Saundra

Kelly's latest 30 Minutes To Fitness workout is Trim Down .  Trim Down contains two workouts and each is a combination of boxing drills and dumbbell exercises.  It alternates dumbbell exercises with cardio boxing drills. The DVD menu gives you the following options: Introduction Workout One Workout Two Premixes Credits There is also a music on/off option Workouts One and Two share the warm up, but they each have their own cool down.    I created a worksheet only for the dumbbell exercises. This workout has the following premixes : Boxing Drills - Both Workouts 31 Weight Work Drills - Both Workouts 29 Combined Workouts 54 Kelly's Favorite Mix 20 Mixed Trim Down #1 30 Mixed Trim Down #2 32 I have done two of the premixes which are the Boxing Drills @ 31 minutes and the Combine workouts @57 minutes.  The DVD states the Combine Premix is only 54 minutes but it is really 57 minutes. I like doing the co

  FlexTrain is a mixture of compound metabolic high rep weight training and heavy weight work. It clocks in at just under 57 minutes.  The metabolic exercises move from one exercise to the next, whereas with the Heavy weight work, you are often doing these exercises for multiple sets so the workout slows a bit during this portion. Overall Cathe goes from exercise to exercise not resting much.  I created a worksheet for the exercises and most of them are traditional moves that we have seen before.  It is one of those workouts you can just jump in and do.  While I thought the music a bit funky, I did like this workout.   Speaking of the music, sometimes Cathe work with the beat and sometimes she did not. The workout has three premixes: Timesaver #1 - No Core/Abs 47:48 Timesaver #2 - No Disc + No Firewalkers 47:49 Timesaver #3 - No Disc + No Firewalkers + No Core/Abs - 39:00 Equipment used:  band, loop band, dumbbells, discs, mats 3 & 3/4 stars

MCM10K October 27, 2013 I completed my third 10K race this past Sunday.  And while I didn't meet my goal of beating last year's time, I still feel pretty satisfied overall. The weather was great while running but when walking to get my medal and to get refreshments, I could tell how cold it was.  Already looking forward to next year's race.

10 Pounds Down Cardio Abs clocks in at a whopping 85 minutes if you do the whole work.  I did the whole workout but not in one sitting. There are three main workouts and one bonus workout on this DVD.  There is an option to Play All otherwise you have your choice of: Cardio Abs (28 minutes) Total Body Abs Transformer (28 minutes) Concentrated Abs (28 minutes) Tummy Torching Tabata (4 minutes). I did Cardio Abs and Total Body Abs Transformer as an AM workout and in the evening I did Concentrated Abs and the Tabata workouts. Cardio Abs is set to an upbeat tempo and it mixes different cardio moves in a combination format.  Most of the cardio moves are kickboxing inspired moves.  You run through each of the combinations twice before moving on. In most cases, Jessica will start with a base often low impact move and then she gradually adds intensity and different levels as you progress through a particular element. The next workout is Total Body Abs Transformer. This workou

Jari Love's Get Extremely Ripped! DVD is a compound multi-joint workout. You can divide the workout into two - approximately 30 minutes workouts or you can combine both workouts for a long 69 minute workout.  The DVD also includes an 8 minute ab workout. The music is pretty decent and the set looks almost industrial. Some cast members use a step and some do not. As with most Jari workouts expect lots of reps and there is not much rest in between the sets.  This workout does feature the 30 second countdown clock. This workout was okay but not a favorite. 3 stars

Jessica Smith's 10 Pounds Down Better Body Blast features three 20 minute plus workouts. The three workouts are Arms, Legs, Abs.   I broke down the exercises in the Arms and Legs exercises in the worksheet. The Arm's workouts uses a set if light dumbbells.  In the Leg's workout, the dumbbells are optional and the Abs' workout does not use weights. All three workouts contain cardio intervals that are intersperse within the toning sets. Jessica moves you from one exercise right into the next exercise with very little break.  Even during the toning, I felt the cardio come through on some of the exercises.  This is a high rep workout with Jessica performing each group of exercises at least twice. Jessica is the only cast member.  The set is different from the previous two 10 Pound downs workout I did.   In this workout, there is a makeshift stage that is behind Jessica and when the camera zooms in (narrow shots) the set appears darker; almost like Jessica is work

