Have you ever bought an exercise video just for the music? Well I just did when I purchased Sweating in the Spirit. Normally I don’t buy Donna Richardson’s workouts because her choreography is too dancy for me. Heck I couldn’t even follow the moves to her infamous Donnamite video. But despite all of this and the fact that it is a beginner workout (I'm advanced) I brought it anyway. Below are some of my thoughts and a brief description of the workout.

According to the workout summary, Sweating in the Spirit is an inspirational 3 in 1 workout program that includes gospel aerobics, strength/pilates training, and stretching. There is a chapter for each section on the DVD.

In the aerobics section, Kirk Franklin sings “Hosanna” while Donna and the others are working out. The moves are somewhat dancy but not too hard to follow since this is a beginner workout. Most of the moves are low impact but some higher impact moves are shown from time to time to boost up the intensity. The aerobics section is only about 25 minutes long but I managed to work up a little sweat because the music really made me want to move!

Other songs featured in the aerobics section include “Let’s Dance” (Hezekiah Walker), “Lord of the Harvest” (Fred Hammond), “Shake Yourself Loose” (Vickie Winans), and “The Praises Go Up” (Dietrick Haddon).

Next is what Donna calls the Strength/Pilates Traning Section. I don’t know why this section is called strength or Pilates since it didn’t appear to be either to me. The so called “Pilates” consisted of some leg lifts to the rear, a few lunges (no weights are used in this workout), and the “bicycle” move for your abs. The whole workout was over in about 10 minutes. The only thing that makes this section worthwhile is the warm-up which is done while Shirely Murdock sings “Somebody.” My suggestion is to treat it as a small extension of the aerobics section. After Shirley finishes singing, fast forward to the stretch segment. Trust me you won’t miss anything.

The stretch segment is about 10 minutes long and it basically consists of athletic stretches where Donna instructs you through quad, delt, hamstring, and neck stretches. All stretches are done standing. There is a little warm up at the beginning of the stretch segment where Yolanda Adams sings “Let Us Worship Him” which is very nice and relaxing. The only negative here is Donna’s lack of cuing during the brief warm up. I think this is purposely done so we can hear Yolanda sing. The moves are easy enough so you can follow along but sometimes the camera only shows Donna from the waist up which made it difficult to follow her with some of the lower body movements. Donna ends the stretch segment with a short prayer.

To sum it all up, this is a very basic/beginner workout with ok aerobics, less than adequate pilates, non-existant strength training/toning, and average stretching. What truly makes this workout is the music. No matter what your religion, the music is fantastic and will definitely make you want to move. If not for the tunes, this would be a fairly mediocre workout that I would have immediately posted to the VF exchange. But because of the music, it’s a keeper.

Instructor Comments:
It is easy to tell that Donna is in her workout element in this video. I think she may have found her niche in the exercise world with gospel aerobics. Despite her needing some work in the cuing department, she is a very motivating instructor.

Tiffanee