Cindy Whitmarsh
This dvd has a 35 minute lower body workout and a 35 minute upper body workout. Each workout alternates one minute of cardio and one minute of LB or UB strength work.
For the LB you need one set of "heavy" dumbbells and maybe a mat. For the UB Cindy uses 2 sets of dumbbells: lighter and heavier. I used 3 sets: 8, 10, & 15 #db's.
She starts each cardio move with a lowimpact/ beginner modification of and then moves into the advanced move. So once familiar w/ the moves you could do the advanced from the get-go.
Cindy is working out alone in a nice set-hard wood floors with some fitness props in the background. Cindy is a great cuer but none of the moves are dancy or complicated. This workout def has an athletic feel-which I prefer.
She goes right from one minute into the next exercise so there is no resting or wasted time. She really makes the most of the 30ish minutes. With that said I was left wanting more. But the dvd is going to be available at amazon & DD for $10 (or so) and it has 2 35 minute w/o's on it so I wont complain. It also came with a 10 day healthy eating guide.
LB: I used my 15# dumbbells and felt I couldnt have gone heavier due to the pace. She isnt "fast" but too quick to really heavy up IMO. You could easily go heavier and skip some reps if you wanted to. She includes some ab moves at the end that I found effective.
Some of the moves were unique and effective, always a nice bonus. Some examples are: cutsey dips, lunge variations, squat variations, deadlift variations, hopping on leg, jumping back and forth over your dubbells, plank-knee pulls (kind of like Mt climbers), burpees (blowouts), punches while holding the dumbbells to work your abs, clamshell crunches while holding a dumbbell, etc.
UB: She does some unique and fun moves, including many compound moves. Bicep-overhead press, plank while doing rows, bicep-rotator cuff, jacks, cross country ski jumps, mt. climbers, and the like. She also does some ab work at the end.
I felt like the UB strength work was sligthly slower paced than the LB so I think you can go a bit heavier.
I agree w/ Collages rating of intermediate/ advanced. Some may disagree. Its def not a hardcore, puke in the bucket w/o. But I was worked out well for 15 min of cardio and 15 min of strength. I did, however, tack on another dvd to fill my time slot for the day.
Instructor comments:
Cindy is pleasant and knowledgable about health, fitness, and nutrition IMO. She is a good cuer and is helpful with form pointers throughout the workout.
lindseylu8
11-3-08
This is an amazing workout. It has two half-hour sections, one for upper body and one for lower body. Each section follows the same format, one-minute sections alternating a strength move with a cardio move. The cardio is mostly high-impact, but the set starts with a lower-impact modification.
The time flies by, and I got an amazing workout. As Cindy frequently reminds us, it's only one minute each, so this encouraged me to push myself. I used the 'slow' phase where the cardio is lower impact or the strength move is half-speed to try the harder-core modifications such as the push-ups on the toes.
The workout requires one lighter set of weights and one heavier set of weights, and Cindy always tells you which one to use. At around day 7, I demoted my heavy weights to being my light ones and upped the resistance for my heavy set. It was really rewarding to see myself progressing in this way.
I did ten straight days with this workout set (eleven days, including my rest day) and felt like I could have kept going. There was no dread at all. I plan to continue using it during my current rotation.
I am really pleased with this buy and heartily recommend it.
Instructor comments:
Cindy is a friendly and encouraging instructor who always knew when to say 'just ten more seconds!' and encourage you to push yourself. I will definitely look for other workouts in which she features.
Joanna
1/11/09
