I seriously injured myself doing this workout for the first time. I am an intermediate exerciser in my early thirties. I do some Cathe strength workouts (the easier ones), and I when I tried out this video 2 months ago, I was able to do about 10 pushups on my toes, and several jacknifes/pikes on a stability ball with no problem. I thought I was ready for this DVD. I wasn't.

The specific move that caused me a problem involved doing a pushup with your hands on paper plates. You go down into the pushup, then push your hands away from your body out to your sides, then pull them back in, and then push up away from the ground. I did this maybe twice, then watched in amazement as Mindy kept going.

My shoulder felt irritated after the workout, so I rested it for a few days and didn't return to the workout. Since then I've had felt an off and on mild ache in the front of my shoulder, until 2 weeks ago, when suddenly the joint got irritated (possibly by regular pushups I was doing to a Firm workout) and inflamed. It was a sharp, intense, sudden pain (about 2 hours after I finished the workout. My husband initially thought I was joking; then he thought I was having a heart attack. I've since seen my doctor and she's ordered a week of icing and ibuprofen, x-rays and referred me to a physical therapist.

There are many great things about this workout, and there are lots of ways to modify it. I tried many of them. (Awesome Strength also contains some really explosive lunges, which I avoided, and I recommend others with knee problems do the same.) I'm not one to overdo, but I do like to try new things and in this case it was not a good move.

My doctor was, to say the least, not impressed with the paper plate pushup move.

I'm writing this review for the benefit of those who may be trying Awesome strength for the first time, and for those who (unlike me) are interested in Mindy's Gliding package. If the gliding workouts contain a move like this, you may want to be really really careful with it.

I think this workout's main strength is actually instructional--showing you lots of ways to use lots of different equipment. You can apply this knowledge to other workouts. I don't tend to "preview" my workouts--watching them all the way through before doing them--but in this case I highly recommend it.

Instructor Comments:
Very enthusiastic and motivating. But I can see how it would get annoying by the third or fourth try.

Diana