Saundra

Lastics Lite is a 15-minute plus stretch workout that stretches the total body. It is a shorter version of Donna's Lastics workouts. Donna takes your through various standing. seated, and lying stretch exercises to improve your flexibility.  Donna never really holds a stretch for too long . You are constantly moving in and out, bending and straightening the various movements. Donna is the only cast member.  There is background music that is very faint and not really inspiring. Not a big deal as you are really focusing on what Donna is saying.  The set is a dance studio.   Great stretch workout to add to an existing workout. I can see me adding this in after my treadmill workouts. Lastics Lite - 4 stars

December 2020 Monthly Rotation  Sunday - Treadmill and stretching Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - Essentrics Season 13 Wednesday - Pump It Up Dance Saturday - 30-Minutes to Fitness Sculpting

Body By Simone Arms, Back and Core i s a 60 minute workout. It is a cardio and upper body/core workout.  The workout features a cool upbeat soundtrack and all the moves are timed to the music. For some of the exercises, there are two modifiers that show alternate ways of doing the move.  The workout uses two pairs of dumbbells and a band. The sections of the workout are : Warm up Dance Cardio 1 Upper Body 1 - 3 pound weights Upper Body 2 - 5 pound weights Dance Cardio 2 Band Work 1 Band Work 2 Seated Band Work Body Weight Exercises Dance Cardio 3 Prone Series Abs Stretch It is a solid low-weight high-rep upper body workout.  Simone does give you rest periods in between. Simone also incorporates standing core work with the upper body weighted segments.  I did not care for the band work as much. I also did not like that the DVD was not chaptered.  60 minute plus workout, it would be nice to be able to jump around and maybe just do all the upper body segments or all the dance segments.  T

Flat Belly Barre! contains three 30-minute-ish barre inspired workouts. The workouts are led by Suzanne Bowen. Each workout features a beginner modifier and an advance modifier. Each workout also features subtitles that highlights the upcoming moves. The workouts are: Classic Barre Total Body Barre  Barre Blast Classic Barre uses isolation moves to work the body.  In this workout, Suzanne takes you through a series of reps - at least 16 per exercise - for the upper, lower, and core regions of the body.  A chair, a pair of light dumbbells and a mat are used in this workout.   Total Body Barre uses compound  or body weight moves to work the body. Most exercises combine both lower and upper body moves.  Suzanne uses a chair that serves as your barre, light dumbbells and a mat. Barre Blast is your cardio barre workout. Suzanne uses range of motion moves to get the heart rate up. She also adds double time/pulse work to most exercises to increase the burn. A chair and mat are used in thi

  November Monthly Rotation Sundays - Cardio Coach Series on Treadmill Week 1- Barre (Suzanne Bowen) & Dance with Juilanne Week 2: Body By Simone Week 3 - Essentrics Toning & Dance off the Inches with Emily Naim Week 4: Ilaria Bodystrike & Powerstrike Week 5 - Cardio Karate

Perfect 30 Perfect Flow is one of three DVDs that are a part of Cathe's 2020 Perfect 30 series.  This series does come with a User Guide that you can download from Cathe's website. The workouts on Perfect Flow are: Yoga Strength & Flexibility  Mobility Basics Core Bonus   Yoga Strength & Flexibility has a run time of 31:54. It is fairly slow moving, yet you are not really holding any of the postures for a significant length of time. When I saw the exercise list for this workout (which was only about 10 moves) and saw that sun salutations were first; I thought we were in for a super long segment using this move, but  no, it was not that long.  I enjoyed the balance and hip opener segments.  Mobility Basics is 31:26 in length.  This workout is about range of motion. Cathe would move you in and out of a move repeatedly.  Cathe states that this workout is about helping you identify the imbalances in your muscles and joints. There is a bit of stretching with some of the mo

Perfect 30 Perfect HiiT is one of the DVDs that is part of Cathe's 2020 series.  The Perfect 30 series contains six 30-minutes workouts and several short bonus workouts.  There is also a User Guide that you download from Cathe's Website.   Perfect HiiT comes with the following workouts: High Impact HiiT Low Impact HiiT Pyramid HiiT Bonus Extended Stretch Bonus High Impact HiiT clocks in at 30:49.  Each exercise gets repeated at least twice. Some are more.  For me, this workout had too many squat thurst/burpees.  Over half the exercises featured this move. Also I missed the timer/countdown clock. I recently did Cathe's first Hiit Workout that was part of STS Shock series and I like the timer feature and wish she had added it here. Low Impact HiiT clocks in at 30:51.  While High HiiT featured lots of squat thrust/burpees, Low Impact HiiT featured lots of squatting type moves.  To keep the moves low impact, Cathe utilized lifting actions instead of jumping moves. Although

