Abs Diet II

This is a video meant for beginners to intermediates, mostly, though anyone can get something out of it. It has two different abs routines, one strength section, and one cardio section.

Unlike with the first Abs Diet, there is clearly a difference with the beginner and advanced abs sections. The advanced really is much more challenging and has some movements I don't have in other videos, like flutter kicks. Both ab routines are somewhere around 10 minutes. The second one uses a dumbbell. I used a medicine ball.

On the strength section, you perform as many of the exercises you are comfortable with in a certain time frame, generally 60 seconds. Terry unfortunately never tells you that you could go slower than he does if you need to, but I guess everyone will figure that out. All three exercises work at the same pace, even the woman showing the beginner modifications. By the way, sometimes the beginner modification is a completely different exercise. Sometimes the intermediate exercise is the same as the basic but performed while sitting on the stability ball.

My problem with the strength segment is that none of the exercisers (Terry and two women) ever changes weights. My DH (a beginner) wound up using the same ones throughout the tape, despite feeling as though they were too easy in some parts and too hard in others. If you know what you're doing, this is fine, of course. But a few tips along the line of "you can use heavier weights here," or "you might need to lower the weight," would have helped.

Also, there were a few movements that I wasn't crazy about. Squats with dumbbells held almost straight over the head hurt my back until I dropped the weights considerably. For lunges with lateral raises, I also had to use about half the weight I normally would for lat raises, or else I wouldn't have gotten much out of the lunge.

I don't have a stability ball, but I do have a Bosu. I stood on it when Terry sat on his stability ball and this worked well. The ball is not used in the abs or cardio sections. The strength section is somewhere around 20-25 minutes.

The cardio section (also around 25 min) alternates between higher intensity movements like jumping jacks or fake-jumprope and a low-intensity jog, usually for 30 or 60 seconds apiece. I found this part just a little bit boring, though Terry kept telling me how much more fun this was than a regular steady treadmill routine or other exercise. You really don't need a video for this cardio routine. I used to do this kind of stuff with a watch.

I couldn't hear much of the music except the drum beats. The set is bright and has a geometric pattern on the walls with some orange rectangles. It reminds me of something Hildi did to someone's basement on "Trading Spaces" once. There is an unused treadmill thrown in for effect.

I like this one enough and will do it every now and then. DH (who is new to videos) liked it a whole lot more. He was grateful that the video was so basic that you could figure it out easily.

Instructor Comments:
He's likeable and energetic. He demonstrates the exercises well. I prefer Tom Holland from Abs Diet I, but I like that Terry doesn't make comments about getting into bikinis like Tom does.

Occasionally, Terry will let out a high-pitched Michael Jackson style "Oow!"

Because this video has you perform movements within a set time frame, rather than performing a certain number of sets, there was some down time. While Terry was very encouraging, there were some moments, particularly in the cardio section, that I thought could have been used to give some advice or form pointers or something. But Terry either didn't say anything or gave some encouragement, frequently the same words of encouragement over and over. Other people might like it this way, but I felt another instructor might have utilized that time better.

Sarah-lara