Saundra

From Tracie Long's Focus series, Weightless is a 30 minute workout that uses your body weight (no equipment). Well, okay. Tracie does use a mat. And there are certain spots that she tells you that you can use weights as props. Again, a great soundtrack and the workout is choreograph tightly to the music. This is a workout that can be "performed" once you really know it. The choreography is athletic in nature but basic. There is some power and a little high impact, but it is mostly low impact workout with some functional fitness and kickboxing inspired moves. The breakdown: Song 1 - warm up Song 2 - Burpees, turn-jumps, squat calf work, step knees Song 3 - Upper Body punches, squats, jogs, jumping jacks Song 4 - Lower body power moves, squat and lunge pulses, jumps in and out, hamstings, triceps push ups Song 5 - Side lunges, triceps dips, shoot outs, crunches, spinal erector work Song 6 - Planks, plank rotation, prisoner squats, push ups with rotation, mountain cl...

The next volume in Tracie Long Fitness Focus Series is Volume 5 Break Through . Break Through is a 30 minute medicine ball cardio workout. The workout contains two chapter workouts "Have A Ball" and "Whittle Your Middle". Essentially, Have a Ball is the first 20 minutes of the workout and Whittle Your Middle is the last 10 minutes. Within the 30 minute workout, I counted 8 distinct sections. Section one : Med Ball Warm Up. I thought this section was rather fast or maybe I wasn't ready to work out but the tempo seemed quick to me. The warm up is about 4 1/2 minutes Section two : cardio no med ball. Side lunges, squats, jacks, and a quick tempo define this section. About 3 minutes Section three : Back to med ball. Overhead press, scissors, ball weaves and figure 8s. About 5 minutes Section four : Cardio no med ball. Side lunges, Lateral jumps, single leg balance work and power. 3 1/2 minutes Section five : Med ball. Sumo squats, releve' cir...

Power Up is Volume 3 in Tracie Long's Focus Series. The focus here is suppose to be "Intense Metabolic Boost". Okay. Sure. This is my second time doing Power Up and it is probably my favorite of the 4 Focus workouts. Chapter 1 - first segment - Brutal. You are doing power lunges off the step. Tracie varies the tempo by adding pulses and knee lifts. One of the features in this workout is that Tracie builds in lots of Active Recovery which after doing the lunges off the step, I needed. The active recovery move that Tracie used was alternating quad stretches. She also did a series of tempo marches. The rest of the workout went like this: 1. speed skaters 2. followed by more alternating quad stretches, 3. jog on the step with the right lead was next, 4. alternating quad stretches, 5. jogging on the step with the left lead, 6. alternating quad stretches. 7. series of squat jumps 8. an ending stretch that ended the segment. Chapter 2 did not use the step and st...

Kick Back features 3 relatively self contained 10 minute chapter segments. You can do each chapter on its own or you can any two or all three. The exercises included in workout are Kickboxing inspired moves. In each of the chapters, Tracie works with the tempo to either focus on form (at a slower tempo) or focus on intensity (at a faster tempo). Chapter 1 uses light and medium dumbbells to work the upper and lower body. Using the dumbbells, you do a series of jabs, hooks, upper cups, and cross arm squats. Other exercises included are side lunges with one arm rows into a one arm sword and squat thrust front kicks. Chapter 2 is mostly a lower body focus and you are doing a series of kicks, plie lunges with calf raises and step squats. Tracie uses heavy dumbbells in the plie and squat sections. Chapter 2 concludes with a stretch. Chapter 3 is floor work. Exercises include side planks, single leg push ups. ab work, triceps extension and ribcage pullovers. Kick Back is Volume 2 in ...

Mmmm .... over all not bad. I enjoyed 20 minutes of Reach Further . 10 minutes I didn't care for or rather I didn't like it as much as the other segments. This workout is part of Tracie Long Fitness focus series and Tracie states it is the 4th workout in the series - which I guess really only means something if you happen to own all 4 workouts. Reach Further, like all the Focus workouts are broken down into three chapters. Chapter 1, I would label as flowing yoga. It moves at a brisk space and you are getting in and out moves quickly. Surprisingly this was one of the sections I enjoyed. I usually don't care for this type of yoga. Chapter 2 is core/ab work. About 1/2 of this section is plank work and the other half is traditional ab work. This was my least favorite section - not because it isn't challenging, more because I felt it out of place in this workout. This would be a good section to add on an ab/core day. Chapter 3 I would say is about balance and stabili...