Saundra

Yoga Meltdown .  This workout showed me that I have no balance. Seriously I was wobbling all over the place. Yoga Meltdown contains two 30 minute workouts, that Jillian calls Level 1 and Level 2.  I split the workouts over two different days. Essentially the workouts are the same except that Level 2 contains more advances poses than Level 1. I just recently started working out with Jillian, recently as in this past December and one thing I noticed about her workouts is that she likes her circuits.  Even this Yoga workout is in circuit form. Yoga Meltdown is made up of yoga poses which you flow in and out of (Jillian calls it repping it out) and yoga isolation's that you hold for 15 seconds after a set of reps. Certainly this is not traditional Yoga but nonetheless I actually like this workout.  Some of the poses were quite challenging (hence me wobbling all over the place).  This is especially true of the Level two workout. There is a beginner and advance modifier.  J

Dance Off the Inches Cardio Striptease is a 41 minute workout and it is lead by Megan Armand.  Like other Dance Off the Inches workouts, it does feature a Step Guide.  The step guide is 22 minutes and features around 10 steps that appear throughout the workout. Dance Off the Inches really needs to chapter the Step Guide so you can easily jump to the step you need help on.  I have only seen them do this in one workout. Cardio Striptease contains a warm up, three dances and a cool down.  It is taught in much the same fashion as other Dance Off The Inches where moves are repeated and layered on to one another to build a mini combo.  Several of the moves have built in core isolation/contraction for the abs. The dances are: Work It Too Hot To Handle Total Tease The music is okay. The tempo of the dances is on the slow side.   I was surprised that I burned (according to the bodybugg) 250 calories because it didn't feel like I was working that hard. Megan, she is okay. When

10 Minute Solution Yoga For Beginners stars Angie Stewart a s the lead. Angie takes you through five 10 Minute slow paced Yoga workouts. The workouts are: Energizing Flow Yoga Yoga for Strength and Toning Core Strength Yoga For Balance and Flexibility Stress Relief Yoga Energy Flow Yoga and Yoga for Strength and Toning are your sun-salutation segments.  Angie varies the moves from one segment to the next.  The pace of these segments are done at a much slower speed than the other 10 Minute Solution workout. With Yoga For Beginners, you had time for each pose. The Core Strength segment felt more to me like traditional ab set than Yoga.  This is the only segment where I felt the slower pace a bit too slow.  Side bends, cat-cow, planks, and oblique crunches are some of the exercises that appear. Yoga for Balance and Flexibility was my favorite segment.  I like the standing series of mountain pose, heart center, to warrior 2, triangle, warrior 3 and crescent.  The floo

Rapid Fire 4: Sweat is Susan Chung's fourth workout in the Power Optimizing Workouts Series. In Rapid Fire 4, Susan gives you a warm up, 3 kickboxing rounds, 3 boxing rounds, core-ab segment and a cool-down stretch segment. The workout is just over 72 minutes. In the warm-up, kickboxing, and boxing segments, Susan builds up each of these segments by starting with basic moves and then layering on additional moves until you get a combo.  You will do all of these segments  twice through; once leading with the right and once leading with the left. Susan starts off teaching the kickboxing rounds with  punches and then she adds the kicks.  At the end of each kickboxing round, there are leg intensifier drills. In the boxing combos, Susan started off teaching the moves half time for the first few reps but then moved into full tempo or at the beat of the music.; At the end of each boxing round, there are plyo drills. Speaking of the music, it is contemporary dance club mix. Susa

  Pyramid Lower + Upper Body Combo Premix is a premix that comes on  the Pyramid Lower Body and Pyramid Upper Body DVD.  The premix is called Bonus Combo and it is 54 minutes in length. The Bonus Combo workouts features the "Up" pyramid exercises from the two workouts. In the main two workouts, Cathe takes you up the pyramid where you do less reps and more weight.  She then takes you back down the pyramid where you do more reps and less weight. I like the two main workout a lot.  This is the first time that I have tried the Bonus Combo Premix and I like this one as well. In this premix, Cathe does two lower body exercises before moving on to do one to two upper body exercises. I noticed that I wasn't as efficient as Cathe and crew in changing out my barbell weight.  There were a couple of times when I messed reps and had to reverse the DVD.  Cathe repeats the Leg Press exercises twice and the Bonus Combo does not include any floor work. The next time I d

10 Minute Solution Yoga is lead by Lara Hudson. When I did the workout, I did three of the segments back to back and I did the last two segments as add-ons to other workouts. The workout segments are: Yoga Basics Yoga For Buns & Thighs Yoga For Abs Yoga Burn Yoga For Flexibility & Relaxation Yoga Basics starts out with a breathing series and then Lara teaches you the Sun Salutation.  Lara's Sun Salutation consist of doing the mountain pose, forward fold, high plank to low plank, upward facing dog,downward facing dog then forward fold, into prayer pose and back into mountain pose.  Lara also demonstrated the Warrior 1 pose. 3 stars Yoga For the Buns & Thighs consisted of doing pretty much the same series in Yoga Basics.  Lara demonstrated the chair pose before moving into the Sun Salutations series.  Lara added on to the Sun Salutation by adding a back leg reach into several warrior poses. The chair pose twist and high crescent pose is also shown. I felt

Happy New Years Everyone! January 2014 Monthly Rotation - Back To Basics For the new year I am alternating Cathe weight work with Amy Bento Ross cardio. I have Susan Chung Kickboxing and Yoga (not shown) planned for Sundays.