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Walk On Metabolism Booster with Jessica Smith. Just realized when I was planning May rotation that I never reviewed this workout. The DVD Menu Play All Upper Body Circuit Walk Lower Body Circuit Walk Total Body Time Saver Bonus Routine for Stronger Knees Lower Body Circuit Walk clocks in at just under 35 minutes.  Jessica uses a pair of weights to increase the intensity of the resistance moves.  You are doing each of the exercises for two sets of 16 or so reps. Jessica adds cardio breaks in between each grouping of exercises. Upper Body Circuit Walk clocks in at a little over 35 minutes.  In this workouts, Jessica performs three upper body exercises back to back, repeats those exercises and then moves on to a cardio break, before taking on another group of three exercises.  The last grouping are standing core exercises.  Jessica uses a pair of weight for the strength exercises. Total Body Time Saver clocks in at 16:45. It is  circuit style working in whi...

Work It! Total Body Circuit. is part of Jessica Smith 2022 Strong & Centered series. This DVD has two strength based workouts. Workout 1 is 48 minutes in length and workout 2 is 38 minutes in length. In each workout, Jessica includes an extended warm up before taking you through 4 circuits of 2 to 5 exercises per circuit. Jessica uses two set of weights (light & heavy). Expect lots of reps and some mobility work. You are repeating most of the circuits twice. The second time through, Jessica speeds up the pace.   Jessica is only cast member.     3 stars

Hard Body comes with two 45-minute circuit workouts.  There are six circuits per workout. Within the workout, Jillian will take you through the six circuits. After you complete the sixth circuit, you take it from the top, repeating all the circuits. The only difference is for some exercises where you focus on one side during the first go around, the second time through you work the opposite side.  Each circuit is composed of 3 to 5 exercises and includes a variety of athletic, body weight, drill-base, and yoga inspired moves. Some exercises are standing and some are floor based and a lot of the exercise are compound multi-component in nature.  Jillian adds dumbbells to certain exercises and she has a range of dumbbells - light, medium and heavy. There is a beginner modifier.  Level 1 clocks in at around 45 minutes and Level 2 clocks in at around 50 minutes. There is a DJ playing live music throughout the workout.  While I thought the music fine, I though...

Jillian Michael's Extreme Shed and Shred contains two roughly 40 to 45 minute circuit style workouts.  Both workouts share the same warm up and cool down. In fact Jillian gives you the option of combing the two.  The DVD menu offers the following: Level 1 Level 2 Level 1 & 2 Both workouts have a beginner modifier and a modifier who shows more advance moves.  In Level 1, you are doing four circuits and in Level 2, there are five circuits. The circuits feature a variety of exercise moves from cardio, strength, yoga, and kickboxing. Weights are used in these workouts. 3 & 1/2 stars for both workouts.

Cathe Greatest Hits Vol 1 Step is another compilation workout.   The DVD contains a lot of material and if you do the whole thing, the run time is one hour and 38 minutes.  This workout is made of up segments from Step, Jump & Pump, Body Max 2, Drill Max, Imax 2, and Athletic Step.  There are segments from Cardio & Weights and XTrain Super Cuts  that are included as Bonus Chapters. Specifically, the warm up and the four step combos of of SJP are included, Body Max 2 step combo #2 and Drill Max cardio #4 are included, Imax 2 intervals 7-10, the finished combos in Athletic step and the stretch segment in Body Max 2 round out the DVD. DVD Menu:    PLAY    CHAPTERS    PREMIXES Premixes are:     Bonus Circuit Workout 44:50     Timesaver 1 (No Athetic Step) 54:40     Timesaver 2 (No Imax 2) 50:17     Timesaver 3 (No Step Combo Body Max 2) 59:23     Times...

