A Firm Commitment

Charlene Prickett
Year Released: 1994

Categories: Total Body Workouts


Since there are no reviews for this video I thought I would write one. This video is from 1994 and contains 2-30 minute strength workouts. Both programs are pretty similar as you will spend 10 minutes each on lower body, abs, and upper body. Neither program has a warmup so you need to do that on your own. I personally don't care for that, I would just as soon a warmup be included, it just seems normal to have one.

Session 1 starts with leg work, standing hamstring curls with what appears to be lots of ankle weights. She does one set then moves into a set of squats, she calls them 1/3 squats, but they look more like plie squats to me. Then you do one more set of hamstring curls before finishing the lower body segment with seated leg extensions. Then you will do a brief abs segment, here you will do reverse crunches, traditional crunches, some exercises that targets the lower abs before finishing out with a back extension exercise. Then it's on to upper body, you start with concentration curls for biceps, 2 sets for each arm. Then you do one arm tricep kickbacks, rear deltoid raises, another set of kickbacks this time with the shoulder retracted, and another set of rear deltoid raises. Then you finish out with some rotator cuff work, front and side deltoid raises, then repeating the rotator cuff and front/side deltoids once more.

Session 2 is similar but you will see some different exercises. You start with standing leg work again, this time standing rear leg extensions, then you will move to the floor for donkey kicks, then on your side for outer thigh lifts, these are done with your legs bent in a 90 degree angle. Then you will do some inner thigh lifts then one more set each of outer thigh and inner thigh lifts before repeating this on the opposite side. Following this you will stretch out your legs a bit and also do some neck stretches. Then you will do an exercise for the tibialis anterior which is not common followed by some brief ab work consisting of twisting crunches, some more lower ab and oblique work. Then you will move on to upper body work which includes upper back shrugs in a bent over position, pushups, more upper back shrugs, pec flies and finishing out with wrist curls.

Overall for 30 minutes I felt the 2 programs were decent, the fact that some different muscle groups were worked can be beneficial for those who might want to do one program one day and the other the next day. However both programs were pretty easy where one could do both in the same day if they wanted to.

Charlene has 2 friends joining her for each workout, but they aren't the same in each program. Renee is in the first program, but I can't seem to recall who the other were. One thing I find kind of odd about Charlene's videos is that there are no ending credits. I have never seen that in another video, she does mention some sponsors at the end including Beano but that's about it.

If you are one that is looking for short strength programs this would be a good choice.

Instructor Comments:
I like Charlene, she is very pleasant and really seems to have a wealth of knowledge. She is very chatty but it doesn't bother me at all, I kind of like that she includes her background exercisers in conversation, it seems more relaxed that way.

Tara W

04/11/2006