Saundra

Wow!!! This year has flown bye.  In the fitness video front, I really don't think it was all that stellar.  However there were a few workouts that I really liked. My top five favorites were : 1) Patrick Goudeau Present Kickbox Burn 2) Les Mills Combat 60 Live Ultimate Warrior's Workout 3) The FIRM TransFIRM Your Body Workout 4) Ballet Fitness by Jennee 5) Christi Taylor Pure Spice My least favorite workouts that I did in 2013: 1) Aerobox Abs, Core, & More 2) Jessica Smith Weight Loss Cardio Mix 3) Grace Lazenby Rockin Models 4) 10 Minute Solution Cardio Hip Hop 5) 10 Minute Solution Ultimate Boot Camp Systems that I love or like: 1) Figure 8 Fitness System (love) 2) Les Mills Combat (like) 3) Jillian Michaels Body Revolution (like) Middle of the Road Systems 1) The FIRM ZipTrainer 2) Zumba Incredible Results Systems that I found disappointing 1) Michael Olijade (Aerobox)

Dancinerate is a 57 minute workout if you choose to "Play All".  Otherwise it is two separate dance workouts.  One is called Sexy Broadway Jazz and the other is Hip Hop Funk. The warm up is quite fast.  Ilyse really just jumps right into it.  Once you get into the dances, Ilyse teaches you a set a moves (I want to say around 32 counts) at a slow tempo. She then repeats the slow tempo once more before taking you to full tempo. This is pretty much how she taught the whole workout. Two times through at a slow tempo, two times through at tempo before moving to add the next set of (32 counts) moves. The dances were not that hard to learn. I think they would have been easier to learn if she taught each move by 8 count instead of by name.  This was particularly true because not every move had a name - at least not that she called out.  Some of the moves she did name were the booty move, the groove it in, open the door,  the fosse walk, take a walk, body roll, say good bye-say

The last workout in the Figure 8 Fitness System is Belly Latin Fusion .  This workout is 30 minutes and Jaana states the primary focus is the abdominals. This workout is different in that it is the only workout that doesn't feature the countdown clock in the lower right corner.  It is also NOT chaptered. The music used in this workout  is a bit of bollywood, samba, and world beat.  This is a cardio based workout that is standing ab focus with lots of core, oblique twist work, and belly dance rolls. Another fun high energy workout from Figure 8 Fitness. 4 & 1/4 stars

  Lower Body Sculpt and Upper Body Sculpt are DVDs eight and nine respectively in the Figure 8 Fitness System.  They both clock in at under 30 minutes and they both have a modifier to show a simpler version of the move. Lower Body Sculpt uses your own body weight to get the job done. It features two tempos - the paso doble and the jive.  In the paso doble segments your are sculpting the muscle with squats, lunges, plies, and calf raises.  Of course Jaana adds her dance flair to each move.  In the Jive segments you are getting the heart rate up with cardio. So essentially Jaana is alternating the paso doble tempo (sculpt) with the jive tempo (cardio) for a cardio leg workout.  Love this workout. Upper Body Sculpt uses a band (tubing) to add resistance for the upper body. After the warm up, Jaana takes you through a series of moves that work the five muscle groups of the upper body. The exercises are: Double Arm Rows (Single for modification) Push ups Double Arm Rows (

Broadway Body Burn is probably going to be my favorite of the bunch.  It is 25 minutes in length and features the music of Lindy and Jive Lindy is up tempo like Jive and has a lot of elements of swing. Similar to some of the other Figure 8 workouts, Jaana teaches a series of moves that you repeat.  She starts off teaching the moves half time and then she picks up the tempo.  As you move through the workout, Jaana layers the moves to create a combo. The workout is fast paste and full of energy.  Really like this one. 4 & 1/4 stars

Dance Max Drills is 45 minutes in length. In the introduction Jaana states the workout is about "maximizing core power and dancing skills". The workout includes a warm up, 5 dance drills, and a cool down. In drills you do a dance move giving it variation and you will do this  for several sets before moving on to the next move with variation. In some of the dances, Jaana starts the drill off half tempo before moving to full tempo This workout has the Set Up option but not the One On One.  I used the Set Up option to set the music louder, but the "loudness" only lasted for the first two tempos. It was as if they didn't apply that option for the whole workout.  This was disappointing because in parts of the workout, Jaana is quite a bit louder than the music. 3 & 1/2 stars

