This is an older tape, but I felt it deserved another look as it is one of the vew few Kathy strength workouts to make it to dvd. The dvd version is the same as the VHS one except that it includes some basic bonus material (clips of Kathy’s other tapes, a link to her website) and of course, chaptering that allows one to choose which section of the workout they want to do. I loved being able to skip directly to upper body, or lower body, or abs. Each section is 20 minutes, except the abs with is just over 5.

Others have already commented on how “hyper” Kathy is in this tape, but her enthusiasm didn’t bother me at all. I loved the set-up of this workout so much. You have two choices every time you do the tape: track one or track two. Track 2 is lighter weights: you do a regular set with the heavy-weight users in track 1, then while they rest, you do a pulsing set, then both tracks close off with a third set and you move on to the next exercise. I think it’s brilliant---you can use it as a high-rep tape, as a strength builder, or you can mix it up. And the time-efficient workouts are easy to fit into your routine.

If you have dvd, you should be aware of the various options you have in getting this workout into your collection. The upper body section, combined with a lower body section from Kathy’s Functionally Fit tape, is available on the Personal Trainer dvd. If upper body is all you are interested in, this might be a good bet as that disk includes a very nice yoga workout and cardio workout on it too. If you want both the upper and lower body sections, you can have them on either the Timesaver Lift Weights to Lose Weight DVD, or the Rules for Fat-Burning DVD. The Rules for Fat-Burning DVD has short cardio routines on it compiled from other Kathy tapes, but it lacks a warm-up and cool-down segment, and it is missing the ab work. The Timesaver DVD has both of those, but no bonus cardio. I started out with the Personal Trainer DVD and was happy with it, then acquired the Timesaver DVD really cheaply at a used bookstore. So I have duplicates of the upper body section, but I don’t want to get rid of either disk as each has items the other lacks. If I had not gotten the deal I did on Timesaver, I would have gone with Rules of Fat-Burning, but as it is now, that disk would be superfluous.

Joanna