Cathe's 2020 series is Perfect 30.  The series has six 30-minutes main workouts and several bonus workouts.The workouts are spread across three DVDs if you bought the DVD option. You can also get the series as a download.  There is also a user guide that you can download from the Cathe webiste. Perfect Pump contains the following workouts: Upper Body Lower Body Upper Body Bonus Lower Body Bonus Core Bonus Extended Stretch Bonus  I did Lower Body and Lower Body Bonus first. Lower Body clocked in at 30:48 and the Lower Body Bonus clocks in at 7:39. The workout moves quickly. Cathe uses heavier weight than normal on several of the exercises.  With the exception of the calf raises, the reps for each exercise were between 10 and 12 reps.  Along with dumbbells, a high step, weighted plates and dixie cups were used.  The plates were used just to elevate your toes.  I enjoyed this workout.  I think this is going to be a favorite Cathe lower body workout for me. Upper Body clocks in at 3

  Monthly Rotation for October Starting off with two Cardio Karate workouts: Metabolic Intervals and Plyo Intervals. Next Three Weeks Sunday - Cardio Coach Monday - Cathe Sculpting  Tuesday - Cathe HiiT Wednesday - Cathe Sculpting Thursday - Cathe HiiT Friday - The FIRM Sculpting Saturday - Rest Last week will be Cathe new workouts from Perfect 30 Series.

  The  two workouts in Metabolic Strength are Rock Solid which is your Volume 5 and Volume 6 is Heat It Up . Both workouts clock in at around 30 minutes.  The workouts are a combination of compound strength moves and functional cardio. There is no cool down. In both workouts, the workout ends abruptly.  I like the length of the workouts. I did not care for the cardio in Heat it Up, but I like the weight and strength exercises in both workouts. See table to list of exercises.   Rock Solid - 3 & 3/4 stars Heat it Up - 3 & 1/4 stars

Core Movements Vol 5 & Vol 6 contains two 30-minute workouts. The two workouts are Bottoms Up and Push Back .  The DVD cover has Vol 5 as Bottoms Up and Vol 6 as Push Back. When you bring up the DVD menu, it is opposite. Push Back is listed  as Vol 5 and Bottoms Up as Vol 6. These two workouts feature intense exercises for the core and lower body. Tracie throws in posture, balance and mobility work as well. I really liked both of these workouts.  See table for list of exercises. Bottoms Up - 4 stars  Push Back - 3 & 3/4 stars

30 Minutes to Fitness BoxFit is lead by Kelly Coffey Meyer. In the Intro, Kelly states that "BoxFit is your trim down and get strong workout". BoxFix is similar to Kelly's earlier workout Cardio Pump in that your have a cardio session that features shadow boxing and a pump session consisting of sculpting with dumbbells.  I like the boxing weight combination style workouts. DVD Menu Intro Workout 1:  Boxing (33:35) Workout 2:  Weights (35:55) Workout 3: Box and Pump (special premix 53:10) Premixes     30 Minutes or Les          No Legs - 31 min          Quick Fix Legs - 16 min          Push Triceps + Chest - 21 min          Pull Back, Biceps + Shoulders - 26 min     Doubles          Box Combos with Back, Triceps, Bicep, Shoulders, Chest - 54 min          Three Box Combos with Legs - 35 min          Box Combos + Legs - 46 min Credits

     Super Sculpt is a 30 Minutes to Fitness Workout led by Kelly Coffey Meyer. Along with Kelly, there are two other cast members.  Workout 1 is a split workout. The first 15 minutes is sculpting with light weight. The second 15 minutes is step.  Workout 2 and Workout 3 are tabata style workouts done in two groups of three rounds.  The rounds are band work, light dumbbell work and jump and/or step ups.  Within each round there are 8 segments. Usually the last segment, Kelly uses it as a rest cycle. Workout and workout 3 are the same except for the jump/step up rounds.  The DVD Menu Intro Workout 1 Workout 2: w / Step Jumps Workout 3: w/ Step Ups (special premix) Premixes      Drill & Step 1 (20 min)     Drill & Step 2 (20 min)     Quick Fix 1 (15 min)     Quick Fix 2 (15 min)     Quick Fix 3 (15 min)     Drill, Step, Drill (35 min)     Band & Box (22 min)     Band & High Step Ups (27 min)      Band & High Ste p Jumps (27 min)     Box & High Step Jumps (28 min)

