This full-body workout led by Leigh Crews uses a stability ball and a chi ball (or other small weighted ball such as a medicine ball). Leigh is alone on the set instructing live. There is music, and although it wasn't overly loud, I found it to be quite distracting--it is not choreographed with the moves at all, and the same repetitive riffs (reminded me of INXS) are played over and over.

There is no warm-up to this workout; instead, Leigh encourages you to spend a few minutes warming up on your own. The stability ball is used throughout, which means that you are strongly working your core in all moves; in fact, after doing the workout yesterday, I can feel it in my abs/obliques today. The chi ball, while not used in every move (ie, Leigh sometimes uses body weight alone, such as doing tricep dips off the stability ball), is frequently added for resistance as well as incorporating a functional aspect to the movements. Some of the exercises were uniquely well-suited to the chi ball, such as doing alternating chest flyes while lying on the stability ball. For other moves, however (eg, the lying triceps extension), the ball did not seem to provide an adequate amount of resistance. Similarly, I felt that the intensity level of the workout was a bit uneven: some of the exercises felt pretty easy, especially given the low number of reps (Leigh usually performed one set of 8 reps) and the lack of resistance (the inner thigh lifts were one example), yet there were other exercises that felt quite challenging, such as the pike/push-up combo with toes on the stability ball.

The strength portion of the workout is 38.5 minutes long, but Leigh finishes with a 10 minute extended cool-down using the chi ball (including some nice massage work) to bring the total workout time in at just under 49 minutes. If you are looking for a heavy weighted workout, this isn't it, but intermediate and above exercisers who want a thorough core workout with some light resistance training may enjoy this.

Instructor Comments:
Leigh was fine--her instruction was basic and nondescript, which pretty much fit with the overall workout.

Beth C (aka toaster)