Saundra

Burn Fat & Have Fun features three 30-Minute workouts each with a different twist. Walk 1 is Steady, Ready, GO !  and it clocks in at around 30:38. This is your interval workout. The tempo changes or increases as you go from Steady to Ready and then to GO!. There are five intervals and Jessica previews the GO! moves during the warm up.  The GO! moves are squat swim, diamond 1/2 jack, skater half circle, side-to-side half jack, and power pull knee. Jessica combines the warm up and the first steady. After that, each of the steady is probably around 2 minutes; and each steady is a mini combo routine. Then you move into the "ready" phase for about two minutes.  The ready phase is a bit more athletic than the steady phase.  After ready you do 60 seconds of the "GO!" phase. Walk 2 is Stride and Step .  This workout uses an optional 1/2 step and it clocks in at 30:00.  In this workout you are doing a series of basic step moves over and across the step.  Jes

Build Balance + Inner Strength is part of Jessica Smith's Walk Strong series.  This DVD comes with three fusion style 30 minute plus workouts.  The fusion style is a mixture of pilates, dance, yoga and light sculpting.  Jessica performs all workouts shoeless. Along with Jessica, the other cast member is Jessica's mom Debbie. Debbie is the modifier.  There is a countdown clock in each workout. The first workout is Core Control. This workout clocks in at 31:18. In this workout you are moving to music. This is a body weight only workout. There are lots of arm movements as well as balance style moves.  Some of the exercises in this workout are:    ball changes chasse, switch arabesque, side steps side taps,  knee      raise, leg extensions, cross over crunches, thread the needles, and  standing 100s. You are doing approximately 16 reps of each move. The second workout on this DVD is Poise and Grace . It is a 35 minute workout.  After a 5 minute warm up, you pick up a se

I definitely think you get a lot of content with Jessica Smith's Walk On Walk Strong DVDs. And 5 Fat Burning Miles DVD is no different.  The DVD Menu offers the following: Introduction Play All Customize Workout Bonus #1:  Strong Feet & Ankles Bonus #2: Strong Knees & Hips Choosing Customize Workouts allows you to make selections from the following: Warm Up Mile 1:  Brain Booster Walk Mile 2:  Belly, Buns, & Thighs Walk Mile 3:  Power Posture Walk Mile 4:  Turbo Charged Walk Mile 5:  Boogie Down Walk Cool Down Also on this sub-menu you can "Play Selected Order", "Cancel Selections" or return to the "Main Menu". In each of the 1 miles segments, a countdown clock pops up at the 8 minute mark. There is also an advance exerciser and a beginner modifier. The warm up and cool down are about 5 minutes each. The Brain Booster mile clocks in at 14:54 and while you are walking, Jessica throws various patterns at you that requ

Walk Off Belly Fat 5 Days a Week! is a Walk On workout by Jessica Smith.  This DVD comes with lots of options and I used some of the options when I did the different segments. The DVD menu gives you all these options: Play All Warm Up 2 - Mile Belly Fat Blast Interval Walk 3 - Mile Flat Abs Power Walk Belly Blasting Strength Training Cool Down Premixes      Day 1 Flat Abs Power Walk (57 min)      Day 2 Belly Blasting Strength Training (31 min)      Day 3 Belly Fat Blast Interval Walk (41 min)     Day 4 - Flat Abs Power Walk (57 min)     Day 5 - Belly Blasting Strength Interval Combo (61 min)  Cool Down Credits I did the 3 Mile Flat Abs Power Walk which was mostly a steady state walk.  Mile 1 of this workout was basic walking. Mile 2 feature boxing moves and in Mile 3, Jessica builds mini combos.  This portion of the workout clocked in at around 46:25. There has been a lot of talking about this workout skipping and freezing and where it took place for me was in Mi

