The DVD and Why I Chose It.
I picked Denise Austin Quick Burn Cardio. I got this one from the library close to a month ago, but I hadn't found the motivation to actually do it yet. I renewed it for the fourth time the other day. I can only renew four times, so I knew that I had to get this done before next Monday or I would have to return yet another DVD without having actually done the workout. The DVD has a warm up, two workouts, and a cool down. I wasn't able to find a play all option. it gave me the option to see the workouts, but then I could only play one of them. It also gave me the option to customize my workout. This option let me select all four segments. It then gave the option to play with the instruction or just with the music. I picked with the instruction since this was the first time that I did this DVD.
Equipment
The first workout did not use any equipment. The second workout used a set of dumbbells. I didn't have dumbbells, so I used my weighted balls. Dumbbells would have been better for a couple reasons. The balls just weren't designed for some of the exercises, and they were too light for some of the exercises.
The Warm Up
I'm not a fan of warm ups that go right into squats or lunges. From the warm up, I could tell that this was not a DVD that was meant for my large size. It was fast, and it was hard. I'm used to Leslie Sansone's warm ups that gradually build in intensity. This was 5 minutes of madness.
The Workouts
Interval Training
The first section was 20 minutes long. The back of the disc talks about boosting my heart rate. It certainly did that. This thing moved fast. There was very little instruction on what moves to do. I also had a hard time with her voice. It is so low pitched that it was hard for me to hear over the music. Even when I turned it up, it was still hard to hear her. She would start off with some basic move, but after we did it just a couple of times, she made it more intense by changing the steps. There were several compound moves too. It was pretty much a train wreck for me. There were jumping jacks in this section! The moves were intense. There was little time for water breaks. She moved way too fast for me to keep up. She had little instruction about what to do.
Cardio Weight Training
The second section was 20 minutes long. This was more of a train wreck for me than the first one. I was holding weights while bouncing around my living room like a nutcase. I'm not a fan of mixing weight training with cardio stuff. I don't do well with it and it just seems dangerous to me. It's very difficult to focus on form when you're trying to do all of these fast moves. She did have someone doing some modified stuff, but it wasn't modified by much and not all of the moves were modified. There were soooooooo many lunges and squats in this! There was one move where you did a lunge and then passed the dumbbell under your leg. That was so not happening for me. This was another section with very little instruction. She said a few words and everyone knew what she was doing, but I didn't. There were push ups in this one. So jumping jacks, lunges and push ups are my top three sucky things to do, and this DVD had them all.
The Cool Down
The cool down lasted about 5 minutes. There were several stretches that actually felt more like a workout than a cool down. There were stretches where we balanced on one leg. I'm not so good with that. There were also some stretches that had my head below my heart which was not such a good thing for me and I ended up feeling like I was going to throw up.
BodyMedia Screen Shots
Below are my BodyMedia screen shots. For as long as the workout was, I'm pretty bummed that it only showed 33 minutes of total activity and only 6 minutes of vigorous activity. I felt like I was going to die during the majority of the workout. My heart was racing and my muscles were fired up. I was all quivery at the end of it. I can tell that I'm going to hurt in a bad way tomorrow. I know my glutes, hamstrings and quads are going to hurt. I think my lats will hurt as well. I'm not sure about my biceps and triceps though. My chest will probably hurt a little. I think this was a good DVD for people who are physically fit so they can stay that way, or people who have been working out for awhile, but this is not something for a 305 pound uncoordinated 38 year old. I am interested in trying some of her walking workouts though. She did talk a lot during the workout, but her voice is just so low pitched, that it's not annoying. She didn't seem to linger on any specific move too long so she could go on a long winded speech.
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