Jay Johnson Bootcamp 9-Week System

DVDs and Rotation:

This is a 9 DVD set that includes a rotation that lasts 9 weeks. There are 3 phases of workouts (each phase lasts 3 weeks), and each phase has 3 DVDs. You workout 5 days/week. Each DVD covers one week of a particular phase, and the menu of each DVD looks like this:

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Customizable

So if you follow the rotation calendar, you just pop in the DVD for the week/phase you are in, and choose which day you are on from the menu, and your entire workout plays for you. Each phase includes the following workouts:

Prep

Legs

Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Back/Biceps

Cardio

Abs

Recovery

So, you actually are getting 7 unique workouts per phase (if you count prep/recovery) - except that the back/biceps workouts in phase 1 and 2 are the same (in phase 3 you get a new back/biceps workout).

During the particular phase you are in, you do only these workouts thoughout, but you combine them in different ways. So you basically use the same workouts for one 3 week period, just in a different order. For example, on one day, you might do Prep, Abs, Cardio, and Recovery. On the next day, you might do Prep, Back/Biceps, Cardio, and Recovery. On each DVD, you can also customize your workout and play any of the workouts in any order, back to back, which is nice.

Review of some of the specifics of the workouts themselves:

Counting: I know a lot of people have concerns about the counting being annoying. In the first phase, they count more than in the other phases. In the 2nd and 3rd phases, you do a lot more timed sets, and those are not counted for you. You just do as many as you can in the alloted time. It actually doesn't bother me at all, although I can't stand it in Tae Bo tapes I used to do.

Instructors: I think Jay and Lin are kinda funny, and they seem sincere to me. They talk a lot though, so if this is something that bothers you, it will probably bother you here.

Form: During the timed pyramids (see below), the demonstrators are doing things pretty fast. Sometimes, form suffers...for example, the ladies don't go down very far when they are doing pushups (but I think it's because they are just trying to go so fast). If bad form bothers you, it will probably bother you in some of the workouts.

Speed of the exercises: Sometimes even when they aren't doing timed pyramids, they go a little too fast (although not often). During the phase 1/2 back/biceps workout, the speed is too fast and it really bothers me.

Types of exercises/sets: This is what I really like about this set, for the most part. There are max rep sets, which I am not used to. I usually do workouts in which there are a set number of reps and you just do what the instructor does. In this workout, for example, they'll give you 45 seconds and just tell you to do as many as you can. There is also another technique called timed pyramids...for example, you'll do 10 pushups, 10 bicycle crunches...then 9 pushups, 9 bicycle crunches...all the way down to 1 of each, then you're done.

Workout lengths/setup: Even though you combine the workouts each day, you usually don't work out for more than an hour total (most times, it's less). The individual workouts that make up the day's total workout time are pretty short (the longest cardio is 20-something minutes, for example).

Intensity: I do Cathe regularly, but I am not an Insanity/really high intensity grad. I find these plenty intense, and leave me breathless sometimes. The leg workouts and cardio workouts include lots of plyo work.

I am enjoying this set and liking the differences b/t this set and most of the other workouts I have. It definitely has a non-polished feel, with the demonstrators not doing things in sync most times, and Jay/Lin kinda mess up and have to ask which exercise is next, etc. But I am not minding it so far. The music is military-style beats, and you don't work to the beat at all.

Hope that helps anyone who is considering these. There are 4 individual DVDs that were released in retail and contain a lot of these workouts, but not all of them.