Boost Metabolism + Muscle is a Jessica Smith Walk Strong DVD that contains three metabolic strength workouts. Each workout is 35 minutes in length and they are presented in the circuit style format where you do two to three exercises and you repeat those exercises before moving on to the next group of 2 to 3 exercises.  This is a relatively high rep workout. You are doing at least 12 reps per exercise but in many cases you are doing as many as 16 or even 24 reps.  Most of the exercise are multi-functional or compound in nature. There is a countdown clock in each of the workouts.  Along with Jessica, there is Debbie.  She shows beginner modifications.  A mat and a set or two of dumbbells are used.  The DVD menu options are: Introduction Circuit #1:  Upper Focus Circuit #2 - Lower Focus Circuit#2 - Total Focus Play All I liked all three workouts and felt I got a solid workout each time out. Circuit #1:  Upper Focus - 3 &3/4 stars Circuit #2 - Lower Focus - 3 &

Gentle Yog a is right.  This DVD contain four 20 minute yoga segments that primarily focus on stress relief, light stretching and joint mobility. For instance in the neck and shoulder workout, Jessica perform massages for the face.  In the hips and knees segments, we massage the feet and toes. The workouts moves slowly allowing you time to perform each rep and/or time to get into the poses and hold them for a nice stretch.  I didn't feel rushed in any of the workout segments.  It was methodical but with a purpose.   And there are no sun salutations. Jessica is the only cast members and as the workout progresses, she offers various modifications and tips in the form of motivation.  Jessica cues the workout live. There is no voice over. The DVD contains the following menu options: Introduction Customize Your Selection Flow 1:  Neck and Shoulders (19:03) Flow 2 - Back and Chest (21:22) Flow 3:  Hips and Knees (22:20) Flow 4:  Total Body (21:09) Play All I enjoyed

So I have started a Jessica Smith three week rotation based on her Walk On Walk Strong workouts. The 15 Minute Fast Fat Blasts workout comes with four 15-minute workouts.  Each 15 minutes is approximately 1 mile in length. All four workouts are strictly walking.  There are no obvious toning segments. The DVD menu comes with the following options: Introduction 15-Minute Fast Fat Burn 15-Minute Belly Blaster 15-Minute Power Pick Up 15-Minute Dance Party Credits Each segment features high energy music. Some of the tunes are familiar. I heard them in other workouts, but I thought they were fun songs and that there were a variety of tunes across the four segments.   You are walking to the tempo of the music. in a couple of segments, Jessica and the advance exerciser jogs.  There is also a beginner modifier. So of course you are walking or marching throughout. Other moves that appear in all four workouts are knee pulls, hamstring curl, and side steps. Jessica adds various ar

Les Mills On Demand is now adding longer workouts to the On Demand channel. At first most of the workouts were shorten to be just 30 minutes in length. Now for some of the workouts, you have the option of doing  a shorter 30 minute workout or the longer original version of the workout. Les Mills On Demand Body Combat #66 clocks at around the 55 minute mark. Dan and Rachael are the presenters. The different segments and approximate times are below.   The segments are: 1a.  Upper Body Warm up - 4:20 1b.  Lower Body Warmup - 4:15 2.  Combat 1 - 5:22 3.  Power Training 1 - 6:49 4.  Combat 2 - 5:54 5.  Power Training 2 - 6:08 6.  Combat 3 - 4:11 7.  Muay Thai - 4:52 8.  Power Training 3 - 7:25 9.  Conditioning Core - 2:57 10.  Cool Down 3:11 Now while the Power Training Segments are long, and they are long; Dan and Rachael do give you breaks within those training blocks. You get a break when you are ready to switch sides. In Combat 2 track, you are hitting the floor for

