Prevention: Get Moving

This workout is similar to Prevention Personal Training, with it's different segments and the option of a premixed weekly rotation on 1 DVD. The segments are cardio, yoga, upper body, and lower body. It's more of a beginner level than Personal Training though. And there's only 1 cardio segment available, so you do the same cardio day after day after day if you're using the premixes. I gave this one away because I prefer Personal Training because of its variety.

This dvd has several sections on it which you can choose individually, or do in a pre-set order using a built-in rotation. You can select 20 minutes a day or 30 minutes a day and there is a pre-mix for each day of the week. There is unfortunately no blender feature to make your own combinations (the very similar Personal Training dvd also by Chris Freytag does have that feature). However, you can return to the main menu at any time to choose a new section.

The rotations were very well balanced, and I like that flexibility work was included several times a week. However, as with any dvd of this type, the weakness will be that you won't like all the sections as much so as a proper rotation where you do the prescribed section each day, its usefulness will be hampered. There was only one cardio routine, for example, and it turned up numerous times in the week. I came to dread it. One could sub in something different, of course, but then you would not have the convenience and the benefit of the pre-set plans from one disk.

The cardio section was a fairly standard walking-based hi-lo routine. Chris follows the "take it from the top" teaching style where the moves are taught add-on style: you start with one or two things, add something new, then 'take it from the top' and start the whole thing over again. By the end of the 15-minute routine, you've done the initial sections quite a lot of times, and it does get a little boring. TIFTT works for me when the choreography is hard, but for fairly basic walking-type moves, it was a little much.

The different sections were well put together. The walk was about 15 minutes. It was nice to get some variety after using only Leslie walks in the past. There were three little combos featuring basic moves. You learn a few moves, add on, take it from the top (I know some people hate that!) and then learn a new combo. Then you take it from the top again! On the plus, I did learn the routine very well this way. On the other hand, I learned it maybe too well. By the third day, I knew what was coming at every moment and it just made the walk feel very long and tedious. This would be a nice light day or coming back from illness (as I was) but I don't think I would choose this very often over my other walking video options.

The toning sections (upper body, lower body, core) were eight minutes each and featured a series of moves done for one set each, one after the other. Generally, she started each with two-count up and down, then moved to a faster speed for about 10 reps. One set of ten might not be enough for most people. If you just want to cover the basics or if you are just starting out, it's probably fine. The sections are short enough too that if you want to make your own routines as opposed to following the pre-set plan you could repeat them for a two or three set giant-set format.

The yoga section (10 minutes) was just wonderful, the perfect length for my attention span and abilities. The very flexible will surely find it much too easy, but yoga is hard for me and I found this routine extremely approachable and manageable. I have since used this section as an add-on to other workouts. I can see myself doing it a lot and it alone made this dvd worth it for me.

I don't think that in the future, I will use this dvd the way it is intended as a full rotation. That cardio is just too tedious with all its taking from the top. But I can see it being a nice little split routine: do the warm-up, pick a strength section and do it twice, do the cool-down, then end with some yoga and you'd have a nice little half hour. It would be nice if there was a blender feature to make this a little easier to set up, though.

Overall? The menu with the pre-mixes is a great concept, and Chris does no worse with it than anyone else has. I have yet to find a disk like this that really does meet all my rotation needs. I liked the strength work though, and the yoga was wonderful, so for me, this was a good buy. If you are the type who enjoys mixing and matching multiple quick fix, ten minute solution and other type short workouts, you may enjoy this one.