Please note that I wrote this review about 5 years ago. I'm cutting and pasting the review as I originally wrote it.
This was on Balanced Blend, one of the first fitness DVDs I ever purchased, and I used it regularly for that first year or two of at home exercising. I wrote this review after a period when I hadn't pulled it out as much.
Although I like Minna as an instructor and held onto this DVD because I had a strong attachment to it as one of my first fitness DVDs, I passed it on a few years ago, as I wasn't using it because I'm at a different level and in a different place in my fitness journey these days.
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General workout breakdown: 7 minute warm-up, about 30 minutes of strength training, and 10 minute cool-down / stretch for a total of about 47 minutes. Strength & Grace combines squats and lunges with yoga- and Pilates-inspired moves to help you increase strength and balance. The workout starts standing, towards the end moving to the hands and knees, then to sitting. The moves focus on lower body with some abs and minimal upper body work.

Level: I’d recommend this to experienced beginners to mid-intermediate exercisers. One class member demonstrates slightly easier modifications requiring a little less balance / strength. You don’t need to have yoga experience, but it is helpful if you’ve seen the moves before.

Class: 4 young women of fairly diverse backgrounds and body types. These are the same women featured in Fat Eliminator.

Music / Set / Other Production Notes: The instrumental synthesizer music is very beat-driven, although not exactly “the spicy Latin music” promised by the cover. The interior set is very bright, with hardwood floors and back wall lit with various bright hues (pink, blue, etc.) The picture and sound quality are very good; the production company is the same one that does the Quick Fix videos, and in fact you can tell it’s the same studio.

Equipment: optional mat. Minna and crew have sneakers on throughout; it feels a little strange to have shoes on during yoga moves, so I always have my sneakers off by the time we move to the floor. I have done this barefoot a couple of times. I’m not sure if that’s ideal, but nothing bad happened to me because of it.

Comments: Pay attention to your technique, particularly with the squats, lunges, and plies. Your knee should never go past your toes in any version of either exercise.
You do not need a lot of space for this workout. You should be able to lie down lengthwise with your arms and legs extended, and you should be able to take one big step front and back.
DVD Notes: The DVD, titled “Balanced Blend,” also contains Fat Eliminator. You can select a section to do or skip; each self-contained segment constitutes one chapter.

Conclusion: I’m keeping this one, not just out of nostalgia since this was one of the first exercise videos I ever bought. This helped me start improving my balance. It’s a challenging workout to fit into a rotation, though, since it isn’t quite a strength video, but not quite a stretching video.
A more advanced workout that’s along these lines is Kari Anderson’s Angles, Lines & Curves (I or II).

Instructor Comments:
Minna Lessig, a former Ms. Fitness, is a trainer and correspondent for fitness magazines and TV programs. Her cueing is good, and she explains the moves well. She’s professional, encouraging without being hyper or chatty, and she appears to know her stuff, both in terms of the routine and fitness in general. I personally like this “girl next door.” She works both sides evenly and expects you to mirror her moves. I don’t know how she keeps her long gold locks down and looking great the entire time; once or twice I’ve been tempted to distract myself by pondering that question.

KathAL79