Saundra

The third workout in Suzanne Bowen's BarreAmped series is BarreAmped Cardio Fat Burn .  This workout mixes tabata style drills with barre work for a cardio barre interval workout. There is a beginner modifier and and advance modifier. Suzanne is normally performing the intermediate level.If you follow Suzanne or the advance modifier, you will be performing higher impact and higher intensity style moves as they do quite a bit of jumping.  The ladies also work at a different pace from each other.  Suzanne calls it a freestyle workout. The DVD Menu Intro Warm Up Extreme Cardio Fat Burn Cardio Sculpt Cardio Core Cool down Stretch Extreme Cardio Fat Burn is your interval tabata workout. It clocks in at 26 minutes. You are doing moves like skiers, plie jacks, mount climbers and hops.  You are doing these moves for several sets before you move on to the next grouping of exercises. In between the sets, Suzanne gives you a 10 seconds rest. Cardio Sculpt is...

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 be...

Ilyse Baker Your Sexy Everything is a lower body inspired workout.   The workout is composed of mini routines from 5 to 8 minutes. Each routine has a particular focus. Ilyse incorporates total body moves in each mini workout that gives the routine a cardio effect. There are two participants along with Ilyse.  One person is showing more basic beginner moves.  The other person is showing intermediate moves. Ilyse is the one doing the advance moves. The workouts are short but challenging. The Tabata workout comes with a picture in picture (PIP) that demos the move during the 10 second rest. The Thighs workout runs through a series of squats and lunges. There are also some plank jacks in this workout. The Calves workout consists of calve raises, hops and rock and roll calves done in a plank position. Glutes is where you get down on all fours working hydrants and donkey kicks. There is also a series of single leg squats and balance work. The Dancer's Floor...

Breathless Body Volume 2 , The Edge is another Amy Dixon workout.  This workout clocks in at around 55 minutes.  It is similar to the first Breathless Body in that it is a high intensity workout. Amy calls this workout threshold training. Breathless Body two however seemed less repetitive to me than the first. The workout is set up as follows: There are four intervals.  Each interval contains three drills.  Each drill consist of three rounds of three exercises that can be performed at a level one, level two or level three intensity.  You do each exercise for 30 seconds with a 15 second rest. In the workout, Amy has one person performing level one, another person performing level two, and a third performing level three. Amy is typically performing the level two intensity of the exercise. After a drill is completed, you get about a minute and 1/2 before the next drill set. Amy is setting up the next drill for you during this time. After the four interv...

Breathless Body stars Amy Dixon and it is around a 55 minute tabata style workout. You repeat one drill eight times before moving on to the next drill.  You do 20 seconds worth of work and then you get a 10 second rest.  Each drill takes 4 minutes to complete.  You get about minute of rest between drills. Amy is using this time to demonstrate the next exercise. For each exercise, Amy gives you three levels or alternatives for each exercise. She and her cast mates show each exercise level variation before performing the exercise. One cast member does a beginner variation.  One cast member does the advanced variation and Amy does the intermediate variations. There are a total of 8 exercises (drills) plus a warm up and cool down. The warm up is around 4 & 1/2 minutes and the cool down is around 4 minutes. The DVD menu offers the following : Play All Intro Warm-up Power Jacks Speed Skaters Athletic Beach Volleyball Hot Feet Core Kicks Ole Lunges Bo...

30 Minute To Fitness Shape Up features Kelly going solo again.  Kelly deliver two tabata style workouts in which you work for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Kelly alternates cardio exercises with weight exercises and you are doing each exercise for 8 rounds. Depending on the exercise, the 20 seconds goes by quickly or seems to take forever. Of course, I wished that Kelly included a countdown timer in the corner, but she doesn’t.  What she does do is provide voice cues within the music.  A guys voice comes on and says something to the following “ round 5  in 4, 3, 2, 1 ”  So you knew when to go. I thought this a nice feature. I also wish Kelly had include an inset (picture in picture) that demonstrated the next or upcoming move.  She did this for her 30 MTF Kickboxing workout.  As I was doing this workout, I felt this particular format could have used it. Kelly uses a step but tells you, you don’t have to. She  also (as typical) ...

Disc 9 in Cathe's Xtrain series is Tabatacise .  It is approximately 45 minutes in length and it features 5 Tabata plus a warm up and cool down. This workout was challenging.  I was out of breath quite often.  I actually did the workout in two part. I did Tabatas 1-3 in the morning and Tabatas 4-5 in the evening.  There is a countdown clock/timer.  Although sometimes it is not always in sync with Cathe.  You are doing each exercise for 20 seconds and you rest for 10 seconds.  On some exercises the 20 seconds took forever and the 10 seconds flew by. Each Tabata features 4 exercises that you repeat twice.  This was followed by a step "recovery/blast" section. The exercises in Tabata One are: Plie Jacks Hands In Hips Frog Jumps Forward Back & Turn Right Three Jacks & One Tuck Jump Frog Jumps Forward Back & Turn Left The exercises in Tabata Two are: Squat Digs Air Jacks Sprint Shooters On Right Lead Sprint Shooters On Le...