SculptTonic

I recently got Sculpt Tonic from Total Fitness DVDs and was surprised by it: by how much I like it and by the fact I haven't heard much about it.

The DVD has two workouts on it, Change (led by Melanie Douglas) and Image (led by Tori Meacham). Apparently, there are a group of instructors putting out the Tonic workouts and they rotate which instructors lead which segments? I think Melannie Douglas is the leader in this group.

Each of the workouts on this DVD is around 30 minutes, is made up of four segments, and ends with a finale. The strength work is totally set to the music and seemed to me to be strength work with a dancey twist because it's so integrated with the music. They teach each segment and then take it from the top after teaching each segment. There are times when you end in a different direction than the beginning of the next segment and they are very good about showing you how to turn or segue to what is coming.

The music is pretty good. It is instrumental through the teaching part and then the finale is set to a song (Change and Image, hence the names). There is a modifier who shows easier versions during some of the blasts that follow the teaching of the dancey segments. During the segments themselves, they all do the same thing.

In the first workout, Change, I started with 5-pound weights and then went to 8 the second time I did it. Knowing that, I started with 8 pound weights with Image and dropped to 5 because they have some faster moves.

Totalfitnessdvds.com has a pretty good clip of it and you can get a good feel for it there. I know they sell it on Amazon. I have no idea if it's available on Collage.

This workout is a "strong like" for me, which is why I didn't choose the "Rave" prefix. It's a great workout on those mornings that I want light strength work set to motivating music. If you want a long and/or intense strength workout, don't choose this DVD!