15 Day Fit Zumba Fit DVD is one of the three DVDs that are a part of the 15 Day Fit Total Body Transformation program.  The system comes with 8 workouts on three DVDs.' The DVDs are : 15 Day Lower Body Fit       Fit Legs & Booty (15 min)       Fit Lean Legs (15 min)       Fit Booty Camp (15 min) 15 Day Cardio Fit       Fit Core + Strength (15 min)       Fit Fat Blast (15 min) 15 Day Zumba Fit      Zumba Let's Dance! (30 min)      Zumba Max 1 (30 min)      Beto's Ab-Stravanaganza (15 min). I only did the Zumba workouts and thus will only be reviewing those.  Beto is the lead for all the workouts and the workouts are narrated. Zumba Beginner's Let's Dance is the first workout on this DVD. In the intro Beto, tells us we already know the steps, however there is not a learn the step sequence on this DVD. This workout could be an extension to the Can't Dance Zumba 101 DVD which does feature a Step by Step segment. The workout included dance as w

Body Design features six 15 minute workouts each emphazising a different training technique. The idea is to choose any two segments plus warm up and cool down for a 30-Minute to Fitness workout.   The DVD menu offers the following options : Intro Play All Mix & Match Premixes Credits In Mix & Match, you can select: Warm up (4:02) Cardio Bootcamp  (12:02) Kickboxing With Light Dumbbells (12:08) Light Dumbbell Cardio Sculpting (12:15) Stronger/Leaner Lower (14:40) Upper Body Strength (16:47) Yoga Flow Stretch (13:16) Cool Down (3:08) Some Notes. 1. There are over three pages of premixes that mix the different segments. 2.  The music in Light Dumbbell Cardio Sculpting was a bit blah. 3.  My least favorite segment was the Yoga Flow Stretch. You are doing a variation of the sun saluation - chair planks, lunges, downdogs, cobra, child pose, - some warrior poses. 4.  I really like all the other segments a lot.  The time flew by. Great variety. 5.  Cardio Boo

30 Minutes to Fitness Meltdown features two very distinct workouts.  Each workout clocks in right under 28 minutes each. Workout one is a dumbbell/barbell workout that takes you through a series of three rounds.  The dumbbell exercises are compound or dynamic in nature. You are doing the dumbbell exercises for 1 minutes. The barbell exercises are power moves.  You do each of the power moves for 10 reps.  There is one body weight exercise.  At then end of round 3, Kelly throws in a finisher exercise. Workout two is tabata boxing.  There are 6 rounds featuring three boxing complexes. In each round you have a right lead and a left lead. After you do both sides, Kelly throws in a cardio based exercise before moving onto the next round.  There are bells that sound that let you know when you are approaching the end of  the 20 seconds.  Bob and weave is your 10 second transition move. There are bell sounds that signal this as well. The bells were okay but I did wish this workout ha

This is my first walking working with Jessica Smith. I have done some of her previous workouts. Most of her workouts of late though have been based around walking and her Walk On/Strong programs. 10 Minute Quick Walk Mix contains six 10-minute plus workouts and each workout has a different emphasis. The workouts are: Power Up Walk Steppin Strength Walk Happy HiiT Walk Dance Walk Abs & Arms Walk Buns & Thighs Bonus:  Chair Stretch In each of the workouts, there is a beginner and advance modifier. Jessica does the intermediate workout.  Each of the workouts feature a 10-minute countdown clock.  However, the clock appears after the workout has started and disappears before the workout is over. So each of  the workout is a bit more than 10 minutes. Power Up Walk features a series of boxing moves along with traditional athletic moves. Stepping Strength Walk uses a set of weights. Jessica adds various weighted exercise moves as she continues to move the feet. Some

TAVA is a 40 minute Tracy Anderson dance workout that features Tony Gonzalez as a guest choreographer and teacher.  Tony pretty much teaches and leads the whole thing. Tracy is there in a supporting role. Tracy also leads the warm up which is about 4 minutes in length. There is no cool down. So the workout consist of five dance combinations and you do each combinations three times through. At the end of each combo, you freestyle for two 8 counts. The first time is without music and is called the teach or learn session. This is where Tony takes you through the steps and you are learning the steps in real time. There is not half time or any real break down. The second time through is with music. I called this the rehearsal phase but Tony was calling the teach phase the rehearsal.  At any rate, you are doing the step to music.  The third time through is also with music and Tracy calls this the flair stage.  You are suppose to dance with flair and attitude. Tony does not mirror c

