Buns of Steel Pregnancy Workout and Buns of Steel Post-Pregnancy Workout

Madeleine Lewis
Year Released: 2004

Categories: Pregnancy/Postpartum


This 1994 video holds up very well, and is the workout I've been going back to again and again during my pregnancy. Lewis does the workout with two background exercisers, all of whom look between five and seven months pregnant, on a standard aerobics set with standard aerobics music.

It begins with a good long warmup and stretch, a little short of 10 minutes. Then she has three low impact aerobics "songs," in total about 15 minutes, with two heartrate checks and a perceived exertion check. These aerobics get most of their intensity from the arm movements, and one exerciser shows less intense arms from time to time. The moves are basic, easy to follow, and cued well. This is followed by a brief leg stretch and then about 10 or so minutes of what is a surprisingly good lower body toning segment. Although you do short sets of moves (e.g. four sets of four squats followed by four pelvic tilts), the section never lets you stop to catch your breath, and I usually find my heart rate higher during the toning section than the aerobics section. Then she shows some very safe abs moves for pregnancy, and ends with a 5 minute, yoga based stretch.

This is a great video for someone who started their pregnancy as a beginner or intermediate. More advanced exercisers or choreo buffs might find less to like. Lewis has choreographed for Kathy Smith, and I keep seeing echoes of Kathy's workouts in this tape (the arms remind me of Kathy's Step Workout, the toning reminds me of Kathy's Instant Workout, and a little of her Functionally Fit Lower Body video).

My one small beef is that many of her combos overuse the right side. In the warmup, she does three times the rocks on the right foot that she does on the left. The arm combos, too, often leave the right arm in the air twice as long as the left. I can switch on the fly to try to even out the sides, but I hate having to think that hard during a workout. I also wish she'd shown some upper body toning work; it's hard to find a pregnancy workout that shows you modifications or replacements for exercises like pushups or chest flyes that either take too much core strength or are usually done on the back.

But given that, this really is a quality workout that I keep going back to over and over again. It's just the right amount of challenge without leaving me feeling wrung out when I'm done, and I use the abs exercises to replace the abs in other workouts.

Instructor Comments:
She's a calm and encouraging presence, and gives great form pointers, especially for how to get your back into the aerobics moves.

Heather Fraser

02/07/2002