If you want your upper body muscles to be thoroughly worked to the level of fatigue (and possibly beyond!), then this workout for you.It is simply FANTASTIC! Based on the "Body Electric" TV series which airs on your local PBS station (if you're lucky). It's a 60 minute workout, lead by Margaret Richard, host of the TV show. Although the total workout is 60 minutes, it can be split into two 30-minute segments if time is a problem. The video actually cues you when to stop the tape for a 30-minute workout. Bear in mind, the focus on this tape is "sculpting" the muscles and building endurance as opposed to increasing strength. You'll do more repetitions with lighter weights. It looks like Margaret is using 2lb dumbells. I used 3-6lbs, depending on the muscle being worked.It starts with a warmup focusing on the upper body which uses a towel in creative ways. I was really glad to see a warmup of an upper-body-focused tape which actually focused on the upper body. You will actually begin to feel your muscles working here.

The video consists of 12 segments: pectorals, triceps, biceps, pectorals again, triceps and biceps again. At this point, you'll be instructed to stop for a shorter workout. The next segment consists of delt work, back/lats, deltoids again, back/lats (again), and a set of abs. The video ends with a nice cool down stretch.

The first set of pectorals consists of pushup moves. Margaret starts the pushups full form and cues you to do the same if your fitness level allows, then lowers to her knees for a pushup/pec stretch combo move. She usually executes excellent form, however during the pushups, her elbows seemed a little too "locked" to me.

Throughout all segents of the video, she does a "power pulse" movement, where she pulses in the contraction two times, then relaxes for one repetition. YOUCH! The first tricep segment is a TOUGH French press set using light dumbells overhead. For the second set of pecs, she does them on the floor using dumbells for chest flyes and and overhead movement which I really didn't feel much in my pecs. Next, there were triceps again. She did a move similar to an upright row, but behind the back. I felt this a lot more in my posterior delts than the triceps, however. She also does triceps kickbacks, which were intense! She does shoulder presses and other traditional delt moves and good back/lats sets, first seated, then standing for the second set.

I was a little disappointed with the ab work, however. Not very challenging, and she didn't incorporate moves for the lower part of the abs.

All in all, a SUPERB workout. I would definitely recommend this tape to the Hall of Fame, but I'm afraid I'll probably be the only one to review it since Margaret Richard isn't well known like Cathe or The FIRM. Anyone, regardless of their fitness level will be challenged by this workout provided they use a sufficient amount of weight. Each individual muscle group is cued on the tape, so that particular exercise could be easily found if you only wanted to work one muscle group as an add-on to another workout. I only wish she would've separated the two 30-minutes segements into pushing (i.e. chest, shoulders, triceps) and pulling (i.e. back, biceps, abs) muscles like Cathe Freidrich does in her videos so that you could train on consecutive days in this way.

Good cueing from Margaret

Genelle