Customer Reviews

ESPN Fitness Bodyshaping - Arms, Chest & Shoulders [VHS]

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This video is a great arm workout. There is a short warm up and stretch before you jump right into the chest exercises (you will need a step to do the incline and flat chest flys). Then the video moves on to shoulders with plenty of exercises to make them burn. The last part of the video concentrates on triceps and biceps with a little forearm work. The 2 instructors are very encouraging and move very quickly from one exercise to the next, but they do take some time to do a couple quick streches in between sets. The actual workout is alittle over 20 minutes, and your muscles will definitely burn when you are done !!

PROS: Does 2x15 reps of a variety of exercises in a short amount of time. All of the exercises can be done sitting if you have bad knees, etc. The instructors are motivating. The routine is theoretically effective for toning major muscles, however, overall I do NOT recommend this video for the following reasons...

CONS: does the reps WAY TOO FAST(almost 2 reps per second). Beginners will definitely feel left behind and wondering how to do the motions. Even advanced weight lifters (who would use heavier weights) will also find the speed is too fast to do the exericses with good form and control. When I tried to keep their pace, I felt like I was flinginig and jerking my arms, putting them at risk for injury. (Theoretically you could do the exercises in half time, but that would mean you'd only get in 8 reps total.)

There are NO BACK/LAT exercises to balance out the chest routine.

For the CHEST section (bench press, push ups, pec flies), the frequent alternating between bench work and floor push ups between each set is annoying and time consuming.

In the SHOULDERS section (military press, "upright rows", side laterals for delts ) they demonstrate very POOR FORM by swinging their upper bodies and arching their backs, instead of holding their abs tight. However, the "upright rows" exercise is actually a shoulder flexion with lat pull back, which is a nice exercise.

In the ARMS (tricep press, bicep curl, tricep kickback, hammer curls) is again too fast, and they are bouncing/rocking their whole body to get through each exercise.

So, if you just listen to the audio and don't watch their bad example, and if you only do every other rep, then this would be a good workout guide.