Results Fitness: Boost Your Metabolism

Tracey Staehle
Year Released: 2008

Categories: Circuit Training (cardio and weights)


The DVD is a 55 minute long AWT workout with strength and cardio intervals. The exercises have already been broken down nicely so I’m just going to add my opinions. Tracey leads alone in a large workout area, using two sets of hand weights (lighter and heavier set). I used several sets ranging from 5# through 15# to get the most out of the workout. She tended to do a LOT of reps per muscle group so I was forced to go lower than I would in say, a Firm workout. A lot of people have said this is just like another Pink Firm, but I think this workout is unique from those in that it fatigues each upper body muscle group at a time (the legs are worked throughout) which really ups the challenge, and if I may say, the DOMS factor! The production quality is high and the music is recognizable, which is great! The DVD menu allows you to play the entire workout, and it is not chaptered. If you really wanted to, you could manually skip through the cardio or strength sets to make it an all strength or all cardio ~30 minute workout. I tend to do the workout in entirety. Each interval lasts about 6 minutes (strength then cardio). The warm up and final stretch were also about 5-6 minutes.

On the whole I am very pleased with this workout and should really do it more often (as it is, I might pull it out once every 6 months!) However, I would have liked to see Tracey do more for the abs. I had assumed that the last set (which included chest) would have been paired with the abs, and instead it was paired with glutes (legs already having been more than adequately covered already). Tracey kept saying through the workout “do this move now and we won’t need to do crunches!” which was okay except that the majority of the exercises didn’t really engage the core in a functional manner (so no preexhaust in the abs), and no crunches is fine, but why not some plank work or other alternative? I just did some freestyle ab work with the chest work instead of the bridge work for the glutes. Secondly, I thought the standing leg work towards the end was somewhat overkill (again, we had already worked legs throughout with the combination work), albeit it was intense when I added ankle weights. I generally prefer to do that kind of work on the floor and will either do that, or skip it next time around.

I would say this is a good intermediate to high intermediate workout (if you choose heavier poundage and high intensity moves during the cardio, it’s high int – you could even go low advanced if you learned the whole workout and did Level 2 throughout), and while the time didn’t just fly by, I definitely felt VERY worked out by the end! My upper body was especially fried but my lower body was really feeling it too. The 7-day diet plan suggests about 1,400 calories per day and includes foods like shakes and protein bars for those who are curious. The high impact can be kept low (Tracey demonstrates an easier move first before escalating) but because of the choreographed moves, I felt it didn’t adapt well to the rebounder. My pedometer showed I got about 2,200 steps. All in all I would recommend this for intermediate-level exercisers (beginners can use light weights and keep it low impact) who are fans of AWT training. Even with the unique flair, it did have a somewhat Firm-like style, to give you an idea of whether you’d like it. All in all it was a very good production. Grade B+.

Instructor Comments:
This is my first workout with Tracey and she seems like a good instructor. I felt she didn’t give quite enough form pointers especially for exercises that involved the rotator cuff that could easily be injured. I also found that she doesn’t really cue very thoroughly and more than once I found myself on the same leg when I should have switched legs (paired with the upper body work). But after one or two sets I learned her pattern (of about 4 reps of Level 1, 4 reps Level 2 on one leg, then switch leg for the final 8 reps), so if you were to do the workout regularly, this would not be a big issue. Tracey was smiley and not too chatty, she did say cute things like “reach for your goals” and later in the workout, “now grab those goals!” I would likely purchase more workouts from her, although most of her other workouts tend to be pricey and I haven’t caved on any yet for that reason.

Emily B.

05/17/2011