I recently discovered Jari Love and am greatly enjoying her workouts. Although her original Get Ripped is my favorite so far, Slim & Lean, the second in the series, is also an excellent workout. As with all of the Ripped workouts, Jari and her three background exercisers vary not only in the equipment they use (eg, dumbbells, barbells, and weight plates, plus optional equipment like a stability ball) but also in their individual weight loads, which are helpfully shown on screen at the start of every new exercise. Slim & Lean also has a couple of new features: 1) in addition to the weight loads, rep totals are also show on screen, and 2) Jari adds pulsing repetitions.

For every exercise, Jari performs a high number of repetitions, but her varied counts (eg, 4-4, 3-1, 1-3, 2-2, pulsing, etc.) keep things interesting. As with the other Ripped workouts, the Slim & Lean DVD is chaptered so that each exercise is its own individual track. The 12 total tracks, each about 5-6 minutes in length, are as follows: warm-up (5-minute overview of various exercises using light weights), squats, front-back lunges, chest presses, bent leg deadlifts/deadrows, push-ups/rotator cuff, tricep dips/overhead extension, biceps/hammer curls, single leg squats/wide squats, overhead press/lateral raise, abs (5-minute series of 4 exercises repeated once), cool-down.

The Main Menu of the Slim & Lean DVD offers the following options: Introduction-Full Workout-Exercises (chapters)-Interview with Angela (a registered dietitian)-Credits-Preview "To the Core"-More Ripped Workouts. I found Slim & Lean to be more challenging than the original Get Ripped for several reasons, including the pulsing repetitions, the increased repetitions of more challenging exercises (such as many more squats and push-ups), and the longer overall length (Slim & Lean comes in just over an hour). Also, I didn't think Jari's cueing was quite as good as in the original, as she sometimes cues a bit late (similarly, the screen showing the weight loads is sometimes a bit late as well). Still, this is definitely an excellent full-body endurance workout for intermediate-to-advanced exercisers, and it is likely to appeal particularly to those who are looking for a greater challenge than the original Get Ripped.

Instructor Comments:
For some reason, I thought Jari was going to be a sort of celebrity instructor, but she's not like that at all. As mentioned above, she is quite low-key, which some people might find boring. Personally, I'll take understated rather than over-the-top enthusiasm any day! Her cueing is generally very good, and her constant form pointers are excellent. One funny thing I noticed: in Get Ripped she constantly says "awesome," in RTTC it's "fantastic," and here it is "super!" ;)

Beth C (aka toaster)