Review: The Biggest Loser Workout – Cardio Max

I've had this DVD for months and didn't get to try it until recently. Just goes to show you how busy I am! I bought it for about $10 from Rogers Video. You can also order it from Amazon.ca.

The DVD has 50 minutes of workouts on it which can be combined in any way you like. The warm-up (5 minutes), Level 1 (20 minutes), and the cool-down (5 minutes) are hosted by Bob. Level 2 is with Jillian (10 minutes), and Level 3 is with Kim (10 minutes).

If you follow the built-in programs, Level 1 includes the warm-up, the 20-minute section with Bob, and a cool-down. Level 2 is the same, but after the workout with Bob, the workout with Jillian plays. The same goes with Level 3. You can follow these programs or you can go into the "maintenance" option on the DVD and choose whatever workouts you want.

So far, I've only done Level 1. Foolish me, I thought it'd be easy! It's easy in that the moves aren't complicated. But it's hard in that it really pushes you. The moves remind me of the sort of things we do in Bootcamp, especially because the cool-down is yoga-inspired. I also like that contestants from the show are the ones doing the exercises. They're regular people so they make mistakes which I can relate to. There's even a few of them who do modified moves that you can do if you're finding things are too hard.

The only complaint I have about the DVD so far is the music. It's about the most uninspired music I've ever heard on an exercise video. It's comprised of one or two music loops lifted from the Biggest Loser show. However, you soon forget about it because you're listening to Bob, Jillian, and Kim yelling at you more than anything else.

Lastly, if you pick this one up, be prepared to have hand weights. I thought it was all cardio, but in Bob's section he has you doing moves with weights. Bob shows you a modified version without weights, but I think you'd get more out of it with weights than without.

Four stars out of five.

Video Bootcamp

I was really wanting a bootcamp-style workout today but without an instructor, I'm pretty useless at thinking of things myself. So I thought it'd be fun if I mixed and matched sections of my favourite exercise videos.

Here's what I did:

• Walk Away the Pounds – 1 Mile
  
• Turbo Jam – Learn & Burn
• Biggest Loser – Cardio Max, Levels 1 and 2
  
• Walk Slim – Fast Start, 2 Miles

Once I finished each DVD, I skipped the cool-down and moved on to the next. On the last DVD, I completed the cool-down and did a full-body stretch on my own. By the time I was finished, I was surprised to find that I had worked out for 2 hours and burned over 600 calories!

All in all, "video bootcamp" was a fun experiment and a good workout. I'll be trying it again, but maybe not for so long, hehe.

10 Minute Flailing

Exercise in the last day or so hasn't gone well. Last night I was all set to go an hour on my exercise bike except the computer kept resetting on me. Five minutes in, blam, it resets. So I set it again and 10 minutes later, blam, it resets again. At this point I figure I've run down the batteries and so I went scrounging for new ones for about 15 minutes. I couldn't find any and wound up sitting on the couch in defeat for the rest of the evening watching a really bad movie on TV.

This morning, I tried again (my husband finally found the batteries) and was able to do a nice 30 minute ride. Afterwards, I thought I'd try out my new 10 Minute Solution DVD which arrived yesterday. Wow. To say that I totally sucked at it would be an understatement!

I picked the first workout in the list and it went well for the first few minutes. Shoulder-rolls and some Turbo Jam-esque standing moves. It's when the workout moved to the floor work that things went horribly wrong. The instructor is very lean and sinewy and she had some strange notion that an overweight gal like myself would be able to hold herself up with one arm while doing really difficult combos of push-ups, planks, single arm lifts and leg lifts. The push-ups I did OK with. But trying to support yourself at a 30-degree angle with one arm while lifting one leg? No way. My arm gave out before I could complete a single move. I gamely tried for 5 minutes before giving up completely on the whole thing.

Needless to say, I won't be doing that one again until I'm lighter and have some upper-body strength. Fortunately, there's 4 other workouts on the DVD. I previewed some of them while drinking my morning smoothie. They look a lot more doable than that first one. Let's hope so!