  September 2020 Monthly Rotation Week 1 - Finish up week 4 of Beach Body Barre Blend Program. Week 2 - Tracie Long Core Movement, Metabolic Strength and CIA Latin Xplosion Week 3, 4, & 5 - Tracie Long Longvity, Reboot, Stronger Longer and Focus workouts. Sunday are Treadmill and a Beach Body short Yoga Stretch from the Beach Body Yoga Studio.

 August 2020 Monthly Rotation I am doing the Beach Body Barre Blend program. This is a 60 day program. Although I added a prep week so I will not complete the program until the beginning of October. I am hoping to stick with it for the full 8 weeks. Sunday - Treadmill Monday - Classic Barre Blend Tuesday - Booty Barre Blend Wednesday - Cardio Barre  Blend Thursday - Core Barre Blend Friday - Legs barre Blend Saturday - Weather permitting pool day I do have a couple of new workout DVDs that I will try to squeeze in if I have the time.

July 2020 Monthly Rotation Workout Breakdown Sunday - 3 miles on treadmill Monday - Les Mills Pump - On Demand Tuesday - Guillermo Gomez Kickboxing Wednesday - Les Mills Pump - On Demand Thursday - Kickbox workouts Friday- Les Mills Pump - On Demand Saturday - Rest

Barre Fitness with Jessica Smith contains three 20-minute barre theme workouts. The DVD menu Cardio Ballet Barre Burn Floor Barre Play All Jessica is the only cast member.  There is an outdoor setting for each of the workout.  All the sessions are set to up tempo music. In Cardio Ballet , Jessica uses ballerina movements to get the heart rate up. There is a lot of pulsing and jumping.  Jessica does show various intensity levels throughout the workout so that you can work at your own intensity level. Barre Burn is your toning barre workout. In this workout, Jessica uses a chair and a pair of light hand weights.  This is a circuit style workout in that you perform a series of moves back to back; repeat and then move on to another series of exercises which you perform back to back. Floor Burn uses a mat and a ball. If you don't have a ball, you can use a pillow.  Jessica performs a series of move for the abs, low back, arms, and legs.  Cardio Ballet - 3 & 3/

Sleek Ballet Bootcamp has three 20-minute workouts plus a warm up and cool down. The warm up and cool down are the same segments that appear in the Barre Technique workout. All the workouts are narrated/voice over. The voice over is done very well and the cuing is excellent. DVD Menu Introduction Tutorial Warm Up Ballet Bootcamp 1 Ballet Bootcamp 2 Ballet Bootcamp 3 Cool down Credits Ballet Bootcamp 1 is led by Flik Swan.  There is a standing part and floor part.  Some of the exercises in this workout are: Plie Tendu Series, Chasses, Plies, & Lunges, Port de bras, plank, parallel plies. Floor work include lying plies, lying leg walks, leg lifts and side planks. Ballet Bootcamp 2 is led by Victoria Marr and Flik Swann. This workout also includes a standing segment and a floor segment. In the standing segment there is an intense arm sequence.  Also in the standing section there is a lengthy cardio arabesque knee pull series.  For the floor segment, there is a bridg

Sleek Technique Sleek Barre Technique is a a ballet barre style workout led by Victoria Marr and Flik Swan. The DVD Menu Introduction Tutorial Warm Up Ballet Barre 1 Ballet Barre 2 Ballet Barre 3 Cool Down Credits So before we begin, I will just say these types of workouts are always challenging for me and this barre workout was no different. I like that the DVD was broken down in such a way that you could digest the material in smaller segments. There are three barre sessions on this DVD plus a warm up and a cool down. I added the warm up and cool down to each ballet barre class and did the workouts as three separate classes over the course of the week. The warm up features both Victoria and Flik but only Victoria is in the cool down segment. With warm up and cool down, each of the workouts clocked in just above 30 minutes in length.  All three ballet barre segment use a portable ballet barre, but they tell you that you can use a chair if you do not have one. Ballet

June 2020 Monthly Rotation Combination of Barre/Ballet and Dance. Dance will be from Core Rhythm series. Barre will be from Sleek Technique, Jessica Smith, Jazzercise, Karen Voight and Eric Zimmer. 3 miles will be a walk/run on the treadmill.

