Shape Magazine's Legs, Legs, Legs

I don't like this at all. It begins with a warmup that's so hard to follow you might as well just make up your own. Then there are three leg workouts.

The first uses a band (included with the video). I'm not into bands, so I used ankle weights. It was okay, but not very exciting.

The second workout is a ballet workout, which I thought sounded really good -- in fact, that's the major reason I bought the video. But I found it to be not a very good workout at all. It challenges your balancing skills somewhat, but doesn't do much for strength or toning.

The last section is really a couple of different things. You start off by doing some "power skips" and a couple of other moves. It's good for strengthening, but boring. And you need quite a bit of room as well. Then you go into a very short step workout.

If you're looking for a leg workout, there are a lot of other tapes better than this one, such as the FIRM's Standing Legs and Floor Legs tapes, and also Buns of Steel.

This video is a couple of different things, none of which are truly outstanding. I've never done the warm up, since there seems to be a lot of time between each section, so it just always seems easier to tack on a section with another work out.

The first section is a band work out, which I dislike greatly. The band they include is so small and tight I can't work through a decent range of motion. I understand it provides the resistance but it is so inflexible and short it is hard to use. Without the band, these are just standard toning moves. The instructor is okay, seems friendly and offers some tips on the moves. However, the bands bug me to the point that I don't like her because she obviously seems to really like the dopey bands.

Next is a ballet workout, which for all its shortcomings, is not bad. The instructor is good, and actually looks like a normal woman and not some willowy, ultra-slender ballerina. She also has friendly presence, not at all snobby and full of herself like Herman was in Muscle Ballet. The moves are decent intro to ballet, and Colleen offers a good amount of instruction for them. However, there aren't enough different moves and the section isn't long enough to provide definite shaping benefits. It would be nice if she did a ballet toning tape. She obviously has a lot of knowledge, instructs with a natural style and offers a lot of encouragement. It was nice to see her interact and praise her students.

The last section has this intro where a speed skater talks about power and demos some power moves, which are only done for a few reps, and take up too much space for my apartment. There is demo of squats and lunges. There is a 20 minute step work out with impact options. The instructor seems kind of shrill but the beach setting is pretty and the moves are okay, pretty standard, but for 20 minutes, its not a bad work out to tack on to another one to add to your aerobics. There is a stretch following that which is decent.

Overall, the video has some problems that the highlights can't overcome. The segments all seem disjointed and thats not conducive to doing the video as one leg busting workout. The ballet segment is good but too short to really benefit from it. The step workout is okay but nothing special. And there is an awful lot of filler in the last segment. The band workout is uncomfortable using the band since its so small and too easy without it. It is well produced, but there are so many better leg videos out there I find it hard to really reccomend this one.