I'm going to post my impressions after the most excellent breakdown provided by cardiomama (thanks).

I did the "women" workout for this - i received both the "man" and "woman" version from a very generous VFer. i'll be commenting on the "woman" version. each of the discs are not titled "for women" or "for men," however, one disc has a woman on it, the other has a man. i didn't receive a cover/label for either of these discs.

it's equipment intensive:
1) dumbbells (i used 10, 8 & 5#)
2) valslides (i have gliding discs for carpet, but since i was working out on 3) linoleum tiles, i used a simple terry rag, which worked excellently fine)
4) resistance bands w/handles that have to be tethered at chest level to do standing chest presses and back work
5) push up handles (i used dumbbells)
6) looped resistance band (i tied my pilates band together to make a loop)
7) med ball (i used a dumbbell)
8) stability ball

Valerie is all by herself in a small room full of equipment. she doesn't use all of it - the dumbbell racks and cardio equipment take up the most room, and she doesn't use any of it - just 1 set of dumbbells from the rack.

there's no music in this video. between sections, there's a black screen with a 60 second countdown clock. you can hit your skip button, but sometimes you miss the 2nd round of a series. it's not always segmented this way - i recall being unable to skip one of the rest periods - i think it was the last segment.

i liked how Val used the equipment, especially the bands w/handles for chest and back work in the standing position. i tethered mine to our stationary bike. as i mention below, i didn't preview the video and had no idea what equipment was used. i was therefore grabbing and rigging all of the equipment on the fly while doing the workout!

you don't feel wiped out in this video, but feel worked out just enough.

i didn't preview this disc, and i thought that those black countdown screens should have given you a head's up on what equipment to get ready other than just counting down the break.


i liked the workout - had a light bit of DOMS later that day and the next day.

the video could have had more polish to it simply by doing a better job of editing. i probably sound petty about this, but with all of the digital video editing equipment available to the average consumer at affordable prices, it totally escapes me that a professional product would be somewhat lacking in these basic qualities. maybe i got a "preview" disc and not the retail version?

Instructor Comments:
Valeris is pleasant, competent, and no-nonsense. she employs the equipment in an efficient way.

bzar