Customer Reviews

Kathy Smith: Strong Sleek and Slim

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This dvd includes 3 hour long workout routines on one dvd. Overall, you can not beat the value... 3 60 minute exercises for $6? How could you go wrong? If you don't think you can be amused by the cheesy 80s style, this may not be for you. Otherwise, it's a lot of fun and pretty effective. I go through each workout below in detail:

1) FAT BURNER:
I could not stop smiling throughout this workout! This workout cracked me up AND got me moving! It is so completely 80s in style and that's what makes it so fun. At times it was even shot like an old music video, with camera shots jumping around, zooming in and out, and light changes. Yet it doesn't disrupt or confuse what you're doing. There are countless costume changes, set changes, and music changes that just when I thought I saw it all the scene changed to something else equally cheesy and I found myself smiling all over again. For example, there's a section with 80s graffiti on the background that says "Burn Fat!", a "latin" segment with fake palm trees, a beach chair and flowers in their hair, a 50s segment complete with a stroll where they take turns leading the routine (and 50s outfits of course), and the cool down features a curtain in the background complete with a wind effect. The bright unitards and leotards complete the mood. No, it may not be for everyone. But it kept me smiling and laughing throughout. I had fun!

The actual workout itself is good too. She switches between low to moderate intense cardio (I'd say it's fairly low intensity unless you really push yourself to make it more intense) and a couple of segments with weights. The whole premise behind it is lower intensity for longer periods of time. The moves are easy to follow along with. I had no trouble at any point. Sometimes on more complicated steps there would be a second shot shown in the corner of the screen that zooms in on the footwork, which I would think would be helpful if one was struggling. Also at times there's a corner shot where Kathy is shown one on one with someone and breaking a move down, instructing how it should be done correctly. Again, neither of these things disrupt the flow of the workout but are helpful for those having a harder time or who need assistance in correctly executing a move to avoid injury.

I think this one is good for when you want a low key aerobic workout (that's a bit out of the ordinary).

2) ULTIMATE VIDEO WORKOUT:
This workout is definitely higher impact. It starts off with a warmup, an aerobic warmup and then 2 aerobic segments. You have to be very careful here... there's a lot of fast bounces into stretches in the warmup and you essentially don't stop jumping throughout the aerobic sections. I don't think a lot of it would fly in today's workouts but so long as you're a less enthusiastic bouncer than Kathy and careful you can modify it to make it safe. As it is it's super high impact. However, even with modifying it, these sections got my heart rate WAY up. It's easy to follow but tough to execute from an aerobic stamina standpoint.

After the aerobic sections there are some "targeting" sections that are about 5-8 minutes each. These include the following: upper body (very easy as there's no weights and it's all isometric movement and just a couple of pushups), balances, abs, waist, a thigh/glutes series on the floor, and a cool down (which is taken from the Fat Burner workout). For most of these segments she includes beginner, intermediate and advanced alternatives.

She does not mirror her movements in this workout which can become slightly confusing or at least annoying (meaning when she says move right she moves to her right, which is our left). Other than that though (and all the bouncing) it's a pretty decent, full body workout.

3) ULTIMATE STOMACH & THIGHS:
This workout is effective and is divided into segments based on level. There's 3 segments each for abs and for thighs/glutes titled: Foundation, Workout and Challenge. She really emphasizes proper form and gives good instruction throughout, encouraging you to work at your own level and add on the more difficult segments as you become comfortable with previous ones. (However, in the case of the thighs/glutes workout I found the Foundation segment to be the most challenging and the Challenge segment to be the easiest... maybe the challenge is just in adding them all in together to do in one workout?)

Together, all of the ab and thigh/glutes workouts add up to a little over an hour, though if you skip the introduction and instructional segments after the first time through it's a bit shorter. The ab workouts consist of all mat work and variations on crunches. She gives solid instruction on how to achieve the best results and stay in good form, better than most instruction I've seen from other ab workouts. It is challenging but do-able. Each of the three thigh/glutes workouts are all different. The first segment (The Foundation) is all mat work and in my opinion, is the most difficult. It's all the leg lifts and circles you see in other workout dvds but much more comprehensive and longer. It is tough! The second section (The Workout) is a barre workout and the third (The Challenge) she describes as a barre workout but without the barre to balance on, but I found it more aerobic based and less about the added challenge of balancing. The cool-down here is the same one that is used in the other two workouts included in the dvd.

I found this abs, thighs & glutes workout to be highly effective, definitely target zone based vs. a comprehensive full body workout, and a worthwhile addition to my normal workout routine when I'm looking for specific muscle strengthening exercises.

I've been doing aerobics to Kathy Smith since I was about 5 years old, and my mom had an LP album that we played in the living room, and bounced around. When I moved out of my mom's house, we had to decide how we were going to split the Kathy Smith video tapes. These three are three that I fought for.

The Ultimate video workout (one of the three on this DVD) is one of the hardest workouts I've ever done. The aerobics portion is high impact and has a lot of jumping and kicking, and really gets your heartrate up. It has a really good balance routine that I occasionally fast forward to. There's also a really good stomach routine that I've skipped to. The upper torso portion was pretty useless, since I don't see how doing isometric bicep moves (i.e. making a muscle) is going to build more muscle. There were a few pushups, but that's the only resistence you'll get. The butt section is really good, I always feel sore the next day from that one. Most of the toning exercises have a beginner-intermediate-advance options. The cooldown routine was changed to one from a different workout, which I'm assuming because the old one was either too difficult or had stretches that were bad for your knees. This one, like a lot of Kathy Smith's early videos, does not mirror the Right and Left side, so if she says "right leg" she'll move her right leg, so if you're used videos that you can copy the moves like they were a mirror, you might get confused.

It's very high energy, and really exhausting, and I love it.

The Ultimate stomach and thighs workout has a pretty good floor abs routine, slow paced. The Thighs portion is a lot of leg lifts in various standing (with a chair) and kneeling positions and laying positions.

I didn't do the weightloss workout, but skimmed through it. It has some upper body with hand weights so I'm anxious to try it out, especially since the Ultimate Video workout was lacking in upper body effectiveness.

Kathy Smith is fun to workout with and she definitely knows what she's doing. There are a lot of different exercises that work the whole body and at different levels. If you stick with it there's no reason you wouldn't look/feel your best in no time.

Get this if you want the most bang out of your buck. Kathy Smith videos are always easy to follow and very effective. And this features several of her workouts. What a deal! To me, it beats the gym.