I have a love-hate relationship with this video. I am a fairly advanced exerciser and tend to do the Firm and Cathe videos primarily, but since I own over 100 videos, I tend to throw in something different now and then, including this tape. I think this tape is wonderful as a means to firm and strengthen the abdominal muscles and improve flexibility and posture; it uses more isometrics and lengthening to do so, rather than the usual shortening and contracting done in so many of the other videos.

The reasons I don't do this video more often is that first of all, it seems a bit boring and repetitive after the first 20 minutes or so. I do not like the side series or exercises for the legs/thighs/buttocks; they remind me of the old exercises that my mother used to do to Jack LaLanne in the '60's. I think some of them could cause injury especially because they require hyperextension of the hip/lower back and if you are not supremely flexible and accustomed to swinging your legs behind you and in circles, then it is conceivable that you could strain or sprain yourself. On the positive side, I would say that the video is worth it just for the first 20 minutes of abdominal toning.

I like Jennifer Kries very much; she knows what she is doing, and has amazing flexibility which obviously has taken years of devoted practice. She is pleasant but her voice is a bit monotone.

Abbe