Lindsey did a good breakdown, so I'll give you some other tidbits:
Organization: Two 20 minute workouts, titled Strength and other Cardio - EACH contain both strength and cardio. There is a final 10 minute stretch workout which is excellent. The downside of this is there is a brief warmup and stretch preceding both sections and you cannot skip past them.
I did the Cardio portion today and was surprised that my HR got up to 85%. This is in part to the unweighted lower body work that infuses the Cardio segment. This would be a much better workout if it lasted at least 30 minutes. 20 minutes is just not long enough when 5 of that is warmup and stretch. What's nice is there is no TIFTing. Absolutely none. You do the move for a very short bit and you are on to something else. I like that!
I previewed the strength segment and its basically a circuit workout - cardio interspersed with weights. Both cardio and strength each end with abs. I wish you could skip the warmup and stretch in the beginning so that you could smoothly do this as one longer workout.
The stretch is 10 minutes and a separate workout. It is quite good.
All in all this is a solid intermediate workout. I will do it with the sound off to decrease the Denise factor. She says "Train like an ath-a-lete!" Good grief.
Instructor Review
Better left unsaid.
10/20/2008
lindseylu
This dvd has two 20 minute workouts: one cardio and one strength, and a 10 minute flexibility workout is also included. Each of the 20 min workouts includes its own w/u & c/d, unlike some of Denises other dvds. I wish they were seperate.
Cardio: Denise leads w/ a variety of background exercisers. It includes a few 30 second "power bursts" to get your heartrate up. I think this is an intermediate w/o but can easily be modified up or down. I really pushed myself and felt I got a great short w/o.
Some of the moves include squats, side steps, ab chops, push ups, torso twists, side shuffle, skaters, dips, jabs, jack-jab combo, high knees, pliet-side kicks, upper cuts, etc. There is also an ab section at the end that includes standing abs, floor abs, and planks.
Strength: I only previewed this portion. It includes some cardio moves to get your heart rate up but is mainly toning. There are many compound moves. Some kickboxing inspired moves, and balance work is also in there.
Some of the moves include: deadlift-row-tricep combo, pliet- chest scoop, squats, lunges, some kickboxing moves, etc. It ends with a floor work section: donkey kicks w/ a dumbbell behind your knee, planks, ab work, upper body work on the floor, etc.
It looks like you could easily heavy up due to the length (20 min) and not too many reps of anything. You would have to figure out which weights to use for each move as she only uses one set of dumbbells throughout.
IMO you could do all 3 segments for a 50 min w/o and get a solid intermediate workout. You would def have to modify up to get an advanced w/o but it can be done. I will keep this one! I have enjoyed the cardio section every time Ive done it and plan to one day do the strength portion.
Instructor Review
Denise is Denise, so her cuing is not the best but it is better in this w/o than most of hers. She is perky but has toned it down ALOT for this one. You will still hear "you can do it" and "train like an athAlete". She is lower key IMO.
Reviews from VideoFitness
Lindsey did a good breakdown, so I'll give you some other tidbits:
Organization: Two 20 minute workouts, titled Strength and other Cardio - EACH contain both strength and cardio. There is a final 10 minute stretch workout which is excellent. The downside of this is there is a brief warmup and stretch preceding both sections and you cannot skip past them.
I did the Cardio portion today and was surprised that my HR got up to 85%. This is in part to the unweighted lower body work that infuses the Cardio segment. This would be a much better workout if it lasted at least 30 minutes. 20 minutes is just not long enough when 5 of that is warmup and stretch. What's nice is there is no TIFTing. Absolutely none. You do the move for a very short bit and you are on to something else. I like that!
I previewed the strength segment and its basically a circuit workout - cardio interspersed with weights. Both cardio and strength each end with abs. I wish you could skip the warmup and stretch in the beginning so that you could smoothly do this as one longer workout.
The stretch is 10 minutes and a separate workout. It is quite good.
All in all this is a solid intermediate workout. I will do it with the sound off to decrease the Denise factor. She says "Train like an ath-a-lete!" Good grief.
Better left unsaid.
This dvd has two 20 minute workouts: one cardio and one strength, and a 10 minute flexibility workout is also included. Each of the 20 min workouts includes its own w/u & c/d, unlike some of Denises other dvds. I wish they were seperate.
Cardio: Denise leads w/ a variety of background exercisers. It includes a few 30 second "power bursts" to get your heartrate up. I think this is an intermediate w/o but can easily be modified up or down. I really pushed myself and felt I got a great short w/o.
Some of the moves include squats, side steps, ab chops, push ups, torso twists, side shuffle, skaters, dips, jabs, jack-jab combo, high knees, pliet-side kicks, upper cuts, etc. There is also an ab section at the end that includes standing abs, floor abs, and planks.
Strength: I only previewed this portion. It includes some cardio moves to get your heart rate up but is mainly toning. There are many compound moves. Some kickboxing inspired moves, and balance work is also in there.
Some of the moves include: deadlift-row-tricep combo, pliet- chest scoop, squats, lunges, some kickboxing moves, etc. It ends with a floor work section: donkey kicks w/ a dumbbell behind your knee, planks, ab work, upper body work on the floor, etc.
It looks like you could easily heavy up due to the length (20 min) and not too many reps of anything. You would have to figure out which weights to use for each move as she only uses one set of dumbbells throughout.
IMO you could do all 3 segments for a 50 min w/o and get a solid intermediate workout. You would def have to modify up to get an advanced w/o but it can be done. I will keep this one! I have enjoyed the cardio section every time Ive done it and plan to one day do the strength portion.
Denise is Denise, so her cuing is not the best but it is better in this w/o than most of hers. She is perky but has toned it down ALOT for this one. You will still hear "you can do it" and "train like an athAlete". She is lower key IMO.