B.L.T.: Butt, Legs & Tummy on a Ball

In an attempt to find something other than Yoga and pilates for my stability ball, I happened upon this one and I must say I am quite happy that I picked it up. With Karen's gentle demeanor and no-nonsense style - I enjoy this one more and more each time I do it.

The focus of the workout is on Butt, Legs, and Tummy (hence the BLT). The DVD is chaptered into sections for each of those three parts and a stretch section (which I admit I enjoy most of all).

I would say that this workout is probably a low intermediate level and I definitely feel it as I go through the workout.

If you are looking for something with more traditional floor exercises, that incorporates the ball - I hightly recommend this one.

I thought this DVD was a good introduction to the exercise ball. It's short, a little over 20 minutes, but the expalnations are thorough, and it's lots of fun. Karen seems very knowledgeable, and the exercises she presents seem both safe and effective.

I enjoyed this video, but it is very short. Of the 20 minutes, only about 10 of them were spent on toning exercises. It is a great tape to add on to a short workout, but I don't think that I will be using it by itself. There was a nice stretch with the ball at the end of the video.

I don't feel this tape can really stand alond as a workout. I used it as a warm up and it was fine for that purpose but it's simply too short and incomplete to accomplish a whole lot. The whole tape is only just over 20 minutes long. There's a nice warm up and a relaxing cool down stretch but that leaves about 10 minutes for the actual workout which consists of about five minutes each of abdominal and leg exercises.

Voight's instruction is as good as always and the workout is fun - although not a whole lot of fun. The tape might provide a non-threatening introduction to the ball for a beginner -- the exercises are not particularly challenging and the balancing is pretty easy. For those really rushed days it might provide that just-a-little-something to make you feel you're still in the groove, especially if you need something easy for a change.

A comparison with Suzanne Deason's Balance Ball tapes seems in order since they are also about 20 minutes and are also not super challenging. The design of Deason's workouts seems more imaginative and they have a nicer flow. Of course Deason didn't try to do it all in own tape. I would like to see Voight do a longer ball workout someday.

And I'm being picky, picky I know, but I find the title awkward.

This review comes to you from a longtime exerciser in her 50s who remains willfully upper intermediate.