox Challenge was my favorite workout of last year.

My current thought is that this workout is 2 1/2 stars. I am tempted to go 3 stars because I do like the exercises within the circuit. I am going to try to do this workout again sometime soon to see if this impression holds up.