Elle Glam Fitness: Toning

A fun workout you can divide into segments when you don't feel like doing all 45 minutes. I recommend using 2-4 lb dumbbells to start.

The floor work section has great ab work. You can feel it with the leg raises.

This is a pretty intense 45 minute full body workout. It is chaptered into 6 segments.

Warmup- The warmup is approximately 5 minutes and is basically stretches and squats.

Lunges- The lunge section is only about 12 minutes but it felt like it was double that. You start with front lunges with a knee raise and eventually add a leg extension after the knee raise. Throughout the sequence your foot only hits the floor for the front lunge. So, there's a lot of balance work too. Then there's a series of back lunges with knee raises and a back leg extension after the knee raise. This is followed by a series of side lunges. Each move builds on the other so the workout progressively gets more challenging as you go along. After the lunge work, she adds weights. You combine the front lunge combo with biceps curls, the back lunge combo with shoulder presses, and the side lunge with one arm lat rows. The workout is pretty fast paced so you do a lot of reps in each segment.

Plies- The plie segment is also about 12 minutes and incorporates a lot more than plie squats. The plies are combined with upright rows and then there is a series of pulsing plies combined with heel raises. The workout then moves on to deadlifts combined with lat rows and lat raises while you balance on one leg. Curtsy dips combined with tricep extensions, biceps curls, and shoulder presses are next.

Upper Body- This segment is about 7 minutes long. I'm not sure why they felt the need to make this a separate segment. After all, we've been doing upper body the whole time and this section has more lower body work in it in the form of wood chops. Otherwise, this section is mainly shoulder work that incorporates front and side raises with calf raises. Lots of reps and your shoulders will be burning. I had to take short breaks several times.

Floor Work- The floor work segment is 10 minutes long. You work the chest by doing several sets of push ups and chest presses. The chest presses are combined with bridges. You also do french presses for the triceps and lat raises. There is a short sequences of traditional floor work-glute and leg raises. The abs workout is combined with the lat raises in the beginning and then it moves onto traditional ab work.

This workout ends with a 3 minute cooldown and stretch. My one issue with the workout is the instructor, while very likeable, did not cue well. There is no mirror cueing in this workout and her constant references to your "outside leg" and "other leg" means that you have to keep track of which leg you're supposed to be working. She almost never says left or right. I've got enough to worry about trying to keep up with the sequences.

I really like this workout. Although it is fast paced, it's not so fast that you can't keep up and the moves flow well into each other. I am not a fan of lower body exercises but the combination moves and the fast pace keeps it interesting.