Saundra

FitPrime & Kickbutt Parts presents Killer Weights & Killer Cardio - two compilations workouts taken from WHFN (Women's Health & Fitness Workout) FitPrime & Kickbutt workouts.  The WHFN workouts focused on fusion and non-dominant (N/D) side training.  Non-dominant is when you work your weaker side first. Killer Weights is comprised of several of the sculpting sets in the WHFN workouts . It clocks in at 55 minutes. Killer Weights DVD Menu : Full Workout Warm-Up Pilates-Abs/Core N/D-Weights D- Weights Upper Body N/D -Weights Cardio D-Weights Upper Body Pilates-Legs Yoga Killer Cardio is comprised of the cardio and four-limb segments.  It clocks in at around 52 minutes.  Most of the cardio is kickboxing inspired and low impact.  There are two tall box climb segments. Killer Cardio DVD Menu: Full Workout Warm-Up Cardio #1 Cardio #2 Stretch Pilates-Core Yoga Cool-Down While I have done all of the FitPrime and Kickbutt ...

Fast Cheetah is Volume 7 in the Original FitPrime series of workouts. It is a 55 minute workout and it is lead by Tracie Long. This workout was designed as a cross-trainer to Strong Bear. Where Strong Bear was "slow + heavy". Fast Cheetah is "fast + light". It uses lighter dumbbell weight and the tempo of the music if faster. This workout contains a lot more cardio than Strong Bear. A lot of the cardio is functional fitness in nature and often features a medicine ball doing sports drill type combinations. There is also a kickbox and tall box climb segment. Fast Cheetah uses the non-dominant principle of training in which you train your weaker side first. This set also features the mirror backdrop. Tracie works out on carpet that looks like it might be 5 X 8 in size. I wasn't crazy about the construction of this workout. It was just okay. I did like the music and of course Tracie is great as usual. But I am giving it a lukewarm 3 stars.

FitPrime Strong Bear is Volume 6 in the Original FitPrime workouts. This workout is lead by Tracie Long and it is 53 minutes long. There are no other cast members. Strong Bear is a muscle shaping workout that features non-dominant training (training your weaker side first). It is a total body training workout in that it hits all muscle groups using various functional fitness and traditional type exercises, but there is not much cardio. The workout uses a dowel, high step, ankle weights and dumbbells. The set is small in size but very busy. There is a mirror backdrop that lets you see how the exercise looks from the back. I like this workout. A few of the exercises were challenging. The pace is slow and methodical and was designed to allow you to go heavy with the weights. 3 & 3/4 stars

Volume 12 in the original FitPrime series of workouts is Just Right Flex Posture. It is an 40 minute workout and it features Anna Benson as the lead. Pilates and Yoga are the principle disciplines used to give your body a thorough stretch and to work on your flexibility. Many of the exercises use isometric holds. The workout also include balance work. I enjoyed the balance exercises the most. I think of Flex Posture as a good stretch workout for the total body. The workout is chapter and you can select the following chapter points : Salutation Warrior Stick Tree Sit Twist Block Horse Bow + Cat Camel Threads Plank Spider Core Nose to Knee Venus Anna uses the tall step, yoga blocks, yoga pillows and a dowel stick throughout the workout. 3 Stars

Just Right Cardio is Volume 11 of the FitPrime original series of workouts. It stars Anna Benson and it's a little over 30 minutes in length. The sections of the workout are Warm Up Stretch Cardio Floor Work Stretch Cool Down The cardio portion is about 20 minutes and consist of short sequences of mostly walking, marching, tap outs and some squat work. There is one cardio tune where you are doing a lot of knee lifts and I felt it in the hip flexors. So great endurance work for that part of the body. Anna used the arms quite a bit in the cardio sets - overhead press, biceps, press downs, swing arms are some of the variation arm moves. Anna included a lot of breath work and I like that part of the workout. This is a really easy, basic simple workout, not much complexity. The floor work contains push ups, bridge, and core work. There are several glitches in the editing. At least twice in the workout, it appeared that a section came to an end, only to have the workout jump back in ...