Rockout Knockout is one of the newly release Cathe 2013 workouts.  It is a kickboxing martial arts inspired workout. One thing I want to say is these new workouts come in some good high quality DVD cases.  Just something I notice right away. I think I had some other workout's flimsy case in my hand which is why I notice the difference. So, the DVD menu for Rockout Knockout is: Introduction Pla y Chapters   - Warm up   - Kickbox Cardio   - Cardio With Gloves   - Kickbox Combos   - Stretch   - Bonus Heavy Bag Premixes   - Rockout Knockout + Bonus Heavy Bag (65:02)   - Timesaver # 1 (38:33)   - Timesaver # 2 (36:16)   - Timesaver # 3 (43:33)   - Timesaver # 4 (43:15)   - Scrambled # 1 (55:17)   - Scrambled # 2 (65:02) Equipment Audio Settings   - Normal Mix   - Instrumental Music Mix   - Vocals Only Mix I did the Rockout Knockout + Bonus Heavy Bag premix and I thought the workout moved pretty fast.  Each of the sections was just enough and not too much o

Extremely Ripped & Chiseled is a compound and isolation exercise workout. The DVD menu offers the following options: Introduction Complete Workout (78:10) 30 Minute Workouts - Lower Body (45:20) - Upper Body (42:35) Each of the workouts includes a 6 & 1/2 minute warm up and a 5 & 1/2 minute cool down.  The warm up is quite energetic and the cool down is relaxing. I like both of these segments. The workout alternates isolation exercises with compound exercises and there are a lot of reps and multiple sets for each exercise performed.  I definitely felt the burn towards the end of some of the sets. What annoyed me is that Jari identified Workout 1 as Lower Body and Workout 2 as Upper Body.  Yet the lower body workout had quite a bit of upper body work.  However, what is excellent  is the chaptering. Each exercise is a chapter point so you can skip different segments easily if you want.  Also, there is a 30 second countdown clock that appears toward the end of eac

Cardio Hip Hop Party is approximately 42 minutes in length and features Jennifer Gilardi as the lead. The three dances in this workout are: Old School Hip Hop House Video Jam. I really love the Old School and Hip Hop House dances and give both of them high marks.  The Video Jam was just okay and overall I thought the music could have been better.  I did like the music in Hip Hop House. Old school features dance moves such as the cabbage patch, old school shuffle and roger rabbit.  Hip Hop House features steps like the glide, the sweep, and the slide.  In the Video Jam workout, Jennifer slowed down the tempo. The steps in this dance seemed really similar to each other. This workout features a 26 minute Step Guide but I was so annoyed because unlike last week's Hip Hop Jam, they didn't chapter the steps.  So you couldn't just jump through to the move you wanted to review.  Old School - 5 stars Hip Hop House - 4 & 1/2 stars Video Jam  - 3 stars

Total Body Tune Up clocks in at just under an hour.  It is a high rep workout with the primary emphasis on sculpting.  Jessica uses a pair of light hand weights.  I think hers are 5lbs.  In many of the exercise sets you are doing 24 reps per side. The workout is roughly grouped into six rounds. With the exception of the last round, each of the rounds end with a series of cardio moves. The last round is focus on the core in the form of plank work and then you go into a superset for the abdominals. Most of the exercises are compound in nature. You are simultaneously working the lower and upper body together.  There is some functional fitness as well. I certainly felt this workout.  I did this workout on  Wednesday and today is Friday and I am feeling the DOMS from the sculpting sets. Love the soundtrack in this one.  This is a download workout and like the previous 10 Pounds Down workout I did last week, at approximately 10 minute intervals the workout would just freeze. Extreme

