Women's Health: Total Workout in Ten!

Tracey broke this down very well. I only want to add that the backgrounders (as they did with Amy's OTHER Women's Health workout released the same year) are so loud and whoopy that it affected my desire to ever do this workout again. It's a shame because the segments are solid, Amy is great -- but these women are literally BELLOWING at times. It's like they are competing to see who can whoop and scream with laughter the loudest. From the get-go, with the first few back rows, even when Amy's not talking for a few seconds, here come the screams.

Instructor Comments:
Amy is great. I might do this DVD again, but with the sound turned off.

acey

This is my favorite Women's Health workout. It flows nicely and Amy does a great job of instructing and transitioning to the next move. The moves start off with easier options and then transition into more difficult one. There is the usual whooping from the background exercisers but that does not bother me and I did not think it was inappropriate whopping. The workout is a solid intermediate workout with some challenging moments...at least for me. I usually just do the more intense moves from the start and skip the build-up. She does not stop to explain the moves, she just moves to the next one. The workout is not hard to follow and is typical of Amy's athletic style so it's easy to pick up what she's doing. The workout consists of 4 segments as follows:

Cardio Conditioning (11 minutes)- This serves as the warm-up for the workout but it's a fairly good and intense cardio segment. The combo is repeated twice with the lead changing to the left leg for the second round.

-Step touch
-Alternating diagonal heel digs while raising and lowering the arms. Hops are added to increase the intensity.
-Hamstring curls with upright reaches then adding a hop to increase the intensity.
-Squats that eventually transition to wood chops.
-Jump rope w/ front heel digs
-Side kicks w/ tap on the other foot...cross punch is added eventually
-3 successive side kicks and then cross punch with the tap on the other side.
-Toe tap backwards turns into cross country skier and then jump lunges
-transition marches
-Side taps transition to jumping jacks
-Ends with step touches

Lower Body (8 minutes)- At the beginning of this segment, 3 pound weights flash across the screen as the equipment needed but I use at least 10 pounds for this segment. 3 pound weights for lower body work is pretty light even for beginners. I also don't bother with the arm movements if I want to use heavier weights like 15 or 20 pounds. This segment also has moves that transition into each other. There are a fair amount of reps though I would have liked more reps of the squats.

-Squats...she eventually starts weaving the dumbbell under and over each leg alternately. Then the squat is held while the dumbbell weaving continues with the arms.
-Dead lifts which eventually transitions to one legged dead lifts.
-Diagonal front lunges eventually transitions to curtsy lunges and then the two moves are combined with a knee lift in between.
-ballet squat- plie squat w/ heels together and toes pointed out. You can really feel this if you squeeze your butt and thighs. A calf raise is added to this move after a few reps.
-Standing rear glute lifts.

Upper Body (10 minutes)- this segment is heavy on the shoulder work but I really enjoy it. Some of the moves are pretty unique.

-Bent over rows- starts with singles and then goes into 3 count pulses.
-Biceps curls- Balancing on one leg is added.
-Concentration curls- Done in a squat position w/ elbows on inside of knees.
-Overhead triceps extensions- starts off with single reps and then transitions to pulses.
-Shoulder Blast
--front raises that transition to arms being raised all the up over the head and then out to form a V.
--T raise-like a side raise but with palms facing forward. This move eventually transitions to a full circle.
--Shoulder press
--Rear delt fly
--Push ups- 2 sets each of traditional pushups and bias pushup. These are repeated twice for a total of 4 sets of 8 pushups.

Balance & Flexibility (10 minutes)- This segment is a combination of traditional strength moves with yoga. No weights are used for this segment and it is done as a flow in certain parts.

-Plie squats w/ ballet arms transitions to small pulses w/ arms to the side.
-Side lunges w/ shoulder rolls that transition to arm circles.
-Step tap w/ alternating arms across the chest that transition to airplane arms.
-Chair pose with double heel raises added eventually.
-Figure 4 stretch
-Diagonal back lunge that transitions to lunge with knee raise and balancing into warrior 3
-Transition to warrior 2, then to extended side angle and then exalted warrior. These two moves are then done several times as a flow.
-Transition to forward bend and then alternating twists.
- Ends w/ slow squats and deep breaths while raising arms over head.

The menu on this workout is the Prebuilt workout which is all 4 segments, the 4 segments separately and the bonus segments. The bonus segments are a 12 minute workout on the ball called Core Power--which I have not done since I'm not fond of ball ab workouts--and a 2.5 minute segment called Amy's Fitness Secrets. It's mostly Amy talking about her fitness background in between scenes from the filming of the workout. They show outtakes and behind the scenes footage while the credits are rolling. The music is neither bad nor good. I barely noticed it. My only complaint with this DVD is the pushups at the end of the upper body segment. I prefer to do them first and get them out of the way. I can't do them nearly as well when my arms are tired.

Instructor Comments:
Amy is friendly, encouraging, and engaging. I think she is at her baest in this workout. Her cuing is good and she is not overly chatty.

Tracey M.