Jessica Smith Strong + Centered Reviews and Feedback

[Mickey12]

I ordered the bundle but so far I have only received Stretch and Relax and Split Sessions Strength. I was assuming since I bought the bundle that they would arrive in the same package. I should receive the remaining discs on Tuesday.

I did the upper body split and wasn't really in love with it. I kept thinking if she just sped up the moves or did both arms at the same time I could be done with the workout so much quicker.

Today I did the lower body split and I really liked it. I groaned out loud, though, when she said we were doing the opening sets of exercises THREE times. I really don't like repetition. But after that she didn't use the same format and only repeated some moves twice and some moves were only done once. I felt like the 45 minutes flew by and the workout didn't feel brutal, but I felt worked.

I also did the bonus core section which I thought was just ok. She does a series of exercises and then mentions if you want to quit now, it's a good time and then proceeds do to the entire set of exercises again. Did I mention that I hate repetition?

I'm looking forward to the other routines in this set.

[yogapam]

So far I’ve done….
~Total Body Circuit: 38 min
~Split Sessions: Upper Body
~Total Body Strength Training: 31 min
~Stretch & Relax: Release, Relax, & Recover
~Walk a 5Km: Steady walk

I’ve enjoyed all of them!

[nschultz]

I ordered the 5k walk and stretch DVD’s. The walk 5k is my new FAVORITE! Both walks clocked in at 3 miles on my Apple Watch and I love Jessica’s new choice of miss. I’m contemplating the glide DVD but not sure I’d get enough use out of it.

[donnamp]

My notes on Total Body 48:

- I love the scenery/setting!
- The music was a little quiet, but that is not a bad thing - it helped to hear her cues and be more focused on her form pointers. What i heard, I liked though. I also do tend to turn my volume down when I workout anyway...so that may also have been a factor in the sound
- This is different, to me, from what she has done in the past w/ strength workouts. I felt this was much slower paced - which is not a bad thing at all. For me, many of her other strength workouts move too quickly and can result in injury in attempting to keep up. I have learned over time to just slow everything down to my pace anyway...but it was nice to see her move more slowly and carefully.
- There was adequate time to change weights if you needed to - another benefit to moving slowly.
- Good mix of exercises - options for using different piece of equipment, step, chair, etc.
- The time did fly by for a 48 min workout - so for someone like me, who does not love strength workouts - this was a good thing.
- I went light - I could go up for some exercises in the future.
- She did a number of exercises in a forward leaning posture - but you could definitely stand more upright if that works best for you.

Overall - so far so good! it was low dread and I would do it again.

[rhbrand]

Man I now want these so bad!

I wish Amazon had the DVDs in stock cause I'd order in a hot minute.
I'm not doing the downloadables cause it would take hour upon hour to get them with my slow AF internet.

[geojill]

Originally Posted by rhbrand

Man I now want these so bad!

I wish Amazon had the DVDs in stock cause I'd order in a hot minute.
I'm not doing the downloadables cause it would take hour upon hour to get them with my slow AF internet.

Keep checking because the stock keeps getting replenished. I finally ordered and received mine after checking availability a few times. I am not going to do them now, but did not want to miss out on the opportunity to have them on dvd when I am ready to do the workouts.

[katalina]

I did Relax from Stretch & Relax this morning. Lovely, gentle stretching!!

[Pam61]

Today I did the Total Body Strength Training 48 minute Total Body workout and loved it! That Peanut pillow in the chair is adorable, and I teared up in the end when I saw Jessica had dedicated this workout to Peanut! I started with 8 lbs. and changed down to 5 lbs. after those compound moves of squats, curls and presses. At a later date I will keep the weight needed close by to grab heavier for rows and squats. I used my Fanny Lifter when she did the pushups on the floor, as I wasn't feeling like knocking myself out today. Back has been hurting the last few days and I'm still dealing with frozen shoulder (so have to stay light for most overhead moves) and modify pushups to suit me.

This is such a good workout and I liked the music, too! Jessica was her lovely, motivating self and pacing was just right for everything that she did in this workout! As promised, this Total Body workout covers everything. I also liked the core, bridge, inner thigh work, and gentle stretch to wrap things up on the floor.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite sets that Jessica has released and I've only done this DVD and the Gliding one, LOL! Beautiful set, great happy vibe, well thought out routines! I'm really enjoying what I've done so far and very pleased!