Just Right Weights + Cardio +Yoga is lead by Anna Benson. It is Volume 10 in the FitPrime original series of workout and it is about 40 minutes in length. The back of the DVD cover states "The Just Right series is not too hard, but beautifully effective." I agree with that statement. I didn't think this workout hard but I certainly felt I got a good workout. This workout is a Non-Dominant Trainer workout. Not only does this Just Right workout work your non-dominant (weak) side first, Anna also gives you more reps to do on the weak side than she does on the strong side. For instance, you will do a single arm shoulder raise. You might do three reps on the weak side and one rep on the strong side. This is by design. So for those of you who have to do the same amount reps per side, this may not be the workout for you. The cardio is very simple and much of it lacks intensity. There is this bunny hop section that alternates with calf work ( releve ). I found this ...

March 2012. Wow, this year is already moving super fast. There is no real order to March's rotation. I mostly filled the schedule with workouts I love to do. I have Hi Lo, Athletic Step, CardioTone, and pure strength workouts on tap. Saturday will be a bit of an Active Recovery Day. There are nine new workouts to review : Three FitPrime One CIA Two Tracie Long Two Kelly Coffey Meyer One FIRM I am looking forward to this rotation. I think I am going to have a lot of fun.

First off Fitness Favorites and FitPrime workouts are one-in-the-same. There was a name change mid-way through where FitPrime became Fitness Favorites. G-Force 2 features Carol Miller as the lead and it is a 49 minute rebounder workout. Along with Carol, there are three additional cast members. Carol and cast workout barefoot. The workout is also shot in a "live" classroom format. G-Force 2 breaks down as follows : Warm up - approximately 5 minutes and it uses the rebounder. Cardio Phase using the rebounder - about 35 minutes Lower Body Sculpt section - about 7 minutes Core and ending stretches - about 7 minutes There is not a lot of upper body work unless you count the plyo handstands done off the frame of the rebounder. Carole does use a pair of weighted gloves through out the workout and that adds extra intensity in the cardio phase. During the cardio phase, you are doing back to back sets (tunes) on the rebounder. The moves are simple. Some of the moves are samba...

Lower Body Burn is 48 minutes in length and features Melissa Grill. I think the music in this workout is great. I think Melissa Grill is great. While doing the workout, I found myself wondering if Melissa has anymore workouts videos that are out. WHFN is the only place where I have come across her. Now, I have had the WHFN workouts for awhile and I have done most of them three to four times but I could not remember ever completing Lower Body Burn. 10 minutes into the workout I remembered that I never did complete it because I just couldn't get into the workout. This time I did complete the whole workout but it was an effort. Mostly, I think because the pace is just slow. Not the music. The workout itself is just...... Lackluster is the word that comes to mind. There is no intensity and really no burn. I could tell that Melissa was trying to bring some oomph to it, some enthusiasm but at 14 minute and 50 second into the workout, I remember thinking that's all I've done. Th...

Upper Body Burn is volume 5 in the WHFN FitPrime series. It features Keli Roberts as the instructor and it is 55 minutes in length. The workouts in this series are known for working the non-dominant side first. For most people that is their left side, but the workout does not assume this so you are constantly hearing non-dominant and dominant throughout the workout and after awhile the two words start to run together. I mention this because I got mixed up trying to follow the phraseology and I found myself wondering throughout the workout whether or not I switched sides. The WHFN are fusion workouts that combine pilates, cardio, yoga and weights. This workout is primarily weights (used to work the upper body) and the weight work is decent. It starts by working the non-dominant side with lat rows, push ups and single arm shoulder work. The workout then takes you through a series of bicep, triceps, push ups, double arms rows. About 30 minutes into the workout, it comes back and works...

Lean is the fourth workout from the WHFN FitPrime series. It is 43 minutes long and features Keli Roberts. I like Keli. My very first workout video with her was CherFitness. With WHFN, she felt force to me. Not bad, just not comfortable. She was however precise. She seemed to be bigger than the workout - if that makes sense. Lean is a fusion workout that is suppose to be more cardio. The cardio while cute leaves something to be desired. Even coming off a cold, I felt this workout was too easy. The workout does make up for it in music selection and set design. I don't expect I will be grabbing this workouts again unless I want a super light workout. It is not bad, I just want more. Between 2 1/2 and 3 stars. I can't quite decide. Probably 3.