100 km!

I reached the 100 km mark this morning on my exercise bike. That didn't take long at all! It's amazing how far you can go in 45 minutes. I clocked 14.65 km this morning alone.

I've decided my reward will be....more activity points! I ordered a 10 Minute Solution: Blast Off Belly Fat DVD from Amazon. Although I know that you can't spot reduce specific areas, I ordered it because I really haven't been exercising the ol' abdominal muscles. I figured 10 minutes of ab work after every exercise bike workout will be the perfect combination. My muscles will be warmed up from biking and then I can hit the mat and start strengthening that stomach of mine!

My next goal on the bike will be to reach 1000 kilometres. As a reward, I'll get a pedicure since my feet will have done most of the work.

Review: WATP Get Up and Get Started (1 mile walk)

Instead of going to Curves tonight, I tried the first workout from my new Walk Away the Pounds DVD set - Get Up and Get Started. I was very pleased to see that this video is of much higher calibre than the 30 Minute Walk DVD I recently bought.

The audio is superb and the workout is much more polished. Leslie Sansone is also toned down but she's still enthusiastic in a non-annoying way. The set looks modern as does all of her back-up walkers. She even included a token guy in the mix - an older fellow who looks rather out of place.

The music is less 80s (thank goodness) and made me want to move my legs more. Even still, it can't surpass the Turbo Jam style of music for groovy-ness.

The 1-mile walk itself is pretty low-key until the addition of weights a little ways in. The weights that Leslie uses are her own branded weighted ball thingies. (I don't have these so I just substituted my hand weights and it worked out just fine.) After you start lifting the weights for the upper-body movements, you really start to feel it in your muscles. It's harder than it looks.

However, even with the addition of the weights, I didn't find this workout to be very intense. I barely broke a sweat and was easily able to follow along. For those new to exercise, however, I think it'd be a great starting point. I'm going to try the 2-mile walk next as that looks to have a faster pace to it.

It’s here, it’s finally here!!

Oh, I'm so excited!! Guess what FINALLY came in the mail today? Yep, that's right, my WATP DVD set from Amazon. Can you believe that I ordered it on February 19th? They're usually pretty good, but man was that a painful wait!

After going sock shopping (for the husband) and hopefully shoe shopping (I need new shoes) tonight, I'm going to try one of the workouts. I can't wait!

*dancing with glee*

Review: Walk Away the Pounds 30 Minute Walk

I finally had a chance to try out my new Walk Away the Pounds 30 Minute Walk DVD earlier this week. Although it was not exactly what I expected, I did enjoy it.

The WATP series by Leslie Sansone is all about in-home walking. Basically, walking in place combined with knee lifts, side steps and arm movements. The video itself looks very dated. The set looks straight out of the 80s and Leslie's backup walkers looked very 90s. The mic quality on Leslie herself was also lacking. If the 2001 copyright date that came up during the credits is anything to go by, this video hasn't aged very well.

Regardless, I dove...or rather walked....right in. The movements started out slow, timed to some forgettable music. I'm thinking, "This'll be easy!" And then Leslie started adding in more moves and the pace kept increasing along with the music. Before long, I was sweating just as much as if I had been doing Turbo Jam. However, I wasn't frustrated at all because the moves came very easy to me and I found I could focus on the intensity rather than worrying about which body part goes where.

Leslie is very happy and enthusiastic. Some of her laughs made me cringe because they were loud and cackling but it's nothing a turn down of the volume couldn't fix. The backup walkers are a little forgettable and they seemed to get confused sometimes with Leslie's directions. It's not a polished workout per se, but I didn't mind.

The video is equivalent to one of her 2-mile walks and let me tell you, it's a long 2 miles! It was a lot harder than I thought but it was just as satisfying and fun as I hoped. I can hardly wait for the DVD set to arrive from Amazon!

