Ripped in 30 is a comprehensive 30 day diet and exercise plan that kicks butt! The main menu has Workouts, Workout Recommendation, 30 day meal plan, English/Spanish, Subtitles on/off, and More from Jillian. There are 4 workouts. All you need 1 set of light handweights, 1 set of heavy handweights, and a mat. You do one workout level each week. You start with workout 1 in week one and move to workout 2 the second week, or as soon as you are able, and so on. There are two exercisers with Jillian in each workout. You follow Shelly for beginner modifications and Bashira is back as an advanced modifier. Jillian promises that you will never see the same move twice across the 4 workouts. Unlike some of her other exercise videos, you only do each segment once. Each segment has 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. She recommends working out 5-6 days/wk. Always take one day of rest. I downloaded the meal plan from her website, and the recipes seem pretty easy to fix. They only contain a few ingredients. You eat a breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. A sample breakfast is Cheerios and a banana. A sample lunch is ordering a veggie delight from Subway. A sample snack is a protein bar. A sample dinner is Turkey kebabs.
Most of the moves here I've seen in her other videos, but she has some new moves too. Each workout starts with dynamic stretching with moves such as arm circles, forward bends, squats, sledgehammers, and leg stretches while stabilizing. In the body of the workouts, Jillian focuses on compound moves, or ones that work multiple muscles groups. The moves get harder and more creative as you go through the different levels or workouts. Level 1 focuses on building up muscles/skills so you are prepared for the other levels. Sample moves in level 1 are squats with arm presses, fast feet, skaters, and planks. Some sample moves from level 2 are circle kicks, pendulum lunge with arm push outs and pull backs, chest press with single leg press, crescent lunge with rows, planks with leg taps or jumps, and mountain climbers. The difference I see from level 2 to level 3 is that there are more stabilizing moves. Some sample moves from Level 3 are s sledgehammer with a big arm rotation down and around with weight, forward fold towards one leg with the other leg stretched towards back so balancing on one leg and then bring same knee up to stretch, crab walk, and duck walk. Those are just the warm up! She has you do different moves with each arm like one arm palm up and other palm down. Single leg squats with corkscrew curls (so you touch ground with hands and then bring up to chest high) while you bring leg up. Stand tall, roll back onto ground without looking and bring up pelvis. Pump arms while you do a split lunge. Arm press in downward dog position. According to Jillian week 4 is the "mother of all workouts." The big change from level 3 to 4 seems that you are always in motion from one move to the other. Sample moves are from power yoga - move from downward dog, crescent, plank, downward dog, Military presses with static squat, dynamic Suma squats, jumping jacks with under the leg claps, Burpees with jumps, scissor kicks, and pendulum legs for lower abs.
I like the fact that there are four 30 minute workouts on one DVD and a meal plan. However, the meal plan may not be for everyone I wish that were more new moves, rather than what I've seen in her previous videos. However, those moves work for me to lose weight, and I feel that she is trying to present them in a new way with the different levels. So I would say if you are new to Jillian Michaels this is a great DVD to start. If you don't have all of them, then this is also a great choice. If you do have all of Jillian Michaels DVDs, and you are getting sick of her other videos, don't buy it. However, I'm not sick of them yet! So for me this DVD is 5 stars.