Ultimate Circuit Training

Type: Circuit

Length: 55 min

Set: Burnt orange Southwestern theme

Music: barely noticeable

Background exercisers: One male, one female

Difficulty: Intermediate

What a DVD!! Premixes galore:

The Complete Workout

Combo workout with step and ball

BLT on a ball

Circuits a la Carte

Just Cardio

Just Strength

Just Abs

Lower Body

Upper Body

The Complete workout consists of 9 circuits including the warmup and cooldown.

Warmup 5:30

Over the Top 9:15

Heavy Weight 7:30

Alternating Box Cardio 6:45

Lighter Weights 6:45

Tick Tock 7:30

Abs on the step 6:00

Buns and Legs on the step 3:45

Cooldown 3:45

The first circuit is cardio. She names the circuits and this one is called "Over the Top". It is done on the step and has a lot of over the top moves. Next is a heavy strength circuit (Heavy? Karen?? Yes!) Karen uses 10 pounds. Here's what she does:

Squats

Double arm lat rows

Bent over Rows

Bicep Curls

Delt raise with bent arm

Deadlifts

Pushups with knees on step

Flys

Skull crushers

The next cardio is also step it's a lot of variations on the box step.

The strength circuit following is light weight, Karen uses 5 pounds:

Kickbacks with bicep curl (one arm does one thing, the other the other thing)

Superset for shoulders: rear raise, front raise, side raise, military press

Lunges with front leg on step

Rotator cuff

The last cardio circuit is called "Tick Tock". It consists of two combos and includes a charleston/kick, turn straddles, hop down the step, jacks. The second combo has the "tick tocks", which are the same as Cathe's pendulum move.

Next is abs on the step. Not one of Karen's more inspired ab routines. Its done with your step on an incline and starts out with crunches. Then she does crunches with one leg up and bent, up and bent. Then you keep your leg up there and reach for it side to side to work the obliques. Next is a leg lift that works the inner thigh and lower abs, followed by reverse curls. Good enough, but certainly not killer.

The last segment is a short butt/leg routine on the step. Lying prone on the step, with legs slightly bent, raise and lower both legs. Next is ham curls, donkey kicks and single leg raises. And you're done! If this routine gives me a butt like Karen's, I promise to do it faithfully every day. I'm not switching teams or anything, but DANG the woman has a killer bod!!

Last is a cooldown, and I never do those, so I'm not reviewing it. How selfish of me.

The other thing on this DVD is BLT on a ball. Now, I am getting pretty hungry on this long train ride, and a BLT sounds pretty good to me right now, even if I have to eat it off of a ball. Now I don't usually like warm-ups, but this is a blast. You are basically playing with the ball!! Side lunges while you roll the ball side to side. Side to sides keeping the ball tagging along with you. You have to reach down to touch it, so it stretches your sides nicely. Then Karen and the other exerciser (only one in this workout) sit and bounce on the ball!!! Be still my heart! A workout where I finally get to bounce on it. Truly awakens my inner Tigger. Karen looks like she is sitting on an enormous pearl. Her ball is a whole lot gooshier than mine is tho.. Hm, note to self…

Ab work has rollups, crunches, oblique crunches, lying side oblique crunches, pikes. Leg segment has you lying prone on the ball and lifting your torso, leg lifts on the ball, DOUBLE leg raises on a ball (my family would be hearing the thunk on that one..) Legs apart and in, swimmers and then on to the floor on your back for butt lifts with the Green Genie Ball between your knees.

I am really pleased with this DVD. The premixes are awesome and I can see myself using this a lot. And she FINALLY did some heavy(er) weight work. YAY Karen!!!

Grade: A

This is a very high quality DVD, comprised of BLT on a ball and Cardio Strength. The DVD is very well-chaptered, offering premixed segments such as upper body only, abs only, cardio only, etc, similar to a Cathe DVD. I've only done the just cardio (29 min) option and it was a great add on. Easier choreography without being boring, and NO taking it from the top. Just for background, I'm an advanced exerciser who works out nearly exclusively with Cathe and I was looking for something a notch less intense and easier on the joints, and I found what I was looking for with this one. Definitely a keeper.

This DVD contains footage from the following VHS titles:

• CardioStrength
• BLT on the Ball

Karen's DVD version of these workouts gives you 3 complete, programmed workouts:

cardio (step) with strength training
cardio (step), strength, and stability ball conditioning
core conditioning and stretching on the ball

There are also five pre-programmed shorcut routines.

DVD-specific reviews:

This DVD contains "Cardio/Strength" and "B.L.T. Butt, Legs and Tummy on a Ball." I had Cardio/Strength as a tape, and it just didn't work for me. I loved the cardio portions, but the strength circuits just didn't fit very effectively with the cardio circuits. I always ended up frustrated, and I traded it away because I never did it.

The DVD solves the circuit problem. Not only does it contain the two workouts separately, it also combines them in some interesting combos, and offers some pre-made alternative workouts: "Just Cardio," "Just Strength," "Just Abs," "Lower Body," "Upper Body" and "Circuits a la Carte." I used "Just Cardio" this morning, and the three cardio circuits lined up together make for a very fun and challenging 30 minute step routine. I tacked on an abs circuit and a stretch for a good time crunch workout. There are lots of possibilities with this DVD.