Get Ripped 1000 #3

This DVD is one of the latest offerings from Canadian fitness instructor Jari Love. Love has released a number of offerings in the Ripped series, including two prior “1000” incarnations.

For this third volume of the 1000 videos, Love has designed a workout with both cardio and weights segments. The cardio and weights can be alternated in a 65-minute full workout, or each component can be completed individually for two shorter workouts lasting about 35 minutes (including warm-up and cool-down). These options appear on the Main Menu as listed below:

Complete Workout (65 minutes)
Cardio Intervals (35 minutes)
Weights Tracks (38 minutes)

In her brief introduction, Love explains that the cardio includes plyometrics and the weights include compound exercises. She also reviews the format: 4 rounds of each exercise with a brief (about 15 seconds) active rest between sets. The equipment used for the workout includes various sets of dumbbells and a step bench, although it’s possible to do the exercises without the latter. With the exception of the Bonus Abs segment, the cardio exercises are the odd numbers and the weights exercises are the even (abs are #13). I have listed each exercise in order below, with my additional comments appearing on the second line.

1) Knee Shuffle
(recovery=step touch)
2) Arnold Press with Wide Squat
(recovery=3-in-1 plies)
3) Jumping Jack Lunge Back
(low impact modifications shown; recovery=step touch)
4) Biceps Curl with Knee Up
(on step; recovery=legs only)
5) U-Turn
(lunge to side, touch step; recovery=step touch)
6) Triceps 1-Leg Abductions
(on step, overhead triceps while lifting leg to side; recovery=up-up-down-down)
7) Squat Jump Jump
(90-degree turn-jump 2 hops between sides; modifications shown last set; recovery=step touch)
8) Hammer Press with a Stationary Lunge
(recovery=alternating knees up)
9) Jack Jump Tuck
(shuffle over step with optional tuck jump; recovery=step touch)
10) Reverse Fly with Pendulum
(fly with one-leg balance; recovery=stiff-leg deadlift)
11) Double Knees Up
(uses step; recovery=step touch)
12) Chest Press and Chest Flys
13) Bonus Abs
(Jill leads 4 rounds of 3 exercises: bicycle legs with weaving dumbbell, pike reach with dumbbell, full situp with dumbbell reach)

The warm-up and final stretch are not separately chaptered. As with the main workout, both of these segments feature Love in her own living room (fireplace) background with two female background exercisers and upbeat music. As she does in all of her routines, Love uses light weights for the 5-minute warm-up, moving through squats, rear lunges with a press curl, deadlifts, flys, bicep curls, and overhead press, finishing with brief stretches for the calves and hamstrings. The 4-minute final stretch is all standing; Love performs a quad stretch, a bent-over double hamstring stretch, a brief back stretch, a Figure 4 hip stretch, and then calf stretches and 1-leg hamstring to end.

Overall, this is a very solid workout video. The cardio is mostly low-to-moderate impact and easily modifiable. The weights tracks are more designed for high-rep, low-weight rather than heavy lifting, as the compound exercises target multiple muscle groups, both large and small. (I’m a regular exercise and used 5-lb dumbbells for most of the routine.) This would likely be a challenging video for beginners but is probably appropriate for experienced beginner to advanced intermediate exercisers.

Instructor Comments:
I think some found Jari a bit too serious in the original Get Ripped; she has definitely gotten more laid back since then, including shooting this workout in her living room! She is very encouraging and gives good form pointers throughout. She does have a tendency to say some of the same things over and over, such as calling the recovery periods a "treat."

Beth C (aka toaster)