Amy Bento’s Body Box is a kickbox inspired interval workouts.  Along with a warm up and cool down, there are 4 kickbox combinations and 4 intervals.  The intervals consist of resistance type exercises. Some of the interval exercises used dumbbells for resistance and others use your own body weight for resistance. After the end of each interval, Amy add a recovery move that you do for about 8 reps. The intervals and recovery exercises are: Interval 1 :  horse jump into squat overhead press with dumbbells Recovery 1 :  parry block into cross punch Interval 2 :  air lunge into standing seated windshield holding dumbbells Recovery 2 :  alternating side block Interval 3 :  bridge crawls into push ups, leaning bridges from the kneeling position Recovery 3 :  Bow outs Interval 4 :  alternating low squats jump into push up, bridge punches Recovery 4 :  high cross alternating lunge back The intervals/recovery are around 5 to 6 minute each. The kickbox combos include both lower and upper bod

 Jari Love’s Revved to the Max consist of two 30 minute compound  weight workouts. The workout uses an optional step, dumbbells, and a mat.  In almost all exercise besides the abdominal, Jari first works the right side and then the left. Jari also came up with some funky staggered counting that felt out of sync with the exercises she was performing.  So there were a couple of moves in which I  counted to my own rhythm while performing the exercise. The set is dark.  There are overhead spotlights that are shining down on the participants.  I could see everyone just fine.  There were some cast members who were showing variations on how to perform an exercise. In the second workout, Jari turns over the teaching to Adam who leads two tracks. The music is okay.  For the most part it felt as if you were doing each rep to the beat of the music. Essentially you are performing 6 sets of each compound exercise group. The only time I felt  6 sets were bordering on obnoxious was durin

Dance Off The Inches Hip Hop Jam is lead by Jennifer Gilardi.  The workout is approximately 43 minutes in length; and like other DOTI workouts it features a step guide which is about 22 minutes in length. What is great about this Step Guide is that it is chaptered.  Yea!!! So you can quickly jump to the move you want to review. There are 10 steps that Jennifer breaks down. There are three dances that Jennifer teaches in a layered pattern.  On average, Jen gives you 4 passes of each move that is taught before moving on.  Then she combines the moves and has you take it from the top until the whole dance combination is learned. The DVD offers the following options: Play - Plays all Chapters - lets you select individual dances Step Guide - Breakdown Booty Blaster Workout - Bonus Workout The chapters option further breaks down into: Warm up Cali Pop Funk Groove Street Style Cool Down I really like the Warm up.  Cali Pop was just okay. I thought the music for this d

Weight Loss Cardio Mix is part of Jessica Smith's 10 Pound Down series. At one time this workout did come on DVD but I was only able to get it as a download. To download this workout, I had to add a program called Mod Player to my computer and to play this workout through my tablet I had to add the Mod Mobile App. The difference between the player and the app is the player gives you a Chapter menu option that you would fine on the DVD.  The App does not.  This is bit of a bummer. I would have like to have access to the workout's chapter menu on my tablet. Also, about every ten minutes the workout would freeze on me. The only way I could correct the problem was to close out the App and reopen it.  This started the workout over. So I had to scroll through the workout to find my place.  Annoying to say the least. If you use the player, you have the following Chapter options: -Warnings - Introduction - Warm Up - The Cardio Mix - Total Body Toner - Corset Abs - Co

Pure Spice Workout Cinnamon Edition by Christi Taylor is a 55 minute dance workout. The DVD cover states that it is "a cue-less dance workout - no verbal distractions, just hot music and hand cues". I will get back to that statement shortly. There is a detail DVD menu that is broken down as follows: - Introduction - Workout - MoveMasters   (38 minute break down of the dance moves) - Spice Girls   (introduces the cast) - Charlie (advertising a book written by Christi's mom) - Love 4 Amanda   (a charity foundation) - Be A Video Star (consulting service) I like this workout.  I love the music.  I didn't like the cue-less cuing. Christi mentioned in her introduction that "the workout uses only visual cues and no verbal cues".  She goes on to say that "today's dance classes nation wide are being taught this way". I have taken a couple of these dance classes and while there is visual cuing, there is also verbal cuing as well.  Ver

October 2013 Towards the end of the month, I will be running a 10K.  Sunday - 10K Training Monday - Strength with Jari and Cathe Tuesday - Cardio, mostly kickboxing Wednesday - Total Body with Jessica and Kelly Thursday - Dance with Jennifer Friday - Cathe circuit workouts Saturday - Rest