This video was a pleasant surprise. I have a few of Kathy Smith's videos and have found them to be pretty boring, except for Aerobox. This video, however, is quite fun to use. There are 2 separate 20-minute workouts, one for the upper body and one for the lower body. There is also a 7-minute abs and back stabilization work at the end. There is no warmup, but I usually do aerobics beforehand, so it's not a problem. The set is industrial looking, but quite bright. The video has 2 "tracks". The background exercisers for track one is on your right. They use lower weight, more and do more reps ( usually one long set of 28 reps, 12 at normal speed, and 4 with pulses, then back to 12 reps at normal speed). Track two exercisers are on the left and use heavier weight, fewer reps (usually 2 sets with a rest while track one is doing the pulsing reps). Kathy follows track one throughout the video.

For upper body, she works opposing muscle groups each time. There are single-arm bent rows (2 sets), pushups (2 sets of 16. You do the first set with arms shoulder width, the second set with arms wide apart. I did them on my toes and can really feel the second set.), chest flies (2 sets), deadlift (1 set), 3 different sets of other back exercises, bicep curls (2 sets), tricep dips (1 long set), tricep kickbacks (1 set), and french press (1 set). The video ends with one set of military press and one set of lateral raises. So far I've done this portion of the video 4 times, 3 times following track 2, and once following track one. You can go pretty heavy on the weight since there are only 2 sets and the rest periods are pretty reasonable (about 20-30 seconds between sets). I usually use 19-lb dumbbells for the back, biceps and chest flies, and 15-lb dumbbells for shoulder work.

The lower body section has lots of squats, dips, plies, outer thighs work, leg shootouts, and some table work. I used my 5-lb ankle weights and my 2 19-lb dumbbells and had a very good workout. However, it's definitely not as tough as Tough Tape in terms of lower body work. The abs and back section was quite good. There are too few videos on the market that works both your abs and back at the same time. All in all, this video is great when you want to do some weight work in a short amount of time.

Instructor Comments:
Much more perky and motivating than in her other videos. She moved around a lot and whooped a bit, but isn't annoying (at least to me).

Marie C