Walk Off Belly Fat 5 Days a Week! is a Walk On workout by Jessica Smith.  This DVD comes with lots of options and I used some of the options when I did the different segments. The DVD menu gives you all these options: Play All Warm Up 2 - Mile Belly Fat Blast Interval Walk 3 - Mile Flat Abs Power Walk Belly Blasting Strength Training Cool Down Premixes      Day 1 Flat Abs Power Walk (57 min)      Day 2 Belly Blasting Strength Training (31 min)      Day 3 Belly Fat Blast Interval Walk (41 min)     Day 4 - Flat Abs Power Walk (57 min)     Day 5 - Belly Blasting Strength Interval Combo (61 min)  Cool Down Credits I did the 3 Mile Flat Abs Power Walk which was mostly a steady state walk.  Mile 1 of this workout was basic walking. Mile 2 feature boxing moves and in Mile 3, Jessica builds mini combos.  This portion of the workout clocked in at around 46:25. There has been...

Boost Metabolism + Muscle is a Jessica Smith Walk Strong DVD that contains three metabolic strength workouts. Each workout is 35 minutes in length and they are presented in the circuit style format where you do two to three exercises and you repeat those exercises before moving on to the next group of 2 to 3 exercises.  This is a relatively high rep workout. You are doing at least 12 reps per exercise but in many cases you are doing as many as 16 or even 24 reps.  Most of the exercise are multi-functional or compound in nature. There is a countdown clock in each of the workouts.  Along with Jessica, there is Debbie.  She shows beginner modifications.  A mat and a set or two of dumbbells are used.  The DVD menu options are: Introduction Circuit #1:  Upper Focus Circuit #2 - Lower Focus Circuit#2 - Total Focus Play All I liked all three workouts and felt I got a solid workout each time out. Circuit #1:  Upper Focus - 3 &3/4 st...

Boot Camp Circuit is a 45 minute workout that is part of Cathe's ICE series for intermediate exercises. The workout consist of six circuits. Each circuit contains four exercises done back to back. The first exercise in the group is cardio focus. The second exercise is lower body. The third is upper body and the last exercise in the group is core based. Each exercise last about a minute. Then you move on to the next grouping. This workout is where you can really tell the series is intermediate. I went back and did Cathe's original Boot Camp workout from the Intensity series and there is a definite difference in, well, the intensity. This workout uses a step and a series of weights. Cathe's step height starts at two risers and then half way through the workout she raises the step height by adding another set of risers. This increases the intensity. Plus Cathe uses rep tempo variations within some of the exercises to increase the intensity as well. Boot Camp Circuit...

Lean Body Circuits is a 30 Minute To Fitness Kelly Coffey Meyer Spring 2015 release. It features two 30 minutes interval style workouts and both workouts follow the same format. The format is cardio, boxing, lower body, and upper body.  With this format the first two intervals or circuits are high intensity and then the workout slows down a bit when you pick up weights to execute the lower and upper body exercises. Along with Kelly there are four cast members.  There is a modifier.  Also, the voice is back.  The voice calls time when you are nearing the end of the exercise and it is time to move on.  Kelly is having a great time in this workout. Love her energy and enthusiasm.  The DVD Menu: Introduction Workout One Workout Two Premixes Credits There are tons of premixes in this one: Combined Workouts (52 minutes) this is the workout I did Lean Body Weights (27 min) Lean Body Cardio (33 min) Lean Body Hi-Lo (20 min) Lean Body Boxing (20 ...

Prevention's 400 Calorie Fix Workout is lead by Julie Marsland.  This is my first time working out with Julie and I thought she did a pretty good job leading the workout. The DVD menu gives you the following options: Introduction Play All (400 Calories - 52 minutes) Interval Workout (200 Calories - 21 minutes) Circuit Workout (200 Calories - 31 minutes) Audio Setup The interval workout alternated 3minute low impact segments with 2 minute high impact segments.  The exercise are the same for both the low and high interval segments. You are just adding impact, usually by hoping, running or jumping the move.  There is a bit of repetitiveness with the workout as what you do on one side your will do on the other and then you repeat it with impact in the high impact segment. The circuit workout alternated cardio with resistance training.  The cardio segments are between 4 and 5 minutes and are mostly low impact in nature. The resistance segments are about 5 min...