Give Me 10 More! is a follow up to Amy Dixon's Give Me 10!.  The "More" version is very similar to the first. The workout come with six self-contained 10 minute workouts.  Each of the workout  include its own warm up and cool down. The DVD offers the following option: Play All - clocks in at 1 hour and 12 minutes Fat Blasting Cardio - 11:04 Total Body Shred - 11:56 Lower Body Chisel - 10:43 Upper Body Sculpt - 11:28 Core Makeover - 12:50 Dynamic Stretch & Flex - 14:11 Fat Blasting Cardio features a series of athletic cardio moves. Amy introduces the sequence with a low impact version and then she does the same or similar move showing impact.  You do the move on the right and then on the left.  This workout was okay. I didn't like the moves chosen as much as I did in the other Give Me 10 workout. Total Body Shred uses two sets of dumbbells and almost all the moves build upon the previous move and are compound in nature.  I like this workout.  Th

Super Fit Bod! is a 60 minute interval workout that alternates total body sculpting sets with cardio intervals. The workout uses a step and a pair of dumbbells. In the total body sculpting segments, Amy uses isolation and compound exercises to work the entire body.  She will start with a single move and then add to the  move making it multi-component.  In many of the exercises, there was a lot going on. In the cardio segments, Amy started off  with a low impact move and quickly ramps up the intensity with high impact moves. There is a modifier in all the segments. The DVD menu offers the following options: Play All Warm Up Total Body Chisel Fat Burning Interval Total Body Sculpt Calorie Torching Interval Total Body Firmer Fat Blasting Interval Cool Down & Stretch Bonus:  Tight & Toned Core While the DVD lets you select individual segments, the segments themselves are really part of one continuous workout and thus are not self-contained.  When you select an

Amy Dixon Give Me 10! features six 10 minute workouts each dedicated to a specific purpose. Fat Blasting Cardio was probably my favorite of the bunch. It contains two cardio series that feature basic athletic moves set to  fast tempo high energy music. You do each series twice through changing the lead side the second time through. The second 10 minutes is dedicated to Upper Body Sculpt . Amy does throw in some lower body isolation moves with some of the upper body moves. The exercises are: 1.  Bicep Curl with Plie hold 2.  Triceps dip into table top 3.  Cobra 4.  Lateral raise with rotation 5. Single Arm Shoulder Press 6.  Plank with front raise 7.  Push ups Workout 3 is Lower Body Firmer and this was a favorite workout as well.   Exercises in this segment include: 1. Standing Squat Hip Thrust 2.  Lunge Series 3.  Reverse Lunge Series 4.  Wide Dead Lifts 5.   Single Leg Squat 6.  Plie Series Core Makeover featured core chops, windmills, rock-n-roll planks,

I think Essentrics Workout was the first Essentrics DVD produce.  It features Sahra Esmonde-White as the lead. This particular DVD contains two 30-minute workouts and it is a bit more advance and a good workout to do after becoming comfortable with the beginner DVD even though this workout was produced first.  First instance, it has almost the exact same exercises as the Beginner DVD but in the workouts that are on this DVD, you are doing many more reps.  The first workout is Arms, Abs, & Waist Toner.    There is a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segment includes a brief warm up and a challenging arm session. It is approximately 22 minutes in length. The floor segments contains traditional abs work, uses a mat and it is a little over 9 minutes in length. Sahra intermixes toning with stretching.  The second workout is Legs, Butt & Thigh Thinner . This workout contains three segments. The standing segments is 6 minutes  and includes the warm up and a se

