Hi everyone,
I have only previewed (taking detailed notes) 3 of the 7 DVDs in this set and I can already say that this is David Kirsch's best work ever.
In fact, it has already moved into my top 10 workouts or workout sets of all time.
I intend to post detailed outlines of each DVD once I have completed my previews. I just wanted to let all David Kirsch fans (and those that should be..LOL) know how great this set is.
The set seems expensive at $75.99 for 7 30 minute DVDs, but in this case, the total package is really greater than a sum of it's parts.
The rotation is meant to be used like this:
Day 1 - Legs, Butt & Abs
Day 2 - Chest & Triceps
Day 3 - Power Body (Fusion of Pilates, yoga and David's own functional core moves.)
Day 4 - Back & Butt
Day 5 - Shoulders & Biceps
Day 5 - Cardiosculpting Bootcamp
Day 7 - Restorative Stretch
It is not a 30 or 90 day program and thus does not use periodization like P90X, CLX or STS.
This set is appealing beacuse there is no requirement for a long term commitment, although I will be doing 4 week rotations using this set.
It is important to note that both the website and the opening DVD screen call "Shoulders & Biceps"....Shoulders & Arms. The actual DVD has Shoulders & Triceps printed on it. This mistake is serious and I hope they fix it. David welcomes you to this workout by saying it is "Shoulders & Biceps". I am glad as Helen Kirsch did tell me the upper body was perfectly balanced when I called in my order. I would not want a set that worked triceps twice and ignored biceps!
The tone of the workouts is generally geared to women who want to lean out and gain definition without mass.
So far, the only equipment used has been 3 sets of dumbbells (light, medium and heavy) and one resistance tube with handle. The weights used are very light. They look to be 3, 5 and 8 pounds.
I have never written a "real" review so I will have to study others before I post the individual DVD reviews.
The set is gorgeous. It is filmed indoors at his NYC Madison club in a huge studio. There are exposed brick walls, glass block and stainless steel accents, hardwood floors, warm lighting, a huge window with a light filtering screen, beautiful groupings of real plants in two corners and an expensive Persian style rug on the floor.
In some workouts, the rug is in the background. It is actually used as a mat for floorwork.
The production quality is perfection. I cannot find a single fault with it.
The instruction, form pointers and motivation from David is superb. This is the type of workout where he works with the participants more than he works out himself in order to focus on meticulous form pointers.
David talks endlessly of the mind-body connection and refers to keeping your mind in the muscle you are working.
I do have to say that the usual David Kirsch arrogant talk and appearance related talk is endless. I do not have a problem tuning it out because the workouts are so amazing. He does not say "Distinctively David" as much as prior releases but he still says it at least once per workout. He says things like "There is no cheating David.", "David loves pulses.", etc.
If appearance talk ruins a workout for you - stay away. I cannot count the number of times David says "you will look so good in that bikini", "perkier pecs", "bikini butt", "you are getting leaner, longer, tighter, higher, toner", etc. Yes, he actually makes up the word "toner" or "toneder"!
It takes a really special workout to make me not care about this type of thing! But, it is not new. Squeeze(s) is full of appearance talk and I love Tracy Effinger too!
I wanted to be very sure to warn people who are put off by this sort of thing.
The strengths as you will see in the breakdowns are the fresh approach, many fresh exercises, functional emphasis, great variety, unique effective sequencing, addition of balance, use of almost every intensifying technique I can think of (giant sets, drops sets, pre-exhaust, plyos, muscle confusion, pulses, isometric holds, etc.).
This set is so perfect for me because 1) the glutes have the most training volume, 2) less weight and higher reps are used for lower body while the upper body workouts are more traditional but unique. I have a hard time finding upper body workouts that are not overkill (Cathe) and that are well balanced and well sequenced. "Chest & Triceps" fits the bill as a pretty much perfect upper body split routine IMHO.
More later....but I just had to RAVE since I think I am the only one who ordered this set.
Deb