Core Cardio Blast is DVD four in the Figure 8 Fitness System. Like several of the other workouts, the DVD gives you the following menu options: Core Cardio Blast - Play workout One On One - Allow you to follow Jaana from behind Set Up -  Allows you to choose softer or louder music Core Cardio Blast clocks in at just under 52 minutes. It the advance workout in the Figure 8 Fitness system. It features the five dances of merengue, samba, salsa, pose doble and jive. The energy is higher, the impact is more intense and the drills are longer. Like "Learn: and "Burn", "Blast" has home-base moves that you come back to in each of the drills. Home-base gives you a chance to catch your breath before the next drill or moving on to the next tempo. This workout does feature a modifier that shows how to do a move with less impact and/or intensity. It is repetitive but I am liking the workouts. 3 & 3/4 stars

 Dance Plyo 1 and Dance Plyo 2 are DVDs five and six respectively and both clock in at just under 20 minutes. You can think of these workouts as Figure 8 Fitness version of a HiiT workout. Jaana states that it is based on true competition dancing. After the warm up, Jaana takes you through a series of two minute high intensity dance intervals of the five dances she mainly focuses on in the series. There is merengue, samba, salsa, paso doble and jive.  Between each dance Jaana gives you a 30 second break. The format for Dance Plyo 1 and Dance Plyo 2 is the same.  Jaana just presents different choreography from one workout to the next. The DVD does give you the option to Learn the Moves .  Jaana has a class member demonstrate each Plyo dance so you know exactly what you are doing in the workout. Also during each 30 second break, Jaana takes the opportunity to review the moves briefly for the upcoming dance. Burpees, plank twist, and even push ups do appear in some of the d

So Jillian Michaels Body Revolution system comes with a total of 15 workouts.  It is a 90 days system.  According to the literature, the sytem is design so that you are doing Phase 1 workouts for one month, Phase 2 workouts for a month and Phase 3 workouts for a month. While I really like the resistance workouts, I don't see myself doing these workouts for 3 months straight. However, I do think doing the workouts for three weeks is a great way to do them.  When I do the workouts again, I will probably sub-out the cardio.  While I like cardio 2, I didn't really care for cardio 1 and 3. I love the length of these workouts.  All the workouts clocked in under 36 minutes in length.  I was  able to add some 10 minute and 20 minute workouts as add-ons and still kept my workout time to under an hour. I forgot to mention when I introduce the system (3 weeks back) that it also comes with a 71 page 90 Day Journal.  You can record meals, calories and your workouts. However, one pa

 Phase 3!!!!  Body Revolution Phase 3 that is - like Phase 1 and Phase 2, it contains 4 resistance-weight workouts and 1 cardio workout.  All workouts are around 35 minutes. The format is exactly the same as the other two phases.  However, the exercises are a bit harder and a bit more extreme (extreme as in the wheel push ups in circuit 2 of workout 12). The cardio has more impact and most of the exercises are compound in nature.  Expect lots of plank work - Jillian loves plank work in all its forms. A note about Cardio 3.  Jillian does some 24 exercises but she switches the order a bit when she moved from circuit one to circuit two. I don't think this was intentional. I think she forgot where she was.  Not a big deal, but the spreadsheet will be slightly off depending on which circuit you are on. Again a solid group of workouts.  3 & 3/4 stars

Kickbox FastFix is a Jillian Michaels' DVD.  The DVD contains three - roughly 21 minute workouts that are Kickbox inspired.  Workout 1 focuses on the Upper Body, Workout 2 on the Lower Body, and Workout 3 focuses on the core. Each of the workouts feature 4 circuits.  Within each circuit, Jillian takes you through a Kickbox Combo that features lower and upper body moves.  The other moves in the circuits are traditional and some functional exercises. Expect push ups, situps, squats, bent rows, planks, mountain climbers, suicides, and butt kicks as they all appear. So the DVD Menu has several features: The Set Up option lets you choose English,,Spanish and/or Subtitles There is a W orkout Recommendation that is advertising how to reach Jillian, More from Jillian tells you about Jillian's other products Kickbox Tutorial is a 14 minute one on one session with Jillian. This is an introduction to Jillian's Kickboxing. Overall I didn't really like this workou

DVD 13 in the Figure 8 Fitness System is Stretch & Flex .  The workout is about 26 and 1/2 minutes long.  Jaana is working barefoot and you will need a mat for this workout. The first half of the workout is performed from the standing position.  Jaana stretches the body with fluid motion. It is very dancer like.  Expect some balance work. The rhythm for this workout is the Bolero. There is a bit of yoga, lots of figure 8 action, spine rocks, bridge rolls, rondes, and several stretches for the legs. 3 & 1/2 stars

