I was in a used record shop the other day, and decided to purchase this hybrid yoga and pilates toning DVD. I had high hopes for it, but I should have known by the low price of $2 and someone else unloaded this awful excuse for a “workout” just so that they didn’t feel totally screwed by paying full price for it, and then probably using it one time, as I did. I won’t say what the name of it was, but it was lead by a woman who’s name I had never heard of and I believe she was Australian.

The series was supposed to help you drop weight and sizes within 28 days, the only problem was, I barely broke a sweat during the exercises, and they barely challenged me. You’d think that even for someone who was used to doing yoga and pilates that something that said it was going to help you torch calories and fat in a month, would be at least a little more physically challenging than you sitting there waiting to feel like you’re somewhat pressed to do the right moves. At no point did I feel challenged, and that disappointed me, since I expected to.

Well, I finally did it. We finally (my boyfriend and I both) made it to level 3 of the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout DVD, and man it was pretty rough. I’ll share some of the nuances of the experience with you and let you know what the aftermath was, as there is always aftermath after each level of Jillian’s workouts, and so I’ve heard on her other workouts as well (this lady knows what she’s doing, trust me).

Okay, so level 3 starts off easy enough, with the same warmups that we did for level 2 pretty much except with a little more intensity added to the warm up. Overall, nothing too bad for the first minute. Let me tell you right off the bat that level 3 is not heavy on the cardio, but rather it requires a lot of physical endurance and strength, so she really tests the boundaries of your physical strength and stamina.

You will do a lot of plank type positions and plyometric types of exercises, which are things like squats going into a jump and high impact types of exercises. For example, you do a squat going into a jump straight up in the air, which takes a lot of physical strength and certainly burns the muscles out quickly. I think at the point of level three her goal is to more so condition the muscles and help your body to burn fat and calories by making it exceed what it thinks it can do at one given time.

The next couple of days later, at the gym, I was thrilled to find out that I could actually do ten pushups – real, guy style pushups, without doing them with my knees down. I can honestly say that is the first time in my life that I feel like I actually have some upper body strength and don’t feel like I’m going to collapse after doing a few real pushups. Your upper abs will be really sore the next day after level three, there is some very intense, burning moves done that affect this area.

I feel so much stronger, like I could really kick ass, and it’s all due to a lot of these twenty five minute workouts and my combination of workout DVD’s that works for me. Love it!

I have been recording several shows on Fit TV in an effort to really change up my routine, avoid boredom, and create muscle confusion, which is one of the best ways to get your muscles to sculpt faster, and get those hard to shape and reduce areas pared down in no time. The harder something is for you, the more it changes (forces) your body to change and reduce in size, as well as change it’s shape.

That’s why things like circuit and interval training are so successful at toning you and reducing weight, because they are harder on the body, and burn more calories in less time.

I’ve been trying to combine Gilad’s Bodies in Motion, which is primarily an aerobic based workout, with his Body Sculpting workout which is also on Fit TV. I like the Total Body Sculpting, but the Bodies in Motion I’ve seen leave a lot to be desired. They are all outdated, and look like they were filmed in the nineties, so the quality is very grainy, the sound is bad, and the workouts themselves feel outdated and quite frankly not challenging enough.

I actually used to do the Bodies in Motion workouts when I first started working out when I was in my teens, and that and Basic Training, which was either Gilad’s wife or his sister, Ada, which I actually liked better. I don’t know if they were more challenging then because I didn’t really know what was challenging, or if I just wasn’t in as fit a shape, but now I feel like Bodies in Motion is a very half hearted workout.

It’s great for beginners, but it’s probably not the best for those who are more advanced or looking for more of a challenge. Now who knows, as I watch them more, I may actually get some better ones, so I’ll keep you posted. I’ve watched about four Bodies in motion ones so far.

