Tone It Up is one of the workouts from Slim Series, and it is a full-body weighted workout that comes in at just under an hour (59 minutes). Instructor Debbie Siebers leads her sister, Judy, and another background exerciser, Kevin, in fast-paced, 4-limbed movements (ie, using the upper and the lower body at the same time), thereby providing some cardio benefit along with the weight training.

The workout begins with a 5 1/2 minute warm-up, the first part of which is a somewhat repetitive aerobic series consisting mainly of knee raises and front kicks combined with arm movements. Debbie then does a few exercises to loosen your waist/torso and then moves on to some side lunges/pulses to warm up the lower body. The workout begins with a back lunge series: Debbie does 1 set each of lunge, lunge with knee lift, lunge with front kick, and pulsing lunge. Debbie does not use any resistance here, but I held 5 lb. weights by my side, which made it a TOUGH opening segment. Continuing with the legs, there is a squat series that consists of squats, pulsing squats, squats with a rear kick, pulsing squats again, and then a front/rear kick sequence.

Next, Debbie picks up weights for combined lower and upper body work. She uses only 3-lb dumbbells throughout the workout, and most of the time, I found that I wasn't able to go any higher than this, especially when she was doing moves which require you to hold the arms at shoulder height, which is where she begins. First, she does three sets of delt rows: with a side step, with a squat, and then a one-arm rear row. I was able to go up to 5 lbs. for the next sequence, which included bent over lat rows, lat raises, upright rows, biceps, and pulsing squats with biceps. A front lateral raise combined iwth a pull-back (squeezing the shoulder blades) ends this section.

Continuing to use all four limbs at once, Debbie moves on to a plie squat series combined with arm movements. You'll do the plies with a 1-arm cross-over, a chest pull-up, and then a chest-press; finishing in a regular squat position, you'll do triceps kick-backs. Debbie then returns to the rear lunge series from the beginning of the workout, this time adding arm movements in the form of front lateral raises. Following this, she does a forward lunge series with bicep curls and a side lateral, making this entire leg segment really challenging.

The next series begins with a 3-part move: a front lateral raise, a side lateral raise, and then a rear pull-back (squeezing the shoulder blades). I used 5 lbs. for this as well as the rotator cuff exercise that followed, but then I had to drop back down to the 3 lb. weights for the "W" move: you hold your arms out to the sides, elbows bent, then raise your arms overhead, working both your shoulders and biceps. Next, Debbie gives the arms a little break by doing some additional squats and knee lifts before transitioning down to the floor for more upper body work (you are about 34 minutes into the workout at this point).

Once on the floor, you will begin with chest work, including flyes and a chest press, then work the triceps with a triceps press and a triceps extension combined with a pelvic tilt. This provides a segue into more lower body work: first, still lying on your back, you will open and close your legs to work your inner thighs, and next, transitioning to your side, you will do a series of simple leg lifts to target your outer thighs. Although the latter exercises were quite basic, my outer thighs were screaming, and I couldn't make it through all the reps here. A brief set of push-ups is performed before repeating the outer thigh work on the second side. Ankle weights are optional; I had a hard enough time without!

Weighted abs work is next. Here, Debbie uses a slightly heavier weight--8 lbs.--which I was able to match. She works both the upper and the lower abs, but oddly enough, there is no oblique work (which I didn't miss--I think the obliques are much less of a problem area for most women). She then moves right into the cool-down, including a nice hip/butt stretch, for a total of 4 minutes.

All-in-all, this was one tough little workout! Although it was significantly shorter than the one other Slim Series workout I've done, Shape It Up (which comes in at 78 minutes), in some ways, it felt even tougher, as Shape It Up has more standing abs work, which provides you with a little "break" from the weighted work (although Debbie did sometimes do a short set of marches/knee-ups inbetween segments here). The counters which run along the side and bottom of the screen certainly help keep you motivated, especially when little comments like "you're halfway through!" appear. Also, if you don't like the music selection, the DVD includes a "music off" option. This certainly isn't the most fun workout you'll ever come across, but it's probably one of the most effective, and I'd definitely recommend it, particularly for people who enjoy high-repetition, low-weight routines.

Instructor Comments:
I liked Debbie; she seemed friendly and motivating, although her comments were a little goofy at times (eg, "don't hate me!"). She sometimes stops doing the moves to walk over to Judy and Kevin to adjust their form; Kevin in particular seems to make many form errors. Debbie's own form was good, although she does not provide mirrored cueing and does not suggest modifications for most of the exercises.

Beth C (aka toaster)