Breathless Body 2 The Edge

Fun HiiT workout that pushes you hard. The effects are cumulative: the first couple of blocks don't feel so hard but you'll start sweating and working hard as the workout progresses.

After a well-cued warmup, the format is: four rounds of HiiT, three exercises per round, each exercise done for 30 seconds with a 15-second recovery before moving to the next exercise in the round. You do each round three times, with an active recovery for 2 minutes (simple moves, step-touch or march in place) between rounds. After the last round, there's a final 6-minute blast in which you do each of the 12 exercises back-to-back with no rest. A cooldown/stretch completes the workout.

Amy leads three backgrounders in this workout: the woman on the right of the screen in front does the easiest/lowest level version of the move (always low impact), the woman on the right in the back is the intermediate, and the guy on the left of the screen does the advanced, high-impact move. Amy also does the intermediate move while encouraging you through each section and cueing stops, starts, transitions between exercises and clock countdowns.

Likes: The exercises are simple. There is a low-impact version of every exercise if you're not in the mood to jump. You can do this workout with no previewing; since everything is so well explained and demonstrated, there is no learning curve.

Dislikes: the guy who demonstrates the advanced moves flails around. He seems so interesting in jumping HIGHEST and FARTHEST that he looks slightly out of control at times. It doesn't help that he's slightly pigeon-toed (no fault of his, I know) but when he demonstrates his feet land in positions that are not.quite. how you want yours. I liked much more the advanced backgrounder from the first Breathless Body, a very fit woman. Also, the two-minute recovery between rounds is a little long.

If you like HIIT and Tabata-style workouts, you should like this one. I could not handle Amy's first Breathless Body because I can't do the same exercise 8 times in a row!! The circuits of this workout are not monotonous because you never do the same move twice in a row but instead do a series of 3 moves 3 times and then move to the next round. The perfect amount of repetition for me. Amy gets me to my target heartrate and keeps me there in a workout that feels like it goes by quickly and is fun. The final push in which she takes you through each of the 12 moves for 30 seconds each back to back with no break is tough because I am tired by that time, but it is 6 minutes that seems to go by in half the time. As always Amy is motivating with the proper amount of enthusiasm but not over the top. My only complaint is that she spends too much time explaining the moves at the beginning, e.g, here's the move at beginner intensity, now intermediate, not advanced. I need rest at the end of each round, but not 2 minutes. I wish Amy would go directly from the end of each round to the explanations of the next rounds; that would be enough rest for me. But overall I love this workout and always enjoy Amy. Highly recommend this one!

Amy leads this 54 min all out cardio w/o in an open room w/ 3 backgrounders. You wont need any equipment for this workout and the dvd is fully chaptered. Each backgrounder performs a different intensity level from beginner to advanced, with Amy exercising at medium intensity.

The workout is comprised of four rounds, each round consisting of three repetitions of 3 exercises performed for 30 seconds each followed by a 15 second rest. There is a 2ish min rest between each round. During the break Amy shows you the upcoming 3 exercises

After the w/u exercises include: Russian dance, cross country skiing, plank hop ins, flying squat jacks, skater, plyo squat & heel click hops, diagonal plyo lunges, broad jump, plyo plank & pushup, tuck jumps, and plank jax & pushups. Before the cooldown Amy gives you a nonstop (no 15 sec breaks) 6 min of all the previous exercises.

My breakdown includes most of the advanced moves, following Amy I rate this a high intermediate workout. This dvd is great for most all exercisers - just follow the exerciser that meets your intensity requirements. Great to grow with, Amy provides great encouragement and cuing. The longer rest periods really allow for you to really give it your all for the next round. Great chaptering to fit into any time frame. I liked this one a lot more than BB 1-time went by quicker, enjoyed the exercises, more fun factor, still getting a fab w/o. I received this dvd to review

I did Breathless Body 2 The Edge with Amy Dixon for the first time today.

OVERALL:

Awesome, awesome workout. I loved it!

For those that liked Breathless Body 1 and that like Amy Dixon, I think you will love this one also. It is very similar to the first one, but different enough that it's good to have the variety. The music is similar, Amy's style is similar, having the extra backgrounder doesn't distract. The format of the exercises is different, but similar in type to the first one.

THE WORKOUT:

The workout is 4 circuits of 3 plyometric cardio exercises done for 30 seconds on and 15 seconds of rest. You go through the 3 exercises 3 times and then move on to the next circuit. There is a rest (not sure how long, maybe 2 minutes) between each circuit. At the end, she does each of the 12 exercises consecutively (no rest) for a 6 minute burst.

PROs:

This workout was tough (and I like that). It got my HR up and kept it up. The time went by very quickly. The moves are easy but great for getting the HR up and for getting in some thigh work (power lunges) and a little upper body (push ups). I love Amy's style. I think she is encouraging but not over the top. She has 3 modifiers, so any level of exerciser has someone to watch.

Cons:

I didn't love the first circuit of exercises so I did a little modifying. She does these Russian kick things but I did switch kicks instead.

The camera didn't show the backgrounder I was following at the start of each circuit. So sometimes I was unsure what to do . . . but that won't be a big deal after I've done this a couple times.

The break between circuits is way to long. (but I just fast forwarded through it)

There's a guy doing the advanced version and I missed the woman from the first BB. There's nothing wrong with him, but I really liked her.

Similar to the first Breathless Body, you could write down all the exercises and do it on your own (and save the money on the DVD). She's not doing anything creative or innovative. Her exercises are all things I've seen before. This workout is very similar to the BB #1. But for me, I like having the follow along video and I like that the moves are effective, get my HR up and keep it up. If she made 10 of them, I'd buy all 10. I just love this kind of workout.