The DVD has already been well reviewed so I’m just going to add my opinions. I was excited to pick up Stephanie’s workout (this is the only one I have so far) because I recognized her as a background exerciser from some Pink Firms and from some Patrick Gordeau’s workouts, and I was hoping her style would be similar. I would say it is very similar! Like both Patrick and The Firm, there is an AWT component from the multi-muscle work, moves quickly from one exercise to the next, and there are some “intensifiers” or brief 1 minute cardio intervals sprinkled throughout (mostly high impact). More like Patrick’s workouts, Stephanie’s exercises are unique and functional, which help you to work your muscles in new ways (the exercises sort of reminded me of Michelle Dozios’s Ultimate Workout strength chapter as well). Since the moves are functional, I would recommend using somewhat lighter weights than usual. I usually use 6-8-12-15# for Pink Firms but had to fall back to 5-8-10# for this workout, as I tend to have to with Patrick as well. But those lighter weights don’t sacrifice intensity! I definitely had my heart rate up throughout.

The DVD menu allows you to play all (as outlined by other reviewers) or by each chapter. There is a little countdown timer for the 5 minute warm up, two 30 minute AWT chapters, and 5 minute cool down. I am at an intermediate level and prefer to break this down from a 70 minute workout to a 40 minute workout by doing just one of the main chapters. The music is pretty good (comparable to a Patrick workout, better than a Pink Firm) and the production quality is high. The camera angles made the moves difficult to follow once or twice, but thankfully the problem didn’t persist. I personally didn’t like the little pop ups at the bottom, but those can be turned off at the DVD menu.

I won’t reiterate the exercises, but just to add my opinions:

The warm up was to the point and efficient. The two pushup sets were tough! I liked the countdown timer, even in the warm up.

In the step workout, Like Nyx said, I was surprised there wasn’t more biceps work, and there was an overload of shoulders and back, but I just subbed one of the repeat shoulder exercises for biceps so it wasn’t a big deal. I really appreciated the creativity of the exercises, but found two of them tricky to execute (the first being the frontal raise with leg press off to the side-but maybe that’s because my step was a little taller than theirs, theirs looked about 10” while I was using the 14” Firm Fanny Lifter-I had to drop my weight to keep good form). The second was the one legged squat with front shoulder raise, which was tricky (and a little scary) to do on top of the step, and I might feel safer doing it on the floor in the future (what if you lose your balance?!), but it’s difficult because the next exercise segueys from the step. But I could always not use weights, or use the shorter 8” step instead, I’m sure I can play around with it t make it work for me. With that said, I really DO appreciate that she does utilize the step for every workout – which was great because I do really enjoy using the tall step. And the rest of the exercises were both creative and easy to execute, while being majorly challenging!

In the mat workout, it’s all standing with the last 5 minutes or so on the floor. There is a lot of core and balancing work in this one, which was great! I felt like Stephanie intensified the shoulders and back, but also had a lot of work for triceps (yay!), biceps, and chest, so I felt well balanced by the end. This was a great routine. The floor work was intense with the super slow chest presses with leg raise. Ultimately I think I liked the mat workout better, and I really bought the DVD for the step workout. What a nice surprise! Also, I did the workout barefoot on a padded mat and it worked great.

I really enjoyed the yoga-inspired cool down and it was a welcome change from the athletic stretches that most DVDs offer. The music on this was especially good.

I am confident that I will add this workout to my regular routine (I love AWT workouts!!) and I appreciate the creativeness of the exercises. If done in entirety, I would say this is advanced, but can become more intermediate if done in pieces (in 40 minutes instead of 70). If you do halfsies, I think they complement each other nicely. They are both shoulder intense but you get more of a leg/upper focused in the first workout and core/upper focused in the second workout. Like Lindsey said, I would likely not recommend this to beginners, the exercises are too complex for a beginner, and there is also no modifier. This is definitely a high quality, creative workout. Overall grade B+!

Instructor Comments:
I was looking forward to seeing Stephanie as a lead, and she has great camera presence. She has a big glowing smile, reminding me of Heidi Tanner from The Firm/WHFN. She has an articulate voice (albeit she sounds a little valley girl-ish), she mirror cues, and gives good form pointers. I would definitely considering buying more of her workouts.

Emily B.