M ax Interval Circuit is my first "MAX" workout and the longest workout in the Insanity System. It clocks in at roughly 59:49. The warm up follows the same format as many of the other workouts. This is where you do a set of moves three times through, each time increasing the speed of the move. Some of the exercises are different in this warm up. Max Interval Circuit is very similar in set up to Plyometric Cardio Circuit. However, in Max Interval Circuit, there are three circuits instead of two. The circuits are 3 minutes in length and you get a 30 second built in water break after the 3 minutes. I have just finished up 3 weeks of Insanity and overall, I am not really enjoying them. I find them really repetitive - not only within each workout - but across all the workouts. Shawn has a sample of about 25 to 30 moves, that he switches in and out with slight variations in the various workouts. I think the problem is, I don't particularly care for his exercise list. W...

Your Best Body Circuit is the third workout in Michelle's Your Body Breakthru series. The other two are Rockin Body Cardio Jam and Slim, Strong, Sexy Body Sculpt. This series is like a intro to Michelle's Peak Fit Challenge Series. There are a lot of similarities with perhaps the Peak Fit Challenge series being more refined. This workout, Your Best Body Circuit ( YBBC ), would be like one of her Cardio Strength workouts, except she includes what I consider to be a true warm up in YBBC . YBBC is about 58 minutes in length. The DVD does contain a 35 minute express option. Also you can select individual chapter points and make up your own/mix and match the sections. If you do the workout as designed, which is what I did, it breaks down as follows: Warm up Circuit 1 (Back & Biceps 1) Circuit 2 (Chest & Triceps 1) Circuit 3 (Back & Biceps 2) Circuit 4 (Chest & Triceps 2) Circuit 5 (Shoulders with Legs) Circuit 6 (Legs) Circuit 7 ( Abdominals ) Cool Down. E...

Circuit Zone is a 71 minutes workout featuring Tracey Staehle. I have had this workout for awhile, probably 1/2 year and am just now getting to it. It is one of those workouts that I kept meaning to add into the rotation but never found a place for it. There is a kick box influence in this workout. I also consider it to be endurance base. The workout starts with two warm up segments. The first warm up warms up your upper body by doing a series of punches. The second warm up warms up your lower body by doing a series of kicks. After that we move into the circuits. Circuit 1 - (Upper Body) Lat pullovers, chest press, push ups, rear flys, Circuit 2 - (Lower Body) Alternating lunges, boxers stance squats, rear lunges, pulse squats, Circuit 2 - (Bonus Lower Body) Alternating Plyo Lunges, knee jump kicks, front back lunges Circuit 3 - (Upper Body) Bicep and Triceps Work Circuit 3 - (Bonus Upper Body) Triceps Circuit 4 - (Lower Body) Outer and inner thigh Leg Lifts, jacks using a band Ci...

A-Team Boot Camp is a 60 minute plus circuit style workout. It consist of 6 circuits or drills as Amy calls them. Each drill is broken down into 4 parts that include 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of lower body, 1 minute of upper body and 1 minute of core. The 2 minutes of cardio in some of the drills is very very long. That is because in some of the drills, you are doing the same move for the whole two minute. Over kill. I actually got bored a couple of times wondering when this was going to be over. A couple of the cardio drills do have more variety and thus were more fun to do. The rest of the workout uses a lot of equipment. Weights (dumbbells and barbell), stability ball, tubing and the step bench are all used to added intensity to the lower body, upper body and core exercises. During the lower body sets, where you work each leg separately, the minute is further broken down to doing 30 seconds on each leg. Amy does give you a lot of rest between each drill and a couple of ...

High Step Challenge is a 68 minute circuit workout that uses the High Club Step, various weighted dumbbells, a band, and barbell. The circuit pattern is not consistent but essentially consist of cardio, 2 lower body sets, and 2 upper body sets. Sometimes Cathe would alternate the lower body and upper body segments and sometimes she does them back to back. There are five circuits total. What stood out most to me in this workout is the pace. The workout moves and there is not much time for rest. Seriously, I barely had enough time to get a drink of water. The time between sets is taken up with getting prep for the next exercise. There is only minimum recovery after the cardio sets. Speaking of the the cardio sets, they feature a mixture of different types of cardio: High impact, step, and kickboxing. Also there is lots of band work in the upper and lower body segments. After the last circuit, there is an intense ab workout followed by a stretch. I don't do this workout...

