Slim Series: Mix It Up

This workout is part of the Slim Series and follows the same format, look and feel of the other ones. I have already commented extensively on that in other reviews, so I will just recap briefly that it features Debbie working out with two background exercisers and the usual beachbody countdown clocks for section time and total workout time are once again featured. I enjoy the clocks, although some might find them tedious.

The workout is not as orderly as some of the Debbie Siebers routines I have tried. The exercises get switched up fairly frequently and usually but not always alternate between upper and lower body. Some of them she uses weights for and some of them feature resistance bands. At the beginning of the workout she says she is using 5's and 8's but she never indicates when the switch occurs and she never suggests whether the home user should be using heavy or light weights (other than to say that if you find something too easy you should be using heavier weights).

The exercises are all traditional ones, squats and kicks and lots of shoulder work. Biceps and triceps do get worked too, but most of the upper body work was very shoulder-focused. Generally you do a set of about 20-25 reps, then a short pulsing set and an isometric hold. Some of the exercises are compound moves, usually involving a squat with something for the upper body. There was nothing in this workout that surprised me. It was all pretty standard stuff.

I found Debbie a bit more personable in this routine than I have in other Beachbody workouts. Of all the Slim Series I have tried, this is probably the one I liked best. On the whole though, the ones I tried seemed pretty interchangeable. I can't imagine doing a whole rotation of only these and not being terribly bored.

I think this workout is a perfect example of "you will like this sort of thing if this is the sort of thing you will like." If you enjoy Debbie in her other workouts, you'll like this one. If you don't see what the hype is about, this workout will not convince you. Myself, I fall somewhere in the middle. I do find these workouts a little bit too meh to do on a regular rotation-like basis. But there is nothing wrong with them per se and I will probably pull one out from time to time.

I did Mix It Up last night and it's 57 minutes in length. Once you've done a 78 minute workout, 57 minutes seems easy. This video uses the same cast as Firm It Up. All video formats are basically the same: warm up, standing exercises, standing ab work, floor exercises, floor ab work, and cool down. This video mainly comprised of weights, bursts of cardio, kickboxing, glute and ab work. For this video, dumbells and resistance tubing are used. Instead of tubing, I used dumbells the entire time and they worked fine.

Remember when I said I hated lunges? Well, those words come back to haunt me. This video contains forward, reverse, and cross body lunges. There are tons of traditional and plie squats as well. Oftentimes, these squats are either paired with sidekicks in a one-two movement or combined with upper body weight work. Debbie usually completes segments with "lowends" which are quick, small pulses to further fatigue muscles.

Very short bursts of cardio is blended through out the workout and include running in place, half jacks, and kicks.

Shoulders and back are thoroughly worked out in Mix It Up. There were lots of lat raises, shoulder presses, Arnold presses, bent lat raises, and rows. Triceps were worked with kickbacks and overhead extensions. Chest exercises include pushups, chest presses, semi-circle flies (new type of exercise for me), and pullovers.

Glutes are mainly done on all fours with endless legs kickbacks. The video ends with traditional ab work.

Overall: I really like Debbie's style, relaxed and fun at the same time. Her form is perfect and always gives great pointers. All the videos have a similar feel to them yet different exercises are used to work the same muscle groups. Some people have mentioned that these videos have a FIRMish feel to them. I don't exactly agree with that. These videos incorporate a bit of everything. At one point during Mix It Up, you are in the chair/child poise! Even though FIRMS are great workouts, they give me a superficial feeling. Slim Series, on the other hand, seems very real. This is the feeling I get from these videos: "It's time to get down to business. Let's get through this together!" Most moves are pretty athletic. Even guys would enjoy doing these.

This video was just under an hour. Not sure the exact time.

It started with a 5 minute long warm-up - pretty much the same warm-up in all the other videos.

There were two sections of standing weight work, each followed by a short burst of cardio (jogging, jacks). I think the reps were a bit slower in many of these exercises, and she did a lot of compound movements.

Lots of squats and lunges, adding in kicks.

There was standing ab work, and then there was a bit of lying weight work.

She uses dumbbells and tubing, but I stuck with dumbbells.

There was some floor leg work too, which I hate - but I hate them because I find them exhausting.

My heart was in the high end of my zone the entire workout, and I feel that every muscle in my body got a nice toasting over. I used 3s and 5s mostly, only using 8s for the first set of chest presses.

The ab work was pretty traditional. I actually prefer just doing my Joyce ab work at a different time (before my daughter wakes up)

I give this an A.