Ab Hits is a compilation DVD that features 12 ab workouts from older Cathe workouts. Ab Workout #1 is from Maximum Intensity Strength. This segment clocks in at around 8 minutes. There is about 5 minutes of upper abdominal crunches, around 2 minutes of oblique crunches, and about a minute of lower crunches. This workout used a step as a prop - essentially you have your feet braced against the step. Ab Workout #2 is from Cross Train Xpress Power Circuit workout. This segment is around 11 minutes and broken down into three distinct parts. Part 1 is plank work. First elbow plank work and straight arm plank work. Part 2 is supermans and you are working the lower back. Part 3 is traditional ab work. You are doing upper, oblique and lower crunches. Ab Workout #3 is from Cross Train Express Kickbox.  This workout starts out with planks and then comes plank knee pull.  This is followed by reverse planks, roll ups, reverse crunch, oblique side crunch, crunch variation and c-curve balan

May 2020 Monthly Rotation Welcome to May 2020. Well I am hoping to start using my pool. It is has been a bit cool and a bit rainy. Hopefully it will warm up and dry out so I can use it. As far as workouts, it is all about Cathe. Breakdown Sunday - Treadmill Walk/Run - Stretch Monday - PHA1 and Abs Tuesday - 4 Day Split Cardio Wednesday - PHA2 and Abs Thursday - Fit Split Cardio Friday - PHA3 & Abs Saturday - Rest day/Pool day

  Metabolic Strength Volume 3 and 4 Volume 3 Well Built is a strength workout and it is 30 minutes long.  Tracie uses compound moves and isolation exercises to work the entire body.  After the warm up, Tracie breaks the workout into three distinct segments. 1. Medium Weights 2. Heavy Weighs 3. Pec Fly Pullover The medium weights segment includes step squats, kick backs, rear delt work.  The heavy weight segment include renegade rows, french press, plies with bicep curls. The pec fly pullover segment is floor based and along with doing a chest fly and pullover, you are also doing core work. This workout is solid. Volume 4 Full Steam Ahead is a cardio strength workout that clocks in at around the 32 minute mark. Tracie uses a medicine ball for increase intensity in the cardio segments and for added intensity with some of the core exercises. There is a good bit of plank work.  Other exercises include a series of kicks, burpees, goblet squat and renegade row. This workout w

Core Movements Volume 3 and Volume 4 . Core Movements Volume 3 The Bottom Line is a core and buns workout.  The workout starts with band walks.  Tracie keeps the bands for floor work. Floor work with the band is performed in both the supine and prone positions. Next comes concentrated core work. This is followed by Turkish Getup series and then a Windmill series.  Tracie finishes the workout by working the hips with mobility hip circle moves and inner thigh adductor work. I enjoyed this workout. Trace really took time teaching the different positions of the Turkish Getup.  I also like the time spent on the Windmill positions. Core Movements Volume 4 Make Your Move is a mobility and stretch workout with.a little bit of strength. Tracie takes you through various range of motion and stretching exercises.  After a strength segment including mobility squats and shoulder press, Tracie moves into stretches for the hip and hamstring.  Tracie uses a chair.  For part of the stretch, Tr

Tracie Long's Metabolic Strength Vol 1 and Vol 2 DVD contains two 30 minute workouts. Coming on Strong is your Volume 1 workout.  This workout is mostly a sculpting with weights workout. In the Bulgarian Split Squats segment, Tracie does include controlled mountain climbers.  The Metabolic Finisher segment contains burpees. The workout ends rather abruptly.  Equipment:  step, dumbbells The DVD Menu 1. Play All 2. Warm up 3. Push Ups/Squats 4. Dead lifts/Rows 5. Bulgarian Split Squats 6. Single Arm Row 7. The Gun Show (Arms) 8. Metabolic Finisher Get Up & Go is your Volume 2 workout.  There is a lot going on in almost all segments of this workout. Throughout the workout, Tracie is using multi-component and compound exercises to move the body if a variety ways.  Tracie uses weights and a medicine ball to increase the intensity and to add power to the movements. There is quite a bit of jumping in this workout. Equipment:  dumbbells, medicine ball The DVD Me