Straight Up Sculpt

Keli Roberts
Year Released: 1997

Categories: Total Body Workouts


Strange and amazing - that's how I describe this tape. I first got this tape about 3 years ago, but was put off by the use of exerbands, so I traded it away. But recently, in my quest to expand my horizons on the strength side, I was led back to SUS. And boy, am I glad I was!

SUS is a total body strength tape that was put out via IDEA in 1997. It is just Keli by herself doing the workout (after an intro by Jay Blahnik) and it clocks in at around 53 minutes.

First, it turns out you can do the tape perfectly well with a barbell and dumbells - exerbar and/or bands are NOT needed. Second, this tapes worked me good and got me sore in places I didn't know could get that sore, particularly my obliques and back. Clearly, as has been noted in other reviews, you can heavy up on this tape. There aren't a lot of reps in much of the weight work, so it can be considered slow and heavy. I used a 30 pound barbell for the squats and lunges, but could easily go up from there.

Most of the leg work are moves we've seen before - squats, lunges, you know the drill. Some of the arm work was pretty interesting - there's a move with the barbell where you sort of buzz it over the top of your head to work your shoulders - kinda strange, but very effective. But it's the floor work that's really interesting. There are loads of planks, interspersed with some unique raises onto your side that really work the obliques in a different way. Very tough to do, but very effective.

All in all, this tape is a real winner. I give it a solid A.

Celia M.

07/21/2001