Essentrics Toning for Beginners features two 30 minute workouts that are lead by Sahra Esmonde White.  Sahra is the only one in both workouts. Both workouts contain full body toning in that you are working your arms, abs (waist) and legs. Sahra methodically teaches you the basic moves used throughout many of the Essentrics workouts.  You get little snippets of the moves used in the other workouts. In most cases, you are only doing four reps per side and Sahra switches sides quite frequently. In some spots, the workout felt like it moved very slowly. And Sahra does tell you it is a "slow paced" workout. The difference between workout 1 and workout 2 is that workout 1 features a floor segment that uses a mat and block and workout 2 features a barre segment that uses a chair.  The DVD offers the following options: 1) Instructions & How To's  (10 Minutes) 2) Floor Toning (30 Minutes) 3) Barre Toning (30 Minutes) In the Instruction/How To's, Sahra goes o

Get Lean by Shape contains four individual workouts that all clock in at around 22 minutes or less. The instructor for this workout is Yumi Lee.  In each workout, Yumi demonstrates levels or progressions that show how to make the workout easier or harder. Each of the workouts features two modifiers. One modifier shows beginner moves. The other modifier is showing advance moves. Yumi is performing the intermediate moves. The DVD offers the following options: Program Intro - Yumi Lee Cardio Fat- Burning Total-Body Sculpting Metabolism Boost Abs Express Routine Interview Cardio Fat Burning clocks in at over 22 minutes.  Yumi leads you through a kickboxing combination followed by a cardio interval. Moves are perform on the right, you do a cardio interval, and then perform the moves on the left. Yumi teaches each move in slow motion. I actually found this annoying because I thought she performed too many reps at the slow pace. Once the tempo pick up, you do perform the combi

Sh'Bam #22 is an on-demand 30 minute workout.  This workout has been dubbed "Cardio in Disquise" and the presenters are Rachael Newsham and Tauvaga Benjamin Siolo. The Tracks are: That's What I  Like - 3:09 Whoomp (Supadupafly) - 3:02 Worth It - 3:40 Shawty Get Loose - 3:26 Firestarter - 3:07 Fist Pump, Jump, Jump - 3:41 Blow Me One Last Kiss - 4:46 You Don't Own Me This one was okay. Not my favorite but there were some good parts. My favorite segments were Worth It and Firestarter.   Rachael is always fun and Tauvaga was good to as a presenter too. 3 & 1/2 stars

Amped-Up Cardio 30-Minutes To Fitness DVD contains the live workouts that Kelly filmed at her Fitness Conference she had this past spring. The DVD contains two 30 minute workouts that are similar in nature. Both workouts share the same warm up.  There is a mixture of boxing, athletic cardio , plyometric drills and floor based plank core moves The DVD offers the following options: Workout One Workout Two Premixes     Combined Workouts (56:05)     Combined Workouts - No Drills (43:41)     Workout One - No Drills (23:09)     Workout Two - No Drills (23:51)    All Drill (21:48) Credits I did the combine workout and it was challenging. Mostly because of the floor based drills that occurred right after doing the plyometric drills.  Most of the drills you are performing twice through.  Some of the drills are butt kickers, squat shuffle heel kicks. squat thrust (burpees) , and plank jacks. There is a modifier that you can follow if you want to do less impact. 3 & 3/4

Saw this workout in Walmart and decided to pick it up to keep with the country theme workouts I have been doing this month. Zumba Country stars Kass Martin as the lead.  There are four other cast members hanging out with Kass in the Zumba Country workouts.  The DVD contains two workouts and offer the following options. Crazy Country     Voice On     Voice Off Burn it Up      Voice On      Voice Off Crazy Country is 32 minutes in length and features the following tracks: Cotton Eye Joe A Good Man Little Miss Honky Tonk Devil Went Down To Georgia Bubba Shot The Jukebox Something That I like About a Honky Tonk Sin Wagon Eatin' My Heart Out Waterfall Burn It Up  clocks in at around 28 minutes and features the following tracks: Hey Doctor Tie It Up Make You Mine I Play Chicken With The Train All American Country Girl Long Way To Go Hold My Hand If I were to compare these workouts, with the Country Heat series, I felt with Zumba Country, I was dancing

