Leela did a great job breaking down the workout, so I’ll just give my impressions of the workout.

I’ve done it twice now and I’m amazed that I can do a 78-minute workout without going crazy. (I used to have this internal mechanism that told me I had to quit if I went passed an hour). The time does fly faster for me in Shape It Up, but I think this one flows well too.

First of all, it really helps me to have the time ticking backwards down at the bottom of the screen. On all of the Slim Series workouts, there is a countdown of the total minutes and seconds in the workout and the minutes and seconds of whatever set or segment you are doing. It helps when I am thinking I can’t do any more reps and I see that I just have 24 seconds left. I think “Oh, I can handle 24 seconds, and I keep going.” Otherwise I might give up earlier.

There are also some words that show up at the bottom of the screen to show form pointers and to even tell you when you’re 1/3 or ½ way through the workout. I enjoy reading those while working out.

When I first previewed this workout (my first preview of the Slim Series), I was a little concerned about the music. It is very monotonous, light, and mostly follows a drumbeat. But it’s never bothered me while working out. I found when I did it today that I was actually recognizing some of the melodies and was enjoying it.

This workout differs from the other Slim Series workouts because it has more cardio segments interspersed in the first 2/3 of the workout. Most are simple moves (jogging, jacks, knee pulls, kickboxing), but you can make them as intense as you’d like. I do mine on the rebounder and really enjoy it that way. Debbie also does some “burpies” which get the heartrate up there and are a lot of fun in a playful sort of way.

There seems to be more upper body work than lower in this workout and because of that, I felt like my heartrate wasn’t always staying up. So I often add step-touches while doing the upper body exercises – especially with all the light dumbbell work in the first ½ of the workout.

I don’t have a resistance band, but I use my dumbbells for the band segments and feel like I’m not missing out at all.

I really liked the ab section at the end. It wasn’t that lengthy, but it seemed to solidly hit my both my upper and lower abs, with a little on the obliques too.

And I appreciated the long stretch at the end. Some of the Slim Series workouts have just 4 or 5 minutes of stretching and this one is in the 6 minute realm (see, when they give you the time ticker, you get to know all this stuff J).

Debbie Siebers is very pleasant and friendly, yet professional. She rarely stops in between exercises – just goes from one to the next. But she tells you that you can stop and take a break or get water if you ever need to, which sometimes I do. I like that she works me, but allows me to listen to my body. I’ve been doing a rotation with the Slim Series for 2 weeks now and really enjoy working out with her. I’m also getting great results – my clothes are getting looser and I do indeed feel slimmer already.

Renee

06/16/2003