Kath did an excellent job of providing a detailed breakdown of this workout! My own breakdown will be more of an overview.

This is the second DVD that I have tried from Tracie Long's newest LONGevity series. It is a cardio/weights interval workout which uses a medicine ball. Tracie all states that you will need "small and medium weights," but for most of the workout, she doesn't provide much guidance for how much weight to use. All of the Longevity workouts feature Tracie exercising alone on the same set:
the studio features a brick wall with covered windows and other background decor such as a corn plant.

The 4.5 minute Warm-Up includes moves such as spinal twists, side lunges, hamstring curls, and side-to-side slides with arm circles and leg extensions. The first med ball cardio segment follows. Tracie starts here with Figure 8 arms while moving the legs in a static side-to-side lunge; next comes a mambo side-to-side with triceps work. This is followed by a side squat, side lunges with weaving the ball, and finally, plies with an optional jump

The first weight sequence uses a single weight for a series of squats: squats with weaving the weight, squats with a kick, simple squats, and squats with a press forward. Tracie then picks up two dumbbells for upper cuts and jabs. After this she does a bit of cardio without equipment, this time involving hops to the front and to the side, shuffles, and more uppercuts/jabs; before repeating on the other side, she does a Tai Chi-like rest which includes sumo squats forward and back.

Tracie then picks up two dumbbells again for triceps work, which is done in a warrior position; she also does a lat row using this same stance and then finishes center for a triceps overhead press and squats with chest press. The med ball cardio segment which follows begins with what Tracie calls "sumo circle" (really just a squat with a knee circle) and also includes arms circling with the ball, knee lifts, and rocking horse. The final standing weights section uses two dumbbells for side leg extensions with overhead press and then inner thigh sweep with bicep curls; lunges front and back wrap up the standing strength work. The last med ball cardio series begins with step taps behind and then moves into v-steps and high jogs (these seemed out of place when the rest of the cardio was entirely low impact).

At just under the 18-minute mark, Tracie moves to the floor for floorwork. The first series consists mostly of plank/push-up work and includes moving between full plank and push-ups, going from forearm plank to push-up, and triceps push-ups. After a set of pec flyes, Tracie moves to hands and knees for about 5 minutes of leg lifts for the hips/glutes; a light weight is used behind one knee for some of these moves. The abs section which follows includes crunches with punches, windmills, and bicycles. The 4-minute stretch had a yoga-ish feel to it, as it consisted of moves such as butterfly, seated twist, wide-legged seated forward bend, and 1-legged seated forward bend.

The Main Menu of this DVD reads as follows:
Play All--Chapters--Premixes--About Us

The 3 Premixes offered here are:
Go Strapless (22m)--Lean not Mean (12m)--Belly, Bust, & Butt(12m)

Overall, this DVD offers a nice cardio/weights interval workout with interesting choreography that would be appropriate for intermediate exercisers. Personally, I wasn't a big fan of the floor work, but that's mainly because I dislike both plank and all-fours exercises; I did enjoy the standing portions of this workout.

Instructor Comments:
I like Tracie, but I don't think she is the best cuer--her cuing often feels a bit late or incomplete to me. Now that I have tried 2 workouts in the Longevity series, I think she may have been better served by including background exercisers, especially as this would have provided the opportunity to show modifications, something that Tracie herself does not do.

Beth C (aka toaster)