Dance Mash-Up is the bonus workout that came with the base Country Heat system.  Dance Mash-Up clocks in at just over 19 minutes.  This workout includes Autumns favorite moves from the previous routines. The format is the same. Autumn teaches two moves and then combines those moves before moving on to the next group of moves. The workout concludes with a 2-minute cool down. I think I forgot to mentioned in the other workouts is that the Country Heat series does include a modifier in all the workouts. Dance Mash Up  - 3 stars Overall opinion of the whole series.  All the routines were very easy to follow and do.  I like the fact that all the workouts were around 30 minutes or less.  It makes the system a great way to get 30 minutes of cardio in or to get your steps in for the day. There is not much variety.  The routines seemed pretty much the same across the board and there is a good bit of repetition within each routine. Autumn and the cast were fun and did a good job

Country Heat Disc 3 contains:      Dance Routine 5 - Trail Ride      Dance Conditioning Workout      Bonus: Night Crawl      Bonus:  21 Day Fix - Dirty 30 Dance Routine 5, Trail Ride, clocks in at under 26 minutes.  The tempo has picked up in this routine.  I believe Autumn introduces 3 or 4 new moves in this workout, otherwise, the  moves are repeats from the other dance routines.  Autumn uses the same format in this routine as her other dance routines. Dance Conditioning workout is a 24-minute workout that combines the dance cardio moves that Autumn has introduce in the other Country Heat workouts with  body toning moves.  In this workout, you are simply "following along" with Autumn. She will call out a move, You did it for a few counts and then you move on. Night Crawl is just under 3 minutes. And really, in my opinion, it is the only routine where I felt we were really dancing.  Autumn does break this down for you and I think you need the break down mostly

Country Heat Disc 2 features the routines Down and Dirty and Bring The Heat. Down and Dirty clocks in at just over 27 minutes.  This workout follows the same pattern as the first two workout but about half way through, the tempo increases and you are performing the moves at a faster paste. Some moves that were in routines 1 and 2, show up here. There is a cool down. The cool down occurs at the 2:35 mark of the workout. Bring the Heat clocks in at under 28 minutes.  The same teaching pattern is used in this workout to teach the routine. Autumn introduces one move - she will tell you to watch her and after she shows you the move, you perform the move 8 times through. She then tells you to watch her perform the second move and then you perform this move 8 times. Autumn will then demonstrate how she wants you to combine both moves and then you will do the combine move 4 times before moving on to the next group of moves.  Bring the Heat's cool down occurs at the 2:12 mark. O

Country Heat Disc 1.   Disc 1 contains the dance routines Country Swing and Giddy Up. Both dances follow pretty much the same pattern. Autumn will first teach you two moves. She follows this by combining the two moves.  Then she moves on to the next set of two moves. There is NO taking it from the top. The DVD menu gives your the following options: Country Swing (the routine clocks in at 31:43) Giddy Up (the routine clocks in 28:58) Subtitles Clicking subtitles allows you to choose  English, Spanish or Off. When you click on one of the dances you can choose Breakdown or Routine. The breakdown for Country Swing is 22:08.  In the Breakdown, there are two other cast mates along with Autumn as she teaches you each move that you will be doing in the routine. The breakdown for Giddy Up clocks in at 19:27. I didn't feel there was any need to do the breakdown. If you choose routine, Autumn introduces each move before she has you do them  and in both routines, you are doing

DVD cover for Country Heat System Country Heat is the new system by Beachbody that features Autumn Calebrese.  I will be reviewing the base system.  The base system comes with 5 dance routines, 1 dance conditioning routine, and two bonus routines on three DVD disc set.  All the workouts clock in at 32 minutes or less. Also in the set are the Quick Start guide which is an 8-page paper pamphlet; a wall calendar that features a 30-day rotation; and a 90-page nutrition guide and eating plan. A shakeology cup and a set of the the color coded food containers are also included with the system. I will review the dance routines in later blog post. Quickstart Guide for Country Heat Eating Plan for Country Heat Wall Calendar for Country Heat