Well, we’ve made it on to the second level of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred DVD, and let me tell you, this thing is a KILLER workout video, and if you don’t see results with this, then I just don’t know what you will see results with. First of all, I talked about the first level of this DVD, which is hard, but you can definitely build up to it, and it seemed a lot easier, though not unchallenging, after we had done it for ten days. However, this second level, which we just did for the first time yesterday, is absolutely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Like the other level, level one, it’s about a twenty five minute workout, and believe me, she keeps reiterating that over and over, except she calls it a twenty minute workout which I say pshaw to every time because it’s really more than that, but whatever. I love this series because you really don’t waste any time, and you get the same level of workout that you’d probably get from “phoning it in at the gym” as Jillian likes to say, for an hour and a half, maybe even a better workout than that, because you are placing so much stress on the body that you are instantly burning off calories and putting your body through the wringer, which makes it adapt.

If I had to guess, I’d say that the twenty five to twenty seven workout burns at least 300 calories, maybe more, depending on what level of intensity you do it at. I was out of breath beyond belief several times during level two, and at some points in the workout, I had to take a breather because I thought I was going to pass out. You have to watch your knees on this workout, because it’s really hard on your knees, so if you have sensitive knees, you may need to vary your positions.

She does a lot of explosive floor moves that take a lot of breath and a lot of strength to complete. You will be panting and gasping for air, trust me, but you will see results, as I have seen in just a few short weeks if you stick to it. She’s a force to be reckoned with, for sure!

So, I’ve been recording a few of the Gilad Total Body Sculpt half hour workout shows on Fit TV for the past few weeks, and didn’t have the opportunity to actually do one of them until recently. I did one that was advertised in the preview on he DVR as being targeted toward the abs, thighs and butt, and boy was that true. The only thing I don’t like about doing these exercise programs off the DVR (digital video recorder), is that it’s annoying when they go to commercial and you have to continue what you’re doing, it sort of ruins your focus a little.

Usually what I’ll do is just more reps of what they were doing when they went to break, or if that’s too much, I’ll just run in place so I’m at least keeping my heart rate up during the down time.

Gilad has been doing workout videos since I can remember. He’s a big, buff guy, and he’s encouraging, but the only complaint I have is that he seems to move from one move to another too quickly, and it doesn’t really give you time to figure out what the proper form is until you are smack dab in the middle of the exercise already. Also, a half hour seems too short and it seems jam packed into those thirty precious minutes.

However, with that being said, he works your butt off in the short half hour, and when you’re done, your butt and thighs are burning, a sure sign that the exercises he has put you through will be effective. I like the fact that he gave me some moves that I had never done before, especially considering I have been working out for years now, I’m not just a novice.

Gilad also has a new DVD series out that looks like it’ll get you in shape in no time. It’s something like 60 bucks for three packed DVD’s, which isn’t bad, and I’ll bet it’s very effective. He focuses a lot on combining almost a slightly cardio workout with serious muscle building and sculpting moves. He likes to burn calories, but he also concentrates a lot on building lean muscle mass. I mean, look at him, he knows what he’s doing! Needless to say, I’ll be tuning in again to get my half hour of butt kicking moves.

Well, my boyfriend and I just got done doing the first level (there are three levels total) of Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred DVD. Jillian Michaels is of “Biggest Loser” fame, where she kicks people’s butts who want to lose weight and whips them into shape in record time. She’s actually a really petite little thing, and she’s got guns that I’d love to have, not an inch of fat to spare, and a great set of abdominal muscles. The best thing though is that she knows how to motivate people.

She has a really easy way about her that makes you feel like you might have known her for years, and she also shares little tidbits of workout knowledge with you along the way which make you feel like what you’re doing is for a reason and will really work because it is so intense in a short amount of time – the segment runs about twenty minutes. She explains why circuit training, which is what she does on the 30 Day Shred, helps your body to simultaneously burn off fat and calories, while also getting lean muscle, which is a tricky part of dieting. Sometimes people try to bulk up with muscle work without really concentrating on the cardio part of everything, which makes them put on weight without getting the fat off first.

She also explains things like why she has your upper and lower body moving at the same time. She says that is because you get the maximum calorie burn when both your upper limbs and lower limbs are moving at the same time, as opposed to just one of the other at a time. She also focuses on the upper body probably more than she does the abs, which is good for most of us, especially women, because we usually don’t focus on this area enough and we do tend to have weaker upper body strength because of this.

