Women's Health Ultimate Fat Burn

I got this one from the library and have done it once. I won't go really heavy on the break down, but I'll give my general impressions.

Upon preview I felt the warm up would be kind of tedious because although only 5-6 minutes long, you do all the moves on one side and then all the moves on the other side which to me is usually a recipe for boredom. When I actually did the workout it seemed to move quite quickly though. It was all fairly basic and low impact cardio moves. There were no static stretches which I liked.

The actual workout consists of four blocks-- two strength and two cardio. The strength moves were done at a mildly aerobic pace. You will need to use just one set of weights-- no time for changing. I used 5 pounds, which really isn't heavy enough to make it a true strength workout-- it may work for muscular endurance. Amy has you do some lower body moves then adds in upper body movements. For example, you start with squats and she then adds bicep curls or you do lunges and add rear delt raises. In the first strength block she has you go through the strength moves 4 times. In the second block I'm pretty sure it is only twice. Actually, I think it is repeat 4 times for the first cardio, and twice for the second cardio block. The first cardio block is a little lower impact and intensity. In the second block she adds some ski hops and a few burpees. All in all, I'd rate it intermediate in intensity.

This is a good workout for a day when you want something short and don't have a super high energy level(the whole thing clocks in at about 35 minutes and there is little wasted time).

Set is warehouse type place with brick walls. The music is not particularly memorable.

Pros: I really like the actual workout. Amy does two strength segments and two cardio segments. The strength segments are compound, like deep squats plus hammer curls, front raises and back lunges, side steps with rhomboid pinches. The cardio includes advanced bursts, like the double ski into plyo lunges, the side to side jumps (as if you're on the slopes), and a few burpees. Also low-impact jacks into jacks and then plyo jacks.

The second cardio is "kickboxing" but not really - you do some front kicks, then some roundhouses (the form the women exhibit on those is pretty bad, IMHO) but NO punches.

It definitely raised a sweat for this advanced exerciser - high intermediate with some advanced moments.

CONS: The workout was little more than half an hour! A third circuit would have made it just about right.

The whooping - if the Crunch gals annoyed you, these gals will too. They seem to whoop and laugh at EVERYTHING Amy says. She's got a wry sense of humor but geez, you'd think she was Billy Crystal. Fortunately the whooping is not too loud thanks to whatever sound system, but it's there.

Occasionally she is off beat with the music, though not consistently enough to be a deal-killer. She often counts "4..3...2...1" oddly, so that I wouldn't quite be ready to go at "1."

Neutral: The set was nice enough. Exposed brick and industrial light bulbs. A stylish warehouse-house look. The music is sort of like Dynamix, but with violins, if that makes sense.