30 Minutes to Fitness Body Design

Kelly Coffey-Meyer
Year Released: 2007

Categories: Boxing/Kickboxing/Martial Arts , Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance , Lower Body Strength , Upper Body Strength , Yoga



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I've been curious about this DVD since it was released last spring. Unlike the other workouts in instructor Kelly Coffey-Meyer's "30 Minutes to Fitness" series, which offer two 30-minute routines, Body Design actually has six shorter workouts (varying from about 12 to 17 minutes) designed to be mixed and matched. Of course, combining two of these routines will still yield the 30-minute workout that Kelly fans are used to, but the shorter workouts also allow for longer options as well. Given that I often combine parts of workouts from various DVDs to form my own "Frankenworkouts," Body Design seemed like it might be a perfect fit for me.

As usual, Kelly teaches the workouts on this DVD live. She is joined by background exercisers who have appeared in her prior workouts, including Lori, Noelle, Sami, and Marcus, although they trade places, so for most segments, only two of them appear with Kelly. The Main Menu of the DVD lists Introduction - Play All - Mix and Match - Premixes - Credits - Music On/Off.

The Mix and Match menu brings up individualized chapters with each of the segments. It is not customizable--e.g., if you select something, it will play immediately, and then you will be brought back to the submenu for another selection, if desired. I have listed each segment below, adding times and short descriptions.

Warm Up (4:02) - Kelly states that the warm-up is there "if you want it." It is rather slow and contains moves such as shoulder and arm circles, squats, rear lunges, knees up, and jogs.

Cardio Bootcamp (12:82) - I liked this section more than I had thought I would. Some of the moves are higher impact, like plyos, but easy to modify. There are also kicking and boxing moves.

Kickboxing with Light Dumbbells (12:08) - I usually love Kelly's kickboxing/boxing routines, but I was surprised at how slowly this started and how unimaginative the combos were--e.g., one combo consisted only of upper-upper-upper. Also, other than one front kick sequence towards the end, this was basically a boxing routine, NOT kickboxing.

Light Dumbbell Cardio Sculpting (12:15) - Kelly and crew are holding light weights and doing 4-limb movements, giving this segment a Firm-like feel, although not so perfectly choreographed.

Stronger/Leaner Lower Body (14:40) - This is a nice routine broken into two chapters. Kelly briefly warms up with squats and front/back lunges, then using dumbbells, she moves through squats, rear lunges, deadlifts with knee buckles, three-part plies to alternating sides, pulsing front lunges, and a wide deadlift/plie combo. For the last 6 1/2 minutes, she grabs a chair and ankle weights for barre-type moves. These include first position plies with tempo changes, Figure 4 lifts to the rear, and front knee lift with rear leg raise (like an attitude).

Upper Body Strength (16:47) - This is the longest segment, consistent with Kelly's tendency to spend more time on upper body. The format is three sets of 10 reps, doing alternating arms on each exercise. Here is the list of exercises: 1) bent-over rows, 2) side lateral raise from behind, 3) boxer pledges, 4) one-arm tricep dips, 5) bench press. There is a brief stretch to finish.

Yoga Flow Stretch (13:15) - I am a yoga instructor, so I admit that I am a bit biased against the way Kelly instructs yoga, especially given that she wears athletic shoes while doing it. This segment was okay, but I found it repetitive and boring, and I doubt I'll use it again. Kelly does some initial bouncy stretches and then moves through lunge/twisting lunge, plank, downward dog, one leg downward dog with hip stretch, cobra, crescent lunge, warrior two, side angle pose, and reverse warrior; she repeats this set of poses on both sides approximately five times. At the end, she concludes with a wide squat and wide-legged forward bend.

Three are THREE pages of premixes on this DVD, including five that start with the Cardio Bootcamp workout plus one other; four that start with Kickboxing plus one other; three that start with Cardio Sculpting plus one other; the lower and upper body strength workouts combined; the lower and yoga routines combined; the upper and yoga routines combined; and two routines that add three workouts together, one with all three cardio routines and one with Cardio Sculpting plus the lower and upper strength work.

Although I didn't love all the segments on this DVD, the format truly did suit me. I guess I'm a bit of a control freak--give me the ability to create my own workouts and I will take it! This DVD would have been even better with a programmable feature, but still, the mix and match is easy enough to use. It's a good addition to my personal collection and a nice addition to Kelly's 30 Minutes to Fitness series.

Instructor Comments:
I love Kelly as an instructor--she is probably my favorite. I find her down-to-earth and she mirror cues, a plus! I will say that she seems a bit off in this DVD, although I'm not quite sure why.

Beth C (aka toaster)

11/04/2017