Excellent video for increasing lower body endurance (lots and lots of squats and squat variations) and total body conditioning. Christi has put together a nice 60-minute workout that has a smooth, choreographed feel to it. Not choreographed like a FIRM video ( no ta-da's or anything) but each movement flows into the next really nicely.

She warms you up with lots of squats and lunges. Then you pick up your weights (5 to 8 pounds recommended, but a beginner could do the workout with no weight at all). While you are doing upper body exercises such as lawnmower rows, overhead presses, you continue to squat and lunge. You even do one-legged squats while you are doing bicep curls. So this is not a typical strength workout where you isolate just one muscle group; you'll find yourself contracting muscles in all kinds of strange places in order to do the exercise properly. For example, the whole time you are working your biceps, you have to keep your abs contracted to help you maintain a one-legged squat -- not to mention those quads and hamstrings!

The floorwork is really excellent and for most of this segment, Christi walks around and talks you through it while her half-dozen background exercisers do the moves. The floor work includes moves like the plank, tricep push-ups, supermans and the superman doing rear leg lifts.

The ab section is very fine, incorporating traditional crunches and less-traditional stabilization work. Again, Christi uses nice imagery and very specific instructions during this segment. She instructed me to stay in the top part of my range during the oblique work and I really the muscles squeezing hard. You finish up standing and balance on one leg while you are holding your weights in front of you, then to your side and then you hold your leg to the side, next, your leg to the rear. You gotta concentrate or you will fall over. :-D There is a short set for your rotator cuffs that is much appreciated.

I enjoy this tape very much. It is a thorough total body workout with a good "fun" factor as far as I am concerned. The exercises are unique and challenging and the workout goes by really fast. Christi's personality is a big plus and the production quality is good. Christi talks to you very naturally throughout the workout and encourages everyone to stop and drink water, whether it is during a scheduled break or not.

The workout is not flawless: there is a weird editing glitch in the first half of the tape, where you hear Christi giving the same instructions twice (during lawnmower rows on your right side) And she forgets to do the pulsing leg lifts for the left leg during the superman move, but you can compensate for that yourself without even having to stop the tape or rewind.

Christi is a delight. She has the gift of explaining a move you've done a million times -- and suddenly you're feeling it in a whole new way because of her little cues. She has a warm, natural way about her that is charming. I really enjoy her rapport with her background exercisers, and I get a kick out of the razzing she gives her brothers, who are kind of big, burly goodnatured types who seem a little less than comfortable doing some of the moves that require more flexibility.

Daphne M