A programmable cardio DVD with 50 minutes' worth of working out. Your instructors are the training team from the TV show The Biggest Loser: Bob Harper, Jillian Michaels and Kim Lyons. The background exercisers are contestants from the third and foruth seasons of the show.

Even though those are "real" bodies featured in the workout, this is not really for beginners! You should be at the high end of advanced beginner, at the very least. You will need a light pair of dumbbells (optional) for one segment.

Even before the endorphins began kicking in for me, I felt that exercise and physical movement should be about joy, exuberance and when the going gets tough, a big dollop of determination. So when a workout is presented as something vicious and the instructor asks you to imagine socking him (or her), it really turns me off. With that kind of negativity, I personally would find it hard to keep up an exercise program for the longterm. So excuse me if I found this workout less than thrilling, even though it left me sore for several days. Yeah, it works. But it left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Harper starts you off with a 5-minute warm-up before pushing you into a 20-minute boot camp style routine. You've got lunges, squats, pushups and various twisting variations thereof, all the better to work on your core. But he's really annoying (even the background exercisers don't seem happy with him), and you get only minimal instruction in form. Don't even think you'll get it right by imitating the contestants from the show — they don't seem to know how to do these moves right, either. (This is kind of surprising, considering all they had to do to get through all those episodes.) That's why this workout is not for beginners — you need to know how to do these exercises already. You could really hurt yourself if you do some of these exercises wrong.

 

Harper's workout is actually the toughest of the three — Michaels' 10-minute routine is intense, but without the dumbbells (only Harper uses them) and the shorter length, it's not quite as much of a killer. I have never been fond of her abrasive approach to exercise, but I do think hers was the best workout for pure cardio. Not sure why Lyons' 10-minute workout is considered Level 3, since her kickbox-oriented segment is the easiest. Lyons is also the least annoying, and even she's inviting the exercisers to punch her.

 

Between watching off-time exercisers, the bad form exhibited, poor cueing and an approach to working out that's reminiscent of your worst high school gym teacher, this DVD has a lot of drawbacks. But admittedly, it does work. So if you prefer more athletically based routines and you like to get your aggressions out in your workout (I have other avenues), then go for it. Me? I'll stick with instructors who work me hard, but who I also like. (Jeannette Jenkins or Michelle Dozois anyone?)

 

 

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