Somewhere, probably in a video, I heard Kelly say "be a participant not a spectator". This quote comes to mind because when I got this workout and was previewing it, I did not think I was going to like it as much as I thought I would when I bought it. After doing the workout - 30 Minutes to Fitness Circuit Burn, I love it. The workout comes with two 30 minute workouts. And I am happy to report they are very close to being 30 minutes - maybe 2 or 3 minute past. I mentioned this because in Kelly's last group of workouts, a couple of the workouts well exceeded the 30 minute time frame. It is not a big deal in and of itself - just a pet peeve of mine - if you are going to mention time in the title, the workout should closely reflect that time. And these do, so back to the workouts. I did both workouts back to back and as I move forward, I will most likely continue to do both (time permitting) because both workouts really do compliment each other and it makes ...

BootCamp from Cathe's Intensity series is a 60 minute circuit style workout. It consist of 8 circuits. Each circuit contains a minute each of cardio, lower body, upper body and core. This is the workout that gives us Cathe's famous saying that "You can do anything for a minute." The problem with that is that during some of the cardio segments that minute gets extremely long. I was very winded doing this workout. In the cardio segments you will do sumo squats, jacks, mountain climbers, kickbox, squat thrust ice breakers, speed skaters, and so on. Some of the exercises in the lower body portion of the workout are squats, plie squats, leg press, static lunge etc. The upper body muscle groups worked are back, chest, bicep, and triceps. You use a variety of equipment in the workout to include the high step, med ball, dumbbells and a barbell. While I like this workout a lot, I can't say it is my favorite of my circuit workouts. The music is okay, the set is busy, ...

72 minute workout. That is what Drill Max clocks in at. It is an intense workout. There are six drill cycles that Cathe takes you through. Each cycle contains a cardio drill, leg drill, and upper body. The only time when you might get a break from the cardio is during the upper body segments. The leg drills are tough and definitely cardio based. Lots of equipment is used. The step, stability ball, weights, and band. The cardio sections sometimes seem to go on forever but the workout actually moves through at a quick pace. The weights are used to increase the intensity and the conditioning and not for muscle strength. I really love the music. The beat was infectious. I think I got most of my energy from the music, and I love the set. It is one of my favorite sets that Cathe has used. The isn't much that I don't like about this workout. I didn't care for the lower body or upper body sections in the last drill, but that could be due to the fact that I am wiped out b...

Cardio & Weights is a 60 minute circuit workout. I rarely do this workout as designed. The only reason I put it into the rotation is because I wanted to do a circuit type workout; and all my other circuit workouts were already scheduled in. Most of the time when I do this workout, I do the Timesaver Step Only option, which I like. The full workout isn't bad, it is just not one of my favorites. I think the lukewarm feeling I have about it comes from the transitions between the weight segments - the compound segment and the upper body segment. The problem is there is no transition and I often have to pause the DVD player to set up for the next exercise thus making the workout longer than 60 minutes. Anyway, the workout consist of 4 step combo routines and each routine is followed by a compound exercise and then an upper body specific exercise. Throughout the workout, Cathe hits all 5 upper body muscle groups, the legs and the core. I thought the music was good but not great...

Low Impact Circuit is one of my favorite Cathe circuit workouts. However, that wasn't always the case. This workout definitely had to grow on me. Now I always loved the cardio, which consist of a series of three step routines, but now I like the weight work equally as well. The weight segments are mostly upper body and when the lower body is used, it is used in conjunction with an upper body exercise. Dumbbells and a band provide the resistance for the workout. The workout is about 75 minutes long. After (what seem to me a lengthy warmup), Cathe takes you into a series of step combo routine/low impact mini blast/lower body/ and upper body work. There are three rounds of this. The workout concludes with abdominals and a stretch. What I like least about the workout was the warmup - repetitive. What I like best about the workout was the music and how it really fit the choreography of the step routines. I also like the music louder option that came with the DVD. The DVD als...