WHFN FitPrime Pump is a 54 minute fusion workout that combines pilates, cardio, yoga and weights. The major emphasis in this workout is on weights. This workout is lead by Heidi Tanner and contains great music and a stunning set design. Pump, as well as several other workouts in this series are great Recovery type workouts. I am coming off of a cold; and I found that this workout didn't exert me too much, which is good when you are coming off a cold or want a light exercise day. This workouts keeps up the non-dominant training method. The cardio tunes were fun but brief. Nice workout - One that I will keep on hand for less intense days. 3 out of 5 stars

FlexPosture is the second volume in WHFN FitPrime series. It is a 54 minute fusion workout lead by Tamela Hastie. The workout is fused with pilates, cardio, yoga, and weights. I found the pilates section to be the most challenging. There wasn't much intensity in the weights or cardio sections. The yoga sections was mostly used for stretching and balance. I think this would be a real good workout to use on active rest days or recovery days. Tamela does a good job in leading the workout. I particularly liked how she focus on breath work. The equipment used in the workout consist of step, light weights, dowel and yoga block. Tamela and the cast exercised barefoot but I wore shoes. The set is stunning and the music is very good. 3 out of 5 stars.

In 2005 or maybe it was 2004, Anna Benson founder of the FIRM started a new venture called WHFN or Women's Health and Fitness Network. Within this venture she created and produced 12 workouts. The 12 workouts were broken up into two series each containing 6 DVD workouts. The two series are called FitPrime and Kick Butt!. The Kickbutt! workouts were a remake of her Original FitPrime workouts and the FitPrime workouts were made up of new material. Metaboost is Volume 1 in the FitPrime Series. It is a 49 workout that has elements of pilates, cardio, yoga, and weights - with the primary emphasis being weights. I like to call these workouts fusion workouts because of the way the different elements are blended together. These workouts and I have had them since they came out was for the most part the first time I was introduce to pilates and yoga. Since this time I have purchase several pilates workouts. The set - absolutely gorgeous. The visual impact is stunning. The music - ter...

It is the last month of the year, so I am going for workout that I find fun. Which for me, means dance workouts. To give it some balance, I have thrown in some sculpting workouts in the form of Kelly Coffey Meyer 30 Minute To Fitness workouts and also Angie Miller Kettlebell Boot camp. It will be the first time for me doing Angie's KB workout. Also I haven't done any of Lisa Rinna's Dance Body Beautiful workouts. So I am looking forward to trying those. Other new workouts showing up for me this month are Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Dance Workouts, as well as Dance with Julianne and Pussycat Dolls workouts. The last two workout are on pre-order and should arrive around December 15. I have rounded out the rotation by adding in Fitness Favorites (Anna Benson) workouts from her WHFN FitPrime series.

FitPrime Floor Burn features Susan Harris. It is a 45 minute, mostly lower body workout, and mostly done on the floor. This workout is a nice change up from doing lunges and squats. Susan does do some squats to warm you up, but they don't appear anywhere else in the workout. FitPrime is a series that uses non-dominate training. That means you work your weaker side first. Susan does about 6 to 7 exercise on one side (really fatiguing the muscle) before she switches to the other side. The workout does includes two sets of pushups; and yoga and pilates are used throughout the workout to work and stretch the lower body. This workout was solid. I wasn't "in love" with it. One thing I did note is that I didn't notice the music. Music is ususally one of the first things I notice about an Anna Benson workout. 3 out of 5 stars.

From The Ground Up Tuesday's workout was FitPrime From The Ground Up. This workout is led by Heidi Tanner. It is mostly a heavy weight workout with light cardio burst. Some may call it a Cardio Sculpt workout. Many of the cardio sections are kickbox based. This workout focuses on Non-Dominant training. This means you work your weaker side first. Heidi does the whole workout without shoes. Along with weights, the workout uses the tall steps and it clocks in at around 53 minutes. I really liked this workout. I found it to be solid. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. CrunchTime FitPrime Crunch Time was my Wednesday workout. This workout is led by Susan Harris. I think Susan is one of the all time great instructors. This workout can also be classified as cardio sculpt and it includes a yoga stretch section. It focuses on non-dominant training and uses light and heavy weights and the tall step. The workout moved really fast and the 45 minute duration was over before I knew it. I r...

Steamin Cardio This is also my second time doing this workout. I have had the Original FitPrime workouts for years but never got around to doing them until last October. FitPrime Steamin Cardio is an Anna Benson workout and it is led by Kelsie Daniels. Kelsie is absolutely fantastic in this workout. She is so precise in her cueing and in how she performs each exercise. The music is absolute devine and really propels the workout. It is music that you can get really involved with. Most of the workout is synchronize to the music. Steamin Cardio uses the tall step and light weight in some segments. Other segments, include sports drill, kickboxing, latin flavor dancing. The workout has a short core and ab workout. I really love this workout and I am giving it 5 out of 5 stars. Running time is approximately 52 minutes.