I have been exercising with videos for years and years, but have only done a couple lead by Kathy Smith. For some reason I have always steered clear of her, I guess because I felt that she would be too easy for me or too much of a bubblehead. But I have to admit, that the workouts that I have done I have enjoyed, and this DVD is no exception.

Ultimate Sculpt starts with about 30 minutes of interval training. Light hand weights are needed, and Kathy often has you doing lower and upper body work at the same time. You can’t really go too heavy, because many of the exercises are moving fast, and they work smaller muscles. There feels like a lot of lunges and squats, but I really enjoyed that part, because I felt that it took the workout from a solid intermediate to a high intermediate/low advanced workout. I was not expecting to work as hard as I did. It was a pleasant surprise. There are also a lot of standing ab work and some short speed drills thrown in. I had fun with them, and the time seemed to fly by for me.

After the interval training, there were about 10 minutes of core work. The ab segments were not all that difficult, but there were quite a few plank exercises that were slightly more challenging. There were also a few supermans toward the end.

The workout ended with about 10 minutes of stretching, and it was all very relaxing. The total running time was about 54 minutes, so I felt quite a bit was covered in a good amount of time.

One thing that I found hilarious was on the cover of the DVD. There is this note: “Filmed in unique ‘reality TV’ style”. I think it’s outstanding the marketing behind this phrase. Does that really sell extra workouts? Oh, and the “reality TV” style is a group of exercisers behind Kathy, working out on the floor and on platforms. Maybe it’s supposed to feel unrehearsed, because Kathy walks around and offers suggestions about proper form. Or maybe because it feels like the exercisers are really working out with you in your livingroom. But really, don’t the majority of workout videos feel “live” and “unrehearsed”?

Instructor Comments:
I have read some reviews of this workout on collagevideo, and many of the complaints were that people found Kathy to be loud and obnoxious, and that she was much more hyper than they liked. I did not find this to be the case at all. To me she seemed enthusiastic about the workout and genuine with her responses, but not annoying. This seems funny to me, because I have avoided Kathy all of these years because I did not want a rowdy instructor. But if this is Kathy at her worst, then I find her pretty fun!

Tracy (Lulu Belle)