Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this workout.

Just to let you know a little about me, I'm a 48 year old intermediate and long term exerciser who has bad hands, wrists, and feet (psoriatic arthritis) and bad knees (osteo arthritis). Consequently, I look for low-impact workouts - or workouts that I can modify easily - that don't require body weight to be supported on my hands/wrists.

For some reason, this workout grabbed my attention and I really wanted to try it. As a committed intermediate exerciser, I knew this workout would probably be more advanced than I would want to do, but I still was intrigued by it.

The DVD has two workouts on it that you can play separately and then a third option that combines the two workouts - for the "extreme" option. Each workout has a warm up and then he does sections of strength moves and cardio blasts. Each strength move is done for one minute and each move in the cardio blast is done for 30 seconds and then he repeats the cardio blast. He sometimes switches things up midway through the time given for a move and that makes it more interesting to me. It's a good mix of strength and cardio and abs - and you are always moving.

Mike Donavanik leads the workout with two background exercisers behind him. Both his backgrounders are fit with different body types: one is very slim, almost lanky, and the other is more curvy and muscular. They look like real fit women, not backgrounder models. Much of the time, he does the workout as he leads it, but he does go back by his background exercisers to coach them and emphasize form pointers. Personally, I thought it was a good thing because I found what he emphasized motivated me to work harder. However, for those that want their instructors to do the entire workout, it could be distracsting. He talks A LOT - and most of his talk is encouraging and motivating to try harder and pointing out what a move will do and giving form pointers. I found his talk motivating and there didn't seem to be much, if any, talk about what you'll look like. He focused more on strength and functionality. Don't ask me about the music - I have no memory of it, for what that's worth.

I ended up deciding that I enjoyed trying this workout, but it makes me work harder than I want to. It would be hard on my body long term. People who are higher intermediate exercisers than me (without bad hands and knees) and advanced exercisers would be likely to enjoy this workout because he does push you to work hard and work on strength and cardio endurance. It's a workout I like that I just would have a hard time doing.

Instructor Comments:
I found him really motivating. He seemed to understand the advanced home exerciser, which I thought was pretty good for his first try at an exercise video.

Laura S.