A tough, thorough workout in about 30 minutes! I like it -- and I think other fans of Cory's Get Hard Arms & Shoulders will, too.

This tape can be done with either gym equipment or dumbbells/barbells. Cory demonstrates the "home" versions of the exercises, while two others use gym equipment.

You start with several different exercises for the back, doing 2 sets of 12 reps each. On the very first exercise, Cory considers a pull-up bar to be the "home" version, but many of us don't have pull-up bars. It's an exercise for the lats, so I just innovate and do whatever I feel like doing at the time. I don't feel like I've lost anything by having to substitute for this particular exercise. For the rest, you can use dumbbells or barbells, except for one exercise you will probably want to use a tube for. That is the long rows, and I just wrap an exercise tube around a pole (I exercise in my basement) and do it that way.

After the back exercises, you move on to biceps -- killer style! She has you do 3 sets of 12 of 3 different exercises, because the arm muscles are harder to develop. Your biceps will be screaming for mercy before you're done. You do biceps curls first, then one-armed biceps curls (alternating arms), and finally concentration curls. I manage to use 10 pound dumbbells for all but the last two sets of concentration curls, and then I have to go down to 8. But I'm working on that!

Finally, there is the ab section, which is just crunches. That part is skip-able, for me, anyway, because I have other ab routines I like a lot better.

I love this series, and I recommend it to anyone interested in strength training/body building. Grade A.

Instructor Comments:
Cory can make some really tough workouts when she wants to. I wish she would make more like this.

Annie S.