What you do is alternate two minutes of cardio, which is butt kicks, jumping jacks and fake jump roping, with muscle workouts, which consist of a lot of squatting a lunging (I know, not my favorite either, but it’s highly effective, which is why most of us hate it – because it’s hard but it works), and a lot of upper body work such as pushups, combined with abdominal work like bicycles with the legs and straight up crunches.

The program of the 30 Day Shred is designed for you to start off on the level 1 workout for ten days, then go to level two for ten days, then finally onto the hardest level for the last ten days, to really get your metabolism revved and get maximum fat off the body as well as maximum calorie burning, so that you can really kick start your weight loss goals. My boyfriend and I decided we are going to follow through with the whole thirty days and see if it helps us to really kick our weight loss goals into overdrive. It’s tough stuff, but I felt really good and energized after I did level 1.

I have done the Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates DVD 3 times now, and I must say I really like it. Not only does it offer a very challenging pilates workout, but I also like the leader of the video. She’s easy to understand, doesn’t pace the video too fast or too slow, and she has put together three different segments of pilates in 10 minute workout phases, one for each of the biggest problem spots on women (and men, but pilates is primarily a woman driven exercise so far). The first ten minute segment is for the belly (abs), the second segment is for the butt, and the third part is for the thighs.

The abs one is great, with some really innovative techniques for working the obliques and the lower abs, which are incredibly hard to target and tone. Not only are they effective, and you will feel them the next day, but they are actually kind of fun to do, and the way she breaks them up so that you aren’t doing one of them for too long, you don’t get bored and you feel like it’s moving right along through the ten minute piece, so it seems to fly by in contrast to a grueling twenty minute, multiple repeat workout where you are exhausted and ready to move on by the end of it.

The second segment is for the butt. We all want to get a firmer, more shapely butt, and although some of these exercises I would say were more targeted for the thighs than the actual buttocks (at least that’s where I felt them, maybe I wasn’t entirely doing them correctly), my butt was on fire during certain parts. This also included some different ways to tone that I had never tried before, and I’ve tried quite a few exercise regimens and programs in my life since I’ve been working out since I was sixteen years old and am now 34 years old.

The next day, I have always felt a little sore from doing these, but after the third time I did it I felt less sore. The thighs part is also excellent, fast paced and highly effective in target toning the thighs. You have to be careful to position the parts of the body exactly as she instructs so you get the most bang for your buck though, for instance, if she wants you to point your feet, point them instead of flattening them, this accentuates that awesome part of pilates that helps you to streamline the body and make it appear longer and leaner. Also, as in yoga dvds, your breath is important, so make sure you are exhaling when she says to exhale and inhaling when she says to inhale. This also accentuates your results.

I have a Netflix account, and one of the cool things about them is that now you can watch some videos on demand, on your computer, and even some through your tv if you have an Xbox game system, including workout and exercise videos. The one I did the other day was one of the incredibly popular Crunch series of workout DVD’s, which was a Pilates Pick Your Spot, with three ten minute segments on it. The DVD was made in 2002, so it’s fairly recent.

The three spots you had to choose from, or you could do all three, were the butt, the belly, and thighs. Although the butt and thighs ones were very similar in the areas they worked, they were both pretty effective, especially for only being done in ten minute segments. I liked the effectiveness feeling I got from them and the instructor was easy to follow. The moves were not too complicated, although I did feel some of them were rushed due to the ten minute time restraint, and probably could have been held longer for more effectiveness.

After doing the Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates workout (I did all three segments in a row), I have to say that during the workout I only found a few of the exercises a real challenge, but the next day, I really felt it in my hip rotators, which rarely get that kind of workout, and also my butt was a little sore. I love when anything having to do with my butt or thighs is sore, because it makes me feel like I actually did something that’s working.

