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

I am a 49-year-old woman with two types of arthritis - osteoarthritis of the knees and psoriatic arthritis, which mostly affects my hands and wrists. I only say this so you understand the modifications I talk about making below.

I have not been a big fan of Amy Dixon workouts in the past. When I do them, I think they are well done, but either they required me to work harder than I wanted to work or there was just something about them that I didn't click with. However, I always liked HER. Given this one was rated intermediate in various places I looked, I decided to try it.

This DVD ofers several 10-minute segments and you can do them in any order you want. They include cardio, upper body, lower body, abs, yoga/stretch and a bonus kettlebell workout. There is no warm up or cool down in each segment. Personally, I like that because it always drove me crazy in other 10-minute DVDs that so much time was spent with these segments. However, I wish a separate warm up had been included. You can use the yoga/stretch segment for a cool down. One of the times I used this DVD, I did the bonus kettlebell segment as a warm up and that seemed to work well. You can choose the segments in any order, but you cannot program the DVD to play those segments ahead of time. I wish DVD producers would use full DVD functionality to make our lives easier.

The segments include:

Cardio: The cardio in this segment is simple and athletic and it gets your heart rate up there nicely. The first time I did this DVD, I chose this as my first segment and really missed a warm up. There is no easing into it. Moves include squats and lunges, mambos, step ball change, skaters, jumping jacks, and a basketball sequence that is a lot of fun. It was simple to modify the moves to be lower impact - just keep your feet on the ground. She sometimes started with a lower-impact move and then moved up to a higher impact move and that made things simpler.

Upper Body: I like punching moves with weights so I liked when she started with weighted upper cuts. She also did bicep curls, tricep moves (I substituted kickbacks for the dips they did), back flies, lat raises, overhead presses, and push ups (I did chest presses).

Lower Body: With each set of moves, she did something different, putting her own twist on standard moves. I really enjoyed her combination of a basic squat into a kettlebell swing. Then, you do a lunge & lunge variation sequence. Then, you do dips,deadlifts, one-legged squats, and plies.

Core: I so enjoy standing core work over floor core work. The standing work in this segment uses one dumbbell and I really enjoyed it. When we went to the floor, I resigned myself to crunches - and then she didn't do any. For floorwork, it was kind of fun. I may not do all of this segment, but I'll include at least part of it more often than I do some other core options on other DVDs.

Stretch/Yoga: This is a strength-oriented segment some and stretch-oriented some. It includes a flow at the beginning. Fortunately (for me) she included a modifier that didn't put as much weight onto her hands/wrists as the other two.

Bonus Kettlebell ToneUp: This segment is just fun. The moves include squats, Russian twists, halos, squats w/ halo and a chop, and a rack and press. You finish with a basic swing. I was happy to use my kettlebell.

There are two background exercisers and one of them shows modifications (not the same one in every segment. The set is open and bright. Don't ask me about the music; I don't remember anything about it. That in itself must say something, right?

I really like this DVD (so now maybe I stop my search for an Amy Dixon workout I will keep!). She is a really good leader of exercise. She mirror cues and keeps you with her with good cueing. This DVD is definitely an intermediate level, although you could modify up or down. It's easier than the other workouts of hers I've tried.

Instructor Comments:
She is pleasant, highly competent, and fun. I really like her in this workout.

Laura S.