Horizontal Conditioning Bootcamp
Reviews from VideoFitness
ABOUT ME: Advanced exerciser. Generally use Cathe, Insanity, Asylum, P90X, run, tennis, TRX. I love to be challenged. I really like body weight exercises, pushups, pullups, plank work. I'm bored of weight workouts.
ABOUT THE WORKOUT: (Note - this is my first time trying a Horizontal Conditioning workout). This workout does cycles of body weight strength (plank) training intermixed with high impact cardio drills. The focus is on strength (mostly upper body) and core work. The cardio keeps your heart rate up (and gives your upper body a much needed rest) but I wouldn't call this a cardio workout (the way a step workout is a cardio workout). Out of the 67 minutes, I spent 15 in my zone. Admittedly, as I get stronger, I think my time in my target HR zone will increase. The workout is mostly push ups and planks. Most of the exercises use gliding disks and the step. I highly recommend a yoga mat to put on top of your step (I don't have one, but I'm going to get one for this workout).
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE WORKOUT: OMG! This workout KICKED MY A$$ ! It is an ADVANCED workout. It's for the exerciser that likes planks, likes pushups, likes to be sweating. I started with this one because everyone said it was one of the hardest HC workouts. I am humbled. I would say I did about 3/4 of the reps she does (maybe even less). If you can't do push ups, I don't think this workout is for you. There is so much upper body challenge to this. Many of the moves are new to me. It's unlike anything else out there. I think it is very similar to the workout you get using a suspension trainer. Very core and upperbody focused. I am excited to start doing these regularly and see my improvement. There's lots of room for improvement !!!
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE DVD QUALITY: The visual quality of the DVD is not as crisp as a Cathe DVD (or other professionally produced workout). Sandra appears a little blurred on my screen. The music is fine and the sound volume and quality is fine (I'm not picky about this, however). The quality is just fine for doing the workout. It is not at all distracting that she is a tad blurred. Really, you aren't looking at her most of the time. Your head is in a neutral position while you do the workout. But, I thought I would mention it because some people are picky about this.
OVERALL : This one is a winner. I've already bought volume 4 (but haven't done it yet). I'm planning to get 1-3 this week. I would think that I will eventually buy all of her hard core and 101 workouts. I may wait until I get a few weeks in to using the volume 1-4 and bootcamp. I am very excited about using these regularly and getting stronger.
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE INSTRUCTOR: Sandra is awesome. She is very even tempered and pleasant. There's no yelling and really not a ton of encouraging. She just tells you what to do and then she miraculously does it. ALL OF IT, e v e r y freaking rep (darn her). It's all very matter of fact. There's a smile on her face and it's genuine. Cueing is fine and explanations of moves are good (though on the first time through I did watch her demo and then rewind to join in). Everything was very easy to follow (but not necessarily to do ). I liked her backgrounders but I wasn't watching the screen a ton. My head was in a neutral position as she kept instructing me to do.