My next Crunch video that I’m trying is the Candle Light Yoga one, so I’ll have a review on that Crunch video as well when I try that one. So far, with the Crunch videos I’ve tried, I’m impressed with their ease of understanding, and the moves are not outrageously complicated. Also, they have pretty good instructors that aren’t overly enthusiastic and annoying, but are good enough to get the job done. For reviews of yoga DVD’s see yoga DVD reviews. Sometimes you do get the feeling they’re a bit robotic though, but their videos are usually short and sweet, so that doesn’t really matter since they’re not too time-intensive.

I recently purchased the exercise DVD called Love Your Legs online, and wanted to give you guys a review of it, even though most of the reviews I read on it gave a lot of info already, I still wanted to give you my own personal spin on what I think of this DVD. It’s not a very well known DVD right now as far as I know, although the fact that the renowned dermatologist and one of the cellulite authorities, Dr. Howard Murad, even appears on the DVD and gives his advice on how to get rid of cellulite.

I like this DVD for a couple of reasons. One, it doesn’t just focus on the exercises, which in my opinion are superior exercises that target my saddle bags and outer thighs like nothing else ever has. I’ve tried a lot too, so I know a little about outer and inner thigh exercises and how they need to be effective to work. To be effective at reducing saddle bags and also to target the specific areas that need the work, they have to be isolation exercises, and the proprietor of this DVD does this very well.

She focuses on a couple of things. She starts off telling us how we need to eat to reduce cellulite successfully, which is mostly common sense things like stay away from sugar, but she also mentions that antioxidant consumption is necessary so that we can destroy the toxins that help add to our cellulite and fat storage.

There is another section on fitness training for fat and cellulite reduction, and then she goes into the serious lunges and other lunge-like exercises that are modified to target the buttocks, backs of the thighs, and the fronts of the thighs and sides, all of which are woman’s worst problem areas, and the reasons we hate our legs many times.

I found the exercises to be extremely effective, and in fact, that first time I did them I couldn’t make it all the way through and was very sore for a few days. However, the next time was easier and I was able to make it through all of them. I love the fact that it makes the sides of my thighs burn, as no other exercise ever made it so that I could feel the burn in the actual area I was targeting.

You know it’s working when you feel that. She also goes over massage and stretching techniques, all of while I love. She demonstrates them as well. I think she’s got a hit on her hands, if she continues to market this DVD, since so many women are very self conscious about their thighs, buttocks, and other problem areas.

I purchased a DVD called “Love Your Legs” that is a video that is supposed to help with that dreaded female atrocity that all women hate called cellulite. Cellulite affects a large percentage of women – we’re talking above 95% most likely, so cellulite has been a target of the beauty industry for years, with new creams and products coming out all the time that are supposed to help reduce the appearance of cellulite – and many of them do make a little difference.

However, it is mostly diet and exercise that make the biggest difference when it comes to reducing the appearance of cellulite in the female body, and it starts with a healthy diet with no sugar (refined sugar, that is), high antioxidant levels and omega 3 fatty acids, and only lean proteins and lean foods that do not have high amounts of fat or salt in them. That means pretty much all fast food except for salads are pretty much out of the picture!

As far as this Love Your Legs DVD is concerned, the creator of the DVD does seem passionate about helping women get rid of their cellulite, which is a major self esteem buster for lots of women, some who won’t even don a bathing suit because of it’s unsightly bulging spongy appearance. She combines a nutritional information guide and appearance by renowned dermatologist Howard Murad with great exercises for the legs that will help tone and sculp out cellulite and minimize its appearance.

She also recommends other lifestyle changes and self manual massage with a moisturizing agent for two times a day for about five minutes in the cellulite affected areas to combat the unsightly stuff. Apparently a lot of cellulite’s appearance has to do with the fact that the areas it appears most have the littlest circulation and this minimal circulation contributes to the puckering of the skin and loss of elasticity.

The exercises and the foods recommended, as well as the manual self massage, are supposed to help stimulate that circulation and also help break apart the fat deposits that stop the spongy stuff. I did the exercises recommended, and boy let me tell you, I could not even get through the whole twenty minutes. It’s now two days later and my legs are still burning.

And I work out regularly, so this stuff must be effective to make my legs into spaghetti for two days! I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going with the Love Your Legs DVD.