[JENILU]

I've done very little til after I get my block Friday, but y'all have me even excited to do the things I planned on skipping, or atleast was less excited about. I am so happy with this, even tho I thought I may be a little upset to not have the 3 options of people to follow (I don't know why I like that so much, I usually either follow Jessica or do my own thing because I usually don't like what other modifiers do. I guess it just reminds me I can).

Rambles (noone has to read, tried to keep it separate, lol) I don't know how people just go to their garage (or whatever) and workout. I would ho out there lost. I am 47 and started following vhs and I think ESPN workouts(?) when I was very young. then very physical jobs, and when I came back to it, vhs, DVD and now youtube. I am lost doing anything by myself. I have joined gyms for short periods and fail if they don't have a class or something to go to inside. People that can do it, its wonderful, I just don't have that minds, and Jessica has been such a big help to me in my fitness over the years because she has remained so doable/followable- and speaks in a language where I totally get what to do. (I am the same way outside. I was not brought up in the country and hubby can go outside and see 1000 things that need to be done. I want to be that way, but i go outside and am kinda lost, unless my Lucy needs to be walked or explore with her. And yes, I dream of having a garden and beautiful plants, am just lost trying)

[adawn]

Walk A 5K - Fast Walk (incl. w/u & active recovery)

58 min long (that includes the approx 7 min warmup series and approx 7 min active recovery series).

Just over 4400 steps. As I mentioned in my Steady Walk review, there are not many steps registered during the warmup and active recovery sections so this explains why I didn't get my usual 100 steps per 10 minutes unless you only count the main walk.

So to recap:

Steady State Walk is 65 min long with w/u & recovery or 50 min for just the main walk. I registered just over 5200 steps doing the full 65 min.

Fast Walk is 58 min long with w/u & recovery or 44 min for just the main walk. I registered just over 4400 steps doing the full 58 minutes.

Impressions:

-I didn't like the walk as much as Steady Walk--I think partly due to lack of lyrics in the music. I will try the workout again though on another day, without the music expectation, and now having kind of figured out the format of the workout and the different level options. Still though, if I'm going to be working out/walking with Jessica for about an hour (which is long for me for a walking workout), I'd rather be doing the walk on the dvd that was fun for me (Steady Walk). And I seemed to average the same number of steps per minute for both main workouts.

-Music was just okay. Not memorable and NO LYRICS in any of the songs as opposed to Steady Walk which did have some songs with lyrics. But, at least it did not repeat any music that I could tell from her other walk dvds and had a decent vibe and beat at times. And I assume the BPM of the music had to change for the various paces in the workout, so that might be more difficult to do with a song with lyrics?

-Format of the workout: There were 8 or 9 sets of Steady Pace/Power Pace/Push Pace*. I believe there was a bell when Power Pace began and then after Push Pace ended for each set. But it was not a HIIT workout. Even during the Push Pace sections when Jessica is demonstrating the highest energy/impact option, Jessica could still talk/instruct and said we should be able to talk as well and that after the workout we should feel like we still have energy left for the rest of the day (or something like that).

-No new moves, but I do a lot of Jessica walks so I'm not surprised. The walking in a circle during a couple steady pace sections was about the only thing that felt newish. She does circle walks in other workouts but this was purely just walk in a circle in one direction, kind of leaning in toward the center of the circle (assuming you don't get dizzy).

-I mostly stuck with the base moves pretty much all the way through since I'm not in that great of shape right now and that worked out just fine for me, but Jessica does demonstrate various options/levels. Now that I've done the workout once, I think I can make the workout work for me a little better next time.

-Weird thing is, prior to doing this workout, I thought I would prefer it to the longer Steady Walk since it technically has more "structure" to it as far as the 8 or 9 sets that I could (mentally) count down and also the steady/power/push pace pattern. I love her HIIT and other interval-type workouts. But maybe because this wasn't HIIT, it was less fun for me? I'm not sure.

-Felt a tiny bit less polished since at least once Jessica would be just beginning to demonstrate the higher impact option at the end of the Push Pace and then the bell would ding signaling the end of Push Pace and the end of that set.

-Jessica was her usual encouraging and positive self, plenty of posture checks, and because of the steady pace parts (slower), there were brief moments I could sneak some water or wipe off sweat .

*I was counting them in my mind as the workout went along because for whatever reason, I just was not as into this workout so was trying to figure how many sets were left. Jessica does acknowledge during the 5th set (I think) that you're over halfway done.