I bought this video at DCAC; it's part of a series of four new videos from the Body Bar company. It's an hour long and focuses on sports-oriented moves using the Body Bar or a barbell. There are four sections: muscle conditioning, sports simulations, agility, and core strength. After a warmup using the bar, the muscle conditioning segment does sets of compound exercises, for example rowing with the bar while doing lunges, plus a few sets of pushups. Each set has "recovery" reps, done slowly with less range of motion, alternated with "power" reps where you move faster with more range. If you're using a barbell and used to doing heavy weights, you'll probably want to put a couple of plates on your barbell for this segment. Most of the exercises in this segment are pretty easy, I thought, but there are some interesting moves such as holding the bar against your tailbone and bending forward at the hips.

The next segment, sports simulations, is more intense and the most fun part. You simulate various sports movements using the bar or barbell: paddling a kayak, ski jumping, rock climbing, skating, playing tennis (watch out for your lamps!), and a windsurfing exercise where you hold the bar out and lean away from it. These range from pretty easy to fairly hard, such as the windsurfing, and they move rapidly from one exercise to the next so as to raise your heart rate. I wish this segment was longer!

The last two segments are very short. You test your agility by shuffling rapidly around two bars crossed on the floor (I used my barbell crossed with one of my husband's neckties!), first with your feet, then with your hands! Finally there is core strength, where you balance on your forearms while raising your legs, similar to Christi Taylor's SBF video, and some very easy ab exercises where you simply roll back and forth using the bar behind your knees. Even the final stretch makes use of the bar.

Sport Zone has a good mix of both easy and hard exercises. It's ideal for intermediates, or as a "light day" or "change of pace" video for advanced. It's produced by Sherry Catlin and Greg Twombly, uses the new CIA set, and the Musicflex soundtrack from Step Fit and Power Max. I give it an A for not being real "pizazzy", but competent and well-produced.

Sue B