The Bathing Suit Workout

The Bathing Suit Workout is one video in a series of four collectively called the Definition series. Of the four, I like this one the least. It consists of 3 20-minute lower body workouts. But it is the same workout repeated 3 times. I guess that's okay, but it's a little wierd. That's not why I don't care for the tape, though. I don't care for it because the exercises don't really offer me anything new. When I keep doing a weight-training tape, it's because it either has some type(s) of exercise my other tapes don't have, or else the exercises are presented in a different (and interesting) way than my other tapes. This one doesn't fit the bill for me.

The exercises here include floor work, squats, lunges, and abs, all done at a very fast pace. Sometimes Joyce's form makes me cringe. Other times I'm not even sure what muscle I'm supposed to be working. I am an advanced exerciser -- I would hate to think of a beginner trying to make sense of this. Joyce offers no instruction, really, you're just supposed to look at her and know what to do. Maybe she assumes you've read her books. As much as I like Joyce, I have to rank this video a D. But the other tapes in the series are much better.

This is a great lower body tape. It has a series of ten sets that pair one exercise each for hips/buttocks, legs and abs. In the book, you can do the first 7 sets 3 times for a basic workout, and all ten for an advanced workout. She changes the format for the video: now, you do one set of all 10 for beginner, then repeat one more set of all 10 for intermediate, and then repeat the whole thing once more for an advanced workout. I am very familiar with Joyce's other books and tapes and had no trouble following along, but a complete newcomer would probably be better with a tape that offers more detailed instruction. Joyce, for example, will say something like ok, now we are doing oblique crunches, and launch right in to them. If you don't know how to do it, you'll miss the first few reps as you watch. Also, this tape does not offer an upper body component, so you'll need to get another tape for that.

Joyce Vedral's Bathing Suit workout starts off with a very small amount of stretching(side stretches, back and chest stretches, side twists) to no music. Music starts and it is divided into 3 rounds each with 10 giant sets. She does 15 reps for each leg and 15 reps for ab work. The reps are fast! Each giant set has 3 exercises; 2 for the hips/thighs/butt and 1 for the abs. The first exercise is side leg lifts, lying inner thigh lifts and then alternating oblique's ab work then she gives you 15 second rest and you move on to the next giant set which is another floor leg exercise where you kick your leg back and then you do another exercise for the hamstrings on the floor and then she finishes the giant set with ab work crunches. Each giant set focuses on inner/outer thigh, butt and abs. Most of the exercises are done on the floor but she also does wall squats, alternating lunges regular squats and hack squats and so on. She uses a light dumbbell (looks like 3lbs in each hand)and she recommends increasing the weight on each section. The set is the CIA set(Creative Instructors Aerobics). The music is by Musicflex which has a constant beat and no lyrics. She is teaching solo. The reps aren't done to the beat of the music. One thing I noticed is that she videotaped the first giant set section and then just used the same filmage for section 2 and 3. The only difference is that she uses different music. But all her comments are exactly the same. If you do all 3 sections, it's like you repeated section 1, three times. I wish she had increased the weights and did new videotaping for section 2 and 3. She has a very smiling and happy attitude and looks great for 56 years old. She is wearing a coral colored tank top and exercise shorts.