Core Cardio Burn is DVD three in the Figure 8 Fitness System.  Jaana describes the workout as intermediate cardio.  The workout clocks in at over 46 minutes. With Core Cardio Burn, you are doing the same dances you did in Core Cardio Learn.  The dances are:  Merengue, Samba, Salsa, Paso Doble and Jive.  However, in Burn you are working just a little bit longer by doing an extra set for the drills and working with slightly more intensity. The home base moves that Jaana introduce in Learn also show up in Burn.  In Burn, Jaana dances them a little bit more. These DVDs also feature a one on one option that you can choose in which you can work directly behind Jaana. So far, I am liking these Figure 8 Fitness workouts. 3 & 3/4 stars.

The last group of workouts in the Zumba Incredible Results System are 30 Minute Burn and Amazing Abs. 30 Minute Burn features Gina Grant. Gina leads you through the warm up.  As the workout moves on, various guest instructors join Gina on stage for a track segment.  During the last track the guest instructors join Gina on stage for the cool down. You do not get the option for verbal cuing with this workout.  It is only visual cuing. The set looks to be a warehouse and there are about a 100 people working out with Gina and the guest instructors.  You can see people sitting in chairs and standing on the upper levels just watching the filming of the workout. The tracks are: Dale Al 100 Pegao Ven Y Baila Tu Carinito Pa' Que Lo Bailen Bien Mueve La Cadera (2013 Remix) Quiero Bailar Contigo I enjoyed 30 Minute Burn.  3 & 3/4 stars Amazing Abs is lead by Beto Perez and it uses a chair for the workout.  Beto calls this his Sentao workout.  Most of the workout is

 Body Revolution Phase 2 is very similar to Phase 1.  You have 4 resistance workouts and 1 cardio workout.  The difference between the two phases is that you are working a little bit harder in phase 2 than phase 1.  The cardio has more impact.  The weight work is combining more muscle groups per exercise performed. I definitely like the Phase 2 Cardio 2 workout better than Cardio 1 workout in Phase 1.  In workouts 5 and 7, you are working the "front of the body"  and in workouts 6 and 8 your are working the "back of the body".  Roughly that translates into workouts 5 and 7 being heavily focus on Triceps, Chest, and Shoulder.  In workouts 6 and 8, you are working back, biceps, and some shoulders. Also a noted difference in Phase 2, is that you are using a lot more of the cable (resistance tubing) than you did in Phase 1.  I would say about a third of the exercises featured the tubing, about a third used weight and the other third was using your own body wei

  10 Minute Solution Butt Lift is lead by Christine Bullock. Christine takes you through six ten minute workouts.  The first five workouts are all about the "butt".  This sixth workout is a bonus abdominal work. In all the workouts you are doing two sets of the same exercises.  This is usually accomplished by doing one set on the right and then the next set on the left but not always.  Sometimes you will do two sets on the right and in the second half of the ten minutes you will do two sets on the left. Most of the time you are working for 45 seconds per exercise.  The exception to this is during the Hitt Butt Lift workout where you are performing the exercises for 20 seconds. I really like this workout.  By that I mean I pretty much liked all the segments.    I did these as an add on to the Jillian Michaels Body Rev workouts.  I thought Christine was quite good and the music (for the most part) is good.  Usually with the 10 Minute Solution workouts, I term most of t

  Zumba Step features the Zumba Rizer which a round 4 in high platform.  This workout is lead by the Zumba creator Beto Perez and the workout is 45 minutes.  The Zumba Rizer comes with the Incredible Results System.  There is just one workout that uses the Step Rizer. The Tracks are: Bem Vindos I Came Here to Party Boogaloo De Paris Love On Me Chande Papa Dio Tanguajira La Aguafiesta (Water Party) Pam Param Pam Pam I Want Your Love Tempo Zumba Viento I don't really care for Zumba Toning and so much of this workout was toning moves as oppose to dance move. It is not like they alternated with a toning track and a dance track. It would be like they would start with one - usually dance and switch to toning a quarter of the way through - then switch back to dance, then toning etc.  The toning moves just really interrupted the flow of the workout. Love On Me is the track where the toning didn't bother me and that is because of the way it was incorporated with the

