Saundra

Gentle Yoga for Back Pain Relief and Prevention is Jessica Smith's newest yoga DVD.  This DVD contains two 30-minute workouts. Workout 1 called Session 1: Yoga for Back Pain Relief is a slow moving workout that uses several fitness tools to assist with the various poses included in this workout. Jessica performs the stretches in a variety of positions such as standing, kneeling, seated and lying.  Several postures are perform using a chair.  Jessica introduces modifications that are gentle to the back.  Other equipment used include a towel, yoga block, yoga strap and of course yoga mat. Workout 2 is Session 2:  Yoga for Back Pain Prevention. The postures used in this workout are slightly more dynamic than in the first workout.  There are more strength and flowing moves in this workout than the first. There is also an emphasis on balance. This workout uses the strap, a towel and a mat. Both workouts are filmed outdoors with a poolside setting. The music is background music

Essentrics Stretch Series Vol. 1 DVD includes three 30-minute workouts. Each of these workouts are slow moving workouts. Super slow. My biggest gripe about them is that the music in each of them is very faint. I could hear each of the instructors just fine but to hear the music I had to really increase the volume which in turn made the instructor super loud. The first workout is Tension Release and it is lead by Meg Feeney.  Meg does a lot of upper body full body range of motion movement.  She also does windmills, lunges, and plies that included shin and ankle work.  This workout uses a chair and in the chair segment, you are doing heel and calf work, as well as hamstring, quads, outer and inner thigh stretches.  This workout clocks in at 31:17. Joint Pain Relief clocks in just over 30 minutes and is lead by Gail Garceau.  In this workout, we do quite a bit of work for the back that includes standing back stretches and spine rotations.  Gail also includes hip, groin and lunge

Essentrics Body Sculpting Series Vol. 2 DVD contains three total body Essentric workouts that are approximately 30 minutes each. Ultimate Inner-Thigh is lead by Gail Garceau and has a run time just over 31 minutes.  This workout contains a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segments features side lunges and plies.  The floor segments includes exercises for the waist, inner thigh, outer thigh and back of the leg.  The workout concludes with a stretch release. Full Body Strengthening is lead by Amanda Cyr and this workout clocks in at over 35 minutes.  This workout also contains a standing segment and a floor segment.  The standing segment includes single leg work, an arm sequence and stability work along with the lunges and plies.  The floor work features inner and out thigh work plus an extended stretch in both the seated and lying positions. Total Core, Leg, & Butt clocks in at 31:23. This workout is lead by Meg Feeney.  The workout is divided into a stan

Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat #72 clocks in at just under 58 minutes.  The presenters for this workout are Dan Cohen, Rachael Newsham, Erin Maw, Bettina Keller, and Tau Siolo. Same format as other BC workouts.  I like the flow of this one a lot. Times are approximate. BodyCombat #72 - 4 stars

Les Mills On-Demand Body Combat #73 clock in at around 57 minutes. The presenters are Erin Maw, Caley Jack, Reagan Kang, Eduard Zalar, Rachael Newsham and Dan Cohen. Please see spreadsheet for breakdown. Workout format is similar to other body combat workouts.  This particular workout included a really long Power Training 2 segment that contains floor base strength and core moves. Another solid workout Body Combat #73 - 3 & 1/2 stars

Les Mills On-Demand BodyCombat #74 clocks in at just over 53 minutes.  The presenters are Dan and Rachael.  They are joined by Erin Maw and Marlon Woods. Track 5 Power Training 2 is floor based.  There are plank jacks, mountain climbers, and sprawls. Track 9 is also floor based. It is your core track. This was fun. I had not done a BodyCombat workout it awhile. I like most of the music tracks and the presenters were excellent. BC#74 - 3 & 3/4 stars

July 2018 Monthly Rotation This month consists of Les Mills workouts (Body Combat and Sh'Bam), Jessica Smith and Essentrics Workouts. The Breakdown Sunday - Les Mills Body Combat On-Demand Monday - Jessica Smith Tuesday - Jessica Smith Wednesday - Jessica Smith Thursday - Essentrics Friday - Les Mills Sh'Bam Saturday - Essentics