Turbo Trim

I'm still waiting for my WATP DVDs from Amazon and, as a result, I've been finding all sorts of ways to buy fitness things to keep me busy. To the detriment of my character and my wallet, I'm not a good waiter.

My latest purchase is a mini Turbo Jam box set that I found at Costco over the weekend. If there's one set of workout videos that gets as much mention on the forums as WATP, it's Turbo Jam. As soon as I saw it, my inner "as seen on TV" child knew that I had to get it.

This morning I tried the intro video – Learn & Burn. They should really rename it "Learn & Suck." Did I mention that I'm also an uncoordinated creature at heart? Even still, I had a reasonable amount of fun and have NEVER sweated so much in my life. I was so sweaty, my husband asked me if I had done all three workouts!

Fortunately, I'm assured the moves get easier with time. I'm planning on doing Learn & Burn as cardio this week inbetween Curves and training for the 10k. So little time, so many exercise videos!

Welcome Back Fonda

I am an embarrassed creature by nature. From birthday cards to feminine hygiene products to exercise videos, I practice covert buying techniques. Face down on the counter, barcode up, double-bag and out. Sunglasses for bonus points.

Fortunately, this has waned over the years and I can jauntily buy Always and Hallmark cards with a certain je ne sais quois. The exception: exercise videos. It's one thing to get fit but an entirely different thing to do it with a Jane Fonda exercise video.

Back in 1995 I somehow overcame my embarrassment and invested in a bunch of Jane videos. To my surprise, Jane was someone to be admired – she inspired flouncing. And so I flounced for a few months until flouncing became sporadic and I lent Jane out to a friend. I never saw Jane again...until last weekend.

I was at Zellers when I spied Jane's complete Personal Trainer series for a fraction of the cost and on DVD. So I sucked up my pride and bought it. And I even bought it without buying a manly workout DVD to fool the cashier into thinking I was buying Jane for my husband and not myself.

Last night I finally popped in the DVD and was rather impressed at the picture quality. The 90s era fashion, hairstyles and musak were perfectly preserved. It was so well-preserved that my husband turned tail and hid in the office.

I may be an embarrassed creature by nature, but at least I can let it go at home. So, 12 years later, I resumed flouncing and was terrible at it. But, spastic coordination aside, at least it got me moving.

Welcome home, Jane. I missed you.

Kilates

Last night, I was so anxious to get going on some exercise video action I decided to break out the Pilates Weight-loss Workout for Dummies DVD I bought a year ago and never tried. I'm not sure what sort of dummies they tested this on but they're much smarter than me. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world so I wound up feeling like a fish trying to do yoga.

Even still, I got an Activity Point out of it and, when my husband came home, I was in for an unexpected and highly entertaining treat. I told him that I thought he'd enjoy Pilates, so right there and then he started doing the workout. Bear in mind my husband has a black belt in Karate. It started out fine (and somewhat amusing to see him have difficulties with a number of the moves like I did) and then he started adding in Karate poses and kicks.

So Pilates quickly became Kilates and I giggled myself silly watching him flounce around the living room. Yes, maybe exercise doesn't suck. Especially when it's entertaining to watch!

Non-scale Victory

I confess, I'm a scale addict. I'll weigh myself every morning. Even though I know I shouldn't, have read that I shouldn't, have experienced that mysterious weight gain/loss within only a matter of hours....I still weigh myself constantly. Sometimes more than once a day, especially if it's close to weigh-in.

Well, this morning I resisted the urge. That's gotta be a non-scale victory without question ;)

In other news, I ordered a 3-pack "Walk Away the Pounds" DVD after reading a number of good reviews on the WeightWatchers.ca boards. Guilty me...it's one of those things that you see infomercials for. True, I didn't know that until I found the product on Amazon.ca, but I ordered it anyways. I try to avoid "as seen on TV" products but confess sometimes it's a guilty pleasure to fall for the pitch.