Customer Rating:  
Summary: This WILL give you a total workout
Comment: In order to know what to expect, I like to preview my workout tapes before actually performing the workout. I found that to be particularly beneficial in the case of the Circuit Challenge.
As J. Urban mentioned in his review from March 2006, the dvd has been copied directly from VHS is not divided into chapters in a manner that allows the user to skip a workout segment and end up at the beginning of a new segment(such as skipping a warm up). One must either hold down the fast-forward button, or skip chapters then fast-forward/rewind to get to the desired portion. In what would be the first chapter, it begins with a short Reebok advertisement (GAH! Ads on my workout tape!) followed by an intro by Gin Miller saying "If you are viewing Circuit Challenge for the first time, fast-forward to the end of the workout to review the important information in the pre-workout instructions". Okay, so I had to figure out where the end of the workout was in order to locate the important information. I shall share this little tidbit of with you: the important information can be found by skipping to Chapter 12 to the end credits. Then, fast-forward through the credits to "Pre-Workout Instructions". Obviously, this information is best suited at the beginning of a workout. However, since I chose to preview the dvd and was forewarned by J. Urban's review about the lack of chapters, I was prepared to spend a little time looking for it.
Directly following the opening message and the introduction, it goes right into the workout.
NOTE: The first thing I noticed is the workout studio was lit with red/pink lighting making it appear as though the color was off on my television. I got used to it after a few minutes and it didn't seem so odd.
As for the workout, Gin Miller is an excellent instructor. She speaks clearly and gives plenty of warning on what move she has planned. For low-impact options, there is one person in the group (Valerie) demonstrating alternate moves. Gin also makes sure to call out warnings to let the user know when NOT to follow her on the more difficult moves but to follow Valerie's example instead.
This is a challenging total body workout. It tones muscles, burns fat, and is a full cardio workout as well. It combines step, resistance tubes, hand weights, as well as abdominal workouts. Every ten minutes or so, Gin slows the workout for a moment to do a target heart rate range check. This is helpful to know when to pick up the pace or to switch to the lower-impact moves. The workout moves quickly and has a lot of variety so the user will not get bored. I recommend this to anyone who wants to have a fast-paced workout that takes care of fat burning, cardio, and toning all on one dvd.
Items needed for this workout: a step platform, hand weights, and an exertube.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Workout
Comment: I really enjoy this workout. I don't get bored because you change exercises through out. This video combined with a 1200 calorie diet helped me to lose 30 pounds of pregnancy weight.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Comment: I have almost all of the Reebok series aerobic videos and just love Gin Miller's choreography! She always has a fun, upbeat and most importantly concise instructions on all her videos. This is one of my favorite that I have been using for over three years. If you're not sure, buy this one!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Direct Transfer from VHS
Comment: I honestly haven't used this much because I was disappointed to find out it was transferred directly to DVD from VHS without any consideration for the features DVD provides. There are no chapters to select, just place it in the DVD player and hit play. One is then subjected to having to listen to host advise you to fast-forward to the end to learn the moves and reset your counter to zero to easily find your way back to the tape's current location. (Note to Reebok, this on DVD, not VHS anymore!)
Not being able to select where to begin your exercise, you'll have to endure the the warm-up portion even if you have your own warm-up routine. I tried skipping it, but the disk jumped to some point in the middle of warm-up. I skipped to the next track, but the main exercise had already started at some earlier point.
Thus, this DVD is too poorly organized (that is, it's not organizaed at all for DVD players) to be flexible. Because of this, I haven't used it much.
|