Zumba Super Cardio Dance Party is a 55 minute workout.  This workout is lead by Zumba Instructors Ricardo Marmitte, Kass Martin, and Steve Boedt.  The workout features 30 second cardio burst throughout the various tracks in the workout.  In the cardio burst, you are doing some type of high intensity move over and over for the duration of the 30 seconds.  You know that a cardio burst is about to begin because Ricardo, Kass, and Steve show you these body building muscle arms that signify the beginning of the cardio burst.  I thought they were so cheesy.  Also during this section, the video goes into a sepia color tone.  When the 30 second burst is over, the video goes back to normal color. The cardio burst are okay.  They are one of those elements that I can take it or leave it. The Tracks are: In Da Party Zumba Loco La Morena Dancing Salsa Give It Up Mi Vicena Taki Contry Ella Mi Copa Vem Vem Crazy Love Bouje Banglore Dreaming Quemando Bota A Heart that is Full of Lo

Zumba Quick Star t is for those that are new to Zumba or needs a refresher on the moves.  It breaks down many of the main rhythms used in Zumba.  The rhythms in the Quick Start DVD are merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, salsa and samba.  You can select Play All or you can select an individual rhythm.  Selecting Play All clocks in at just under 39 minutes which I thought a bit long for something called Quick Start.  I guess it is relative. Quick Start is taught by Zumba Instructors Loretta Bates and Herman Melo.  In teaching Quick Start, they take you through a progression of 3 speeds (tempos).  Speed 1 is the slowest. Speed three is at full speed.  I did parts of this workout. Zumba 20 Minute Express is lead by Nick Logrea. This workout does not give you the option for verbal or none verbal cuing.  Although Nick gives you plenty of visual cues throughout, even telling you just watch him and follow his visual cues. I almost felt that this workout was an introduction to visual cuing. I

Zumba Incredible Results is Zumba's latest at home workout system.  This System comes with a 24 page Program Guide, a 30 page Nutrition Book, 6 workouts on 4 DVDs and the Step Rizer.  The Step Rizer is only used in one workout. In looking across the DVDs, the DVDs offer English and Spanish languages options.  It offers verbal cuing or non-verbal cuing.  Most of the verbal cuing is voice-over. The nutrition guide offer a 7-Day Rapid Results Eating Plan as well as a Ten Day Everyday Weight-Loss Plan.  Both plans includes recipes for the suggested dishes. The Program guide has an introduction from Beto.  There is also the history of Zumba, and  3 workouts calendars - 2 of which are 4 week calendars and one 7 day rapid results calendar.  The program guide also gives you training tips, a stretch guide and introduces the Zumba All Stars. The Step Rizer is 4 inches high and has a 16 1/2 inch diameter base.  I will talk more about it when I do the Step workout. The Incredible

Sexy Abs Extreme is disc 12 in the Figure 8 Fitness system.  It clocks in at just under 15 minutes.  And while the other abs video (Sexy Abs) is standing abs, this workout is floor abs. In this workout you are doing a lot of isolation holds which make this workout challenging.  V-sits, core rotations, plank rotations, bicycles, pilates pump, scissor kicks are all exercises that show up in this workout. This DVD does feature the music louder option.  However, the workout is not chaptered. Of the two ab workouts, I like this one more than the other. 3 & 1/2 stars

Core Cardio Learn is DVD two in the Figure 8 Fitness Systems.  This workout clocks in at just under 41 minutes.  In this workout, Jaana takes you through the 5 competitive style latin rhythms that you will be doing throughout the series. In each of the rhythms, Jaana teaches you 3 to 4 moves that she strings together and you repeat the moves throughout that particular rhythmic section. Jaana will say "let's drill it".  This is where you will repeat the moves back to back without stopping. The dance rhythms are: Merengue Samba Salsa Paso Doble Jive. The cool down is a rumba.  I like this workout, although it is repetitive.  Jaana tells you the repetition is necessary to create the muscle memory needed to perform the move to its fullest. When I did the workout, I felt Jaana was way louder than the music.  However, this DVD features a set up option that allows you to choose a music louder option.  Love the music by the way. 3 & 3/4 stars

Island Cardio Party comes in a Dance Off the Inches Party Pack  titled Red Hot Dance Party that also include Latin Cardio Party which Dance Off the Inches release earlier this year or maybe it was late last year. It is a 40 minute workout and it features Emily Naim as the lead. Like other Dance Off the Inches workout, it comes with a Step Guide.  However, the Step Guide is not chaptered. I was hoping this would be a trend that they would continue as they did this for a recent release. The dances in Island Cardio Party are : Reggae DanceHall Soca Emily breaks down each dance by layering and combining moves until the full combo is learned.  The dances are super easy to learn. I like this workout. All the music fit the moves and the Island theme.  None of the tunes seem out of place and the dances are fun. The Reggae dance is probably the most athletic dance.  Some of the moves felt more like exercise than dancing.  DanceHall, I would say is the most complex of the three da

Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Phase 1 includes 5 workouts.  4 of the workouts are weight and resistance training and there is one cardio workout.  In Jillian's 90 day rotation, you are doing this group of workouts for the first 4 week. These workouts are also the workouts used to " Kickstart Your Metabolism".  So the workouts are all circuit style and pretty much follow the same format.  All the workouts include a brief warm up and cool down.   For the weight workouts, Jillian takes you through 4 circuits.  You do a series of four resistance exercises.  This is followed by a minute of cardio and then your repeat the four resistance moves before moving on to the next circuit. The cardio workout is circuit base to. After the warm up, you start with a series of 8 moves an d then you repeat the 8 moves two more times for a total of three circuits.  I had to think hard but I am pretty sure that these are my first Jillian Michaels' workouts.  I am not a fan of th

  Jillian Michael's Body Revolution is a 90 day weight loss program if you do it as design.  The system comes with a Fitness Guide, a Fat Burning Meal Plan, a 7 Day Kickstart Your Metabolism Guide and 15 workouts. Jillian's Body Revolution System is divided into three phases.  There are five workouts included in each phase.  4 workouts are weight/resistance workouts and 1 workout is a cardio workout. The Fitness Guide Breaks down the workouts and gives you a 90 rotation calendar telling you which workout to perform when. This fitness guide is 27 pages. Phase 1 Workout 1 (weights) Workout 2  (weights, resistance cable) Workout 3 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 4 (weights) Cardio 1 Phase 2 Workout 5 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 6 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 7 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 8 (weights, resistance cable) Cardio 2 Phase 3 Workout 9 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 10 (weights, resistance cable) Workout 11 (weight

High Intensity Interval Training is one of 10 Minute Solution 2013 release.  The instructor is Lisa Kinder.  This is my first workout with Lisa and I thought she was okay - in  a good way. There are so many HiiT workouts of late, I was hesitant about even trying this one. I did this workout as add on to the Body Revolution workouts I have been doing.   So I did one segment a day. I really like the format.  In each workout, Lisa gives you 8 exercises that you do for 20 seconds.  You rest for 10 seconds and repeat the exercise again.   So for every exercise in the worksheet, you are doing two sets for 20 seconds each. The one thing that I was wishing that Lisa would do was to take the opportunity during the 10 second rest to tell us what the next exercise was going to be.  She would wait for the 20 second to start to tell us what the exercise was going to be. She would demonstrate the move and then also show the modification. Sometimes this prove difficult because a lot of t

 Figure 8 Fitness DVD One Get Started is a 55 minute instructional introduction to the dance moves that you will be performing throughout the series.  You are working one on one with Jaana.  Even though this is instructional, you are getting quite a workout as you work with Jaana drilling and repeating each of the moves.  This DVD is broken down into: Play All or you can select the individual rhythms/sections which are: Intro Merengue Samba Salsa Paso Doble Jive Rhumba Bolermo You are not working out or performing the moves to music in this DVD. You are simply going by the count that Jaana gives you as she demonstrates the move.  I found the DVD very beneficial. Sexy Abs is a 10 minutes standing ab work.  All the main workouts in this system include a count down clock in the lower right counter. The workout actually starts with 9:10 on the timer. So this is a standing workout that is roughly divided into two chunks. The first chunk you are working the right side a

Figure 8 Fitness is workout system that was created by champion ballroom dancer Jaana Kunitz.  Jaana Kunitz is the co-creator of the Core Rhythms system that can out a few years ago. Jaana describes Figure 8 Fitness as Fitness Meets Dance. It is based on the competitive Latin dance training. This system comes with an in depth training guide title Extreme Dance Fitness.  This guide gives a description of the workouts, breakdown 15 Signature Moves of the Figure 8, Fitness System, gives you a menu with recipes, includes the workout calendar and testemonials. The other items that come with the kit are: The 7-Day Belly Fat Meltdown guide. This is your Kick Start Guide;  A separate workout wall calendar is included. It is the same calendar that is in the Extreme Dance Fitness Guide; a tape measure and a body measurement card for before and after results.  And of course you get the workouts which come in a disc size booklet .  The workouts are: DVD One:  Get Started DV