My first impression of Tony Little was a picture I saw of him in a viking hat in a Collage catelogue. Well that picture was enough to keep me away from his workouts for a long time.

Recently, there was some interest generated here at the VF forum about his latest workouts which I purchased and liked. So I decided to try another one of Mr. Little's workouts. Little (no pun intended) did I know that the Private Session Total Body workout is the one with Tony in a viking hat!

After getting over the initial shock of seeing Tony warm up with this crazy hat on his head, I decided to preview the workout. Although I must admit my first impulse was to imediately rip it out of my dvd player and put it up for sale on Ebay!

Fortunately, the hat only makes an apperance for the warm-up. After that, the hat comes off and he makes you work - hard!

Like the title says, this is a total body strength training workout which alternates between upper and lower body exercises. However some of the upper body exercises, like some shoulder presses and bicep curls, are done with squats. He calls these metabolism boosters.

You do not count reps either. Tony has a timer at the bottom of the screen to follow. Beginners usually do 30 seconds, intermediates 60, and advanced 90. This could easily be a light wt high rep workout because by the end of 90 secs (if you choose the advanced option) your muscles will be on fire with all the reps you do! However, you could heavy up and go slower if you chose to and do a two count for each exercise.

Here are what some of the exercises consists of:

abs and lower back (back extensions)
squats with shoulder presses
push ups
squats with chest presses (hard, hard, hard!)
lat rows
static lunges
squats with delt raises
tricep kickbacks
squats with bicep curls

No mucsle group is missed! I consider myself to be advanced and this was one tough workout. If I could strictly make myself do Tony Little exclusevely for strength training for a while, I think I would get some great results. I'm too much of a variety junkie though so I don't see this happening - but you never know.

BTW I did try the workout and as you are working each muscle group Tony constantly reminds you to squeeze the muscle. I don't know if it was all that squeezing or all the reps that caused my muscle soreness but whichever did it, it worked. I was drenched in sweat by the time I finished this.

The music is fantastic. It is not your standard canned workout tape stuff and the set is this theater with just Tony there as your personal trainer in the spotlight. There are some graphics in the background that shows the muscle that is being worked during each exercise. Overall, it's a nice production.

At the end of the workout, Tony includes a section on proper training techniques. I found it to be very beneficial for all exercisers. Even if you have been working out for a while, it is good to review proper form technique.

The only minus (besides that viking hat!) is the workout lacks a real stretch at the end. Tony allows for a cooldown (where he is wearing a cowboy hat - I'm not kidding!) but that's it. After an intense workout like this, there has got to be a stretch included. Also this dvd is not chaptered. It does allow you to fast forward (so you can skip the viking hat warm up and cowboy cool down) but why create a dvd without chapters? I don't get that.

I guess I shouldn't count the hat(s)as a minus. When Tony puts on that cowboy hat at the end of the workout he says something to the effect of "be as silly as you want cause you are at home where no one can see you." So folks with those words you can see that Tony is also a true vidiot. He does understand the home exerciser!

All in all a great workout and I learned an important lesson which is sometimes first impressions can be deceiving. Everyone deserves a second chance and I'm glad I gave one to Tony.

Instructor Comments:
Can sometimes be a little kooky, but he knows his stuff. Gives very good form pointers throughout the workout and keeps you